- British royals long followed traditions regarding marriage
- They did so because of the monarchy's relationship with the Church
- Still, multiple royals have gotten divorced and remarried
Life as a royal means following rules that are rather different from the rest of the world. As members and partial heads of the Church of England, the British Royal Family must abide by its doctrines.
For a long time, this also included: no second marriage after a divorce. In the meantime, these rules have been relaxed. Despite the public scandal, various royals have put their love above convention and remarried despite divorce.
Marriage traditions couldn't hold these royals back
One of the most famous cases is Wallis Simpson, wife of the former King Edward VIII. The American was divorced for a second time in 1936. So he could marry her anyway, Edward renounced the throne.
The two said yes to each other in 1937 and remained married until his death. The wedding made Wallis the Duchess of Windsor.
Princess Anne married her first husband Mark Phillips in 1973. Their divorce was finalized in 1992.
Anne had already met Timothy Laurence, with whom she soon began a romantic relationship. Their wedding followed in the same year as Anne's divorce. The marriage took place in Scotland, as the church there allowed a wedding of divorced people.
King Charles III: From marriage to divorce to the throne
To this day, the divorce of King Charles III is still considered scandalous. He was married to Princess Diana from 1981 to 1992.
However, it became common knowledge that he had an affair with Camilla during his marriage. Accordingly, the public developed a poor opinion of Charles and Camilla's eventual relationship.
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Camilla was also divorced from her first husband Andrew Parker Bowles at the time. But it was only in 2005 that Charles and Camilla said "I do" in a civil ceremony, after which the marriage was blessed in church.
Queen Elizabeth II was not present for the marriage, as it would have been a conflict for her as head of the Church. Meanwhile, Camilla is today the Queen Consort of the United Kingdom.
Recently, there has been less fuss over divorced people getting married – as became clear when Prince Harry tied the knot with Meghan Markle.
Meghan was already married to Trevor Engelson from 2011 to 2013. In 2018, she said yes to Prince Harry in a grand ceremony – since then she has been the Duchess of Sussex.
See more in the video above.
