A Guide to Windsor Family Scandals
The Power of Love
If you watched The King’s Speech, you know speech-challenged Prince Albert was thrust into power when his older brother King Edward VIII abdicated to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. As the Prince of Wales, Edward had a thing for married women. But when he decided he wanted Wallis as his wife, it caused scandal and cost him the throne after his less-than-one-year reign.
The drama continued after his death. Uncovered FBI files suggest Edward VIII was forced to abdicate not because of Wallis’s divorcée status, but because she was a Nazi sympathizer, passing state secrets to her on-the-side Nazi lover.
Tampongate
On Friday as you watch Charles and Camilla process into Westminster Abbey, you might not be able to forget the details of “Camillagate,” aka “tampongate.”
As they carried on a romantic relationship from the 1970s and into their marriages to other people, a flirty conversation between Camilla and Charles was caught on tape and published in 1992. The tapes included an exchange in which Charles said he wanted to be Camilla’s tampon:
- Charles: Oh, god. I’ll just live inside your trousers or something. It would be much easier!
- Camilla: (Laughs.) What are you going to turn into, a pair of knickers? (Both laugh). Oh, you’re going to come back as a pair of knickers.
- Charles: Or, God forbid, a Tampax. Just my luck! (Laughs.)
- Camilla: You are a complete idiot! (Laughs.) Oh what a wonderful idea!
Needless to say it was embarrassing for Princess Diana and the royal family, as well as Charles and Camilla.
No Fairy Tale Princess
As the younger and less serious sister of future-queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret had a glamourous and controversial reputation.
Around the time of her sister’s coronation, Margaret fell in love with a divorced man, Peter Townsend, who was 16 years her senior. The Church of England, royal family, and the government made it clear she would have to give up her royal life if she chose to marry him, and she ultimately decided not to.
Instead, she married photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones in 1960, who became the Earl of Snowdon, but quickly the marriage collapsed in front of the public’s eyes. There were rumors of affairs, drug use, and heavy drinking, and questions about his sexuality. When the princess was photographed with a young lover, her husband took it as a chance to divorce, playing the victim. It later came out that Lord Snowdown may have fathered a child months before their marriage.
Sisterly Love
Princess Diana met her future husband Prince Charles at the age of 16 — when he was dating her older sister! You would think his prior romance with a Spencer sister would raise eyebrows, but after his royal relatives’ penchant for divorcés, Charles found a socially suitable bride in the noble, virginal, and English Diana.
Love Child For Captain Mark
Around 500 million watched in 1973 as Queen Elizabeth’s only daughter Princess Anne married army lieutenant Mark Phillips. (Random fact, Anne’s first boyfriend was Andrew Parker Bowles, who would become Camilla’s ex-husband. She couldn’t marry him because he was Catholic.)
Mark went on to have an affair, fathering a child in 1985 with a New Zealand woman. In 1989, Anne and Mark separated, and they divorced in 1992. Later that year, Anne became the first royal divorcée to remarry since Henry VIII, as she married Commodore Timothy Laurence in front of 30 guests.
Perhaps hoping they’d have more normal lives, Anne’s two children Peter and Zara Phillips do not carry titles, the first grandchildren of a reigning monarch to not do so in over 500 years.
Foot Fetish
In August 1992, cameras caught Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, with her toes in the mouth of Texas businessman John Bryan. The princess had already announced her separation from Prince Andrew, but the embarrassing shot brought the royal family undignified attention. Andrew and Sarah divorced in 1996, but she caused a scandal again last year, offering an undercover reporter access to the prince for £500,000.
An Affair to Remember
In a 1995 tell-all interview, Princess Diana admitted to her highly reported five-year affair with military man James Hewitt, whom she said she had loved. Following her death, he caused another scandal by trying to sell her love letters.
James is back in the news this week, admittin
g he contemplated suicide following the affair and denying rumors he could possibly be Harry’s father, as his relationship with Diana started after Harry’s birth.
The Most Bizarre Life Imaginable
Charles, 9th Earl Spencer movingly eulogized his sister Diana, but some heard criticism for the royal family in his funeral speech. He said she didn’t need her just-stripped royal title to generate her special brand of magic, referenced her happy relationship with Dodi Fayed, and called her time as princess the most bizarre life imaginable.
While he’s attending the wedding, the Earl and the rest of the Spencers will be sitting with Kate’s family, not William’s.
Party Prince
All the attention is on William lately, but Prince Harry makes more headlines when it comes to scandals. In 2002 he admitted to smoking marijuana, and in 2005 he dressed up as a Nazi officer, a shockingly poor decision he quickly apologized for. 
Posted on February 27, 2011