When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their plans to marry in 2018, many discussions turned to the fact that Meghan was a divorcee, but she is not the only member of the royal family to have remarried.
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Over the past thirty years, three of the Queen's children have split from their first partners and two of them have said 'I do' for the second time: Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Meanwhile, many more have separated but chosen not to remarry, such as Peter and Autumn Phillips and Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones.
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The royal family are closely affiliated to the Church of England, which only began permitting divorcees to remarry while their former spouses were alive in 2002. Take a look back at the royals' first wedding photos and details...
Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex
Meghan Markle and Trevor Engelson
Though not a royal of her own descent, Meghan Markle’s marriage to Prince Harry in 2018 was also not her first. The American actress had previously been in a two-year marriage with producer Trevor Engelson which ended in 2013. The nuptials dissolved in a no-fault divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla
Prince Charles was the first heir to be granted a divorce back in 1996, when he split from Lady Diana Spencer. This followed a four-year separation before the couple reached a final agreement. A year later in 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris. This meant that the Church of England’s restrictions within remarriage did not apply to Prince Charles, though he received an official marriage blessing to Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005 - after the law had passed in 2002.
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Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
Andrew Parker Bowles and Camilla Parker Bowles
Camilla Parker Bowles was also a divorcee at the time of her marriage to Prince Charles. She previously married British Army captain Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973, who she went on to have two children with, son Tom in 1974 and daughter Laura in 1978. The pair split in 1995, the year after Prince Charles admitted to committing adultery with Mrs Parker Bowles while still married to Diana.
Princess Anne, The Princess Royal
Princess Anne and Sir Timothy Laurence
Princess Anne, the Queen’s second child and only daughter, divorced from her husband Captain Mark Phillips in 1992. The divorce came after being split for three years, and Princess Anne remarried to her current husband Timothy Laurence (pictured above) later the same year. This was the first time a child of the British monarch had remarried after divorce and defied the Church of England since the 2002 law had not yet come to fruition. Anne sidestepped this by marrying Timothy in Scotland.
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Prince Joachim of Denmark
Prince Joachim and Marie Cavallier
The prince married Countess Alexandra in 1995 but the couple got divorced in 2005 after nearly ten years of marriage. They have two sons together, Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix, and Joachim went on to marry Marie Cavallier in 2008.
Caroline, Princess of Hanover
Princess Caroline and Prince Ernst of Hanover
Caroline, Princess of Hanover, the former Princess Caroline of Monaco, has had three marriages. She first wed banker Phillippe Junot in 1978 at the Royal Palace of Monaco, whom she later separated from in 1982. In 1983, Caroline had a second wedding with Italian socialite and businessman Stefano Casiraghi. At this point, her first marriage had not yet been annulled and so the couple had a civil service in the Chamber of Mirrors room of the Prince’s Palace. This marriage came to an end when Stefano was tragically killed in 1990 after flipping his speedboat in a world championship race. She tied the knot with her current husband, Prince Ernst August of Hanover in 1999, though they’re currently separated.
Princess Stephanie of Monaco
Princess Stephanie and Adans Lopez Peres
Princess Stephanie of Monaco married her first husband, former bodyguard and father of two of her children, Daniel Ducreut in 1995. The pair divorced a year later after the paparazzi published videos of her then-husband committing adultery. Princess Stephanie later had a secret marriage with circus acrobat Adans Lopez Peres, who is 10 years her junior in 2003. This marriage also came to an end in 2004.
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