(RNN) – Despite having fairytale weddings marked with elegance and fanfare, some couples in the British royal family haven’t experienced the best of fortune in their relationships.
Three of Queen Elizabeth's four children have divorced.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana – Prince William and Prince Harry’s parents - were married in the "wedding of the century” on July 29, 1981, but their marriage ended in divorce and scandal in 1996. After Princess Diana's death in 1997, Prince Charles remarried, to Camilla Parker Bowles, in 2005.
Charles' brother, Prince Andrew, also was unhappily wed. His marriage to Sarah Ferguson marriage lasted only 10 years and ended in divorce in 1996, though the two have been rumored to remain close – and she’s been invited to Prince Harry’s wedding.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson have two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
Yet another of Prince Charles’ siblings, Princess Anne, also ended an unhappy marriage. She married Capt. Mark Phillips of the Dragoon Guards in 1973. They had two children together – Peter and Zara.
They agreed to separate in 1986, the New York Times reported, after reports they were unhappily married and living apart, divorcing in 1992. Anne became the first royal divorcee to remarry that same year when she married Timothy Laurence, to whom she is still married.
Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth's sister, was famously unhappy in love. Peter Townsend, equerry for her father, George VI, proposed to her in 1952. She was blocked from marrying at the time by the queen under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 because of Townsend's divorce. The queen told Margaret to wait two years.
After two years, Margaret could have married Townsend if she agreed to be removed from the line of succession, and at first, she agreed to do this. Ultimately, after a meeting with her beau, she decided not to marry him after all, the BBC said.
Margaret ended up marrying photographer Anthony Armstrong Jones in 1960, the first televised royal wedding, according to Vanity Fair. The marriage broke down amid reports of infidelity on both sides, PBS said, and they divorced in 1978.
The queen hasn't had the same trouble as her kin. She and her royal consort, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, celebrated their 70th year of marriage in November.
Prince Philip may miss his grandson Prince Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle wedding. The 96-year-old is still recovering from his April hip replacement surgery, People said.
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