The House of Windsor is no stranger to controversy.
From salacious affairs and regal betrayals to giving up the throne for true love, the British royal family are known for their intriguing personal lives just as much as their famous titles.
Take a trip down memory lane as New Idea look back on the top ten outrageous and downright shocking royal scandals of all time.
10. Prince Harry’s Nazi costume and (strip billiards)
In what was perhaps the most avoidable royal family scandal in history, Prince Harry – the second son of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales – turned up at a costume party in 2005 dressed as a Nazi officer.
The red-haired Prince donned a swastika armband and rather unsurprisingly, a photo of him in full SS dress was given centre stage on the front cover of The Sun.
But Harry wasn’t done with controversy just yet.
The words strip and billiards were not often seen together until the Prince was pictured nude in a Las Vegas hotel room while playing the game.
The Sun, again, ran an enlarged photo of the Prince covering his crotch with the headline: “Heir it is!”
9. Queen Victoria’s controversial relationships
When Queen Victoria, once Britain’s longest reigning monarch, developed a strong connection with an Indian royal attendant called Abdul Karim, the relationship was sure to turn heads.
As chronicled in the 2017 movie Victoria and Abdul, the Queen gradually promoted Karim to a high ranking position in her inner circle.
Despite many rumours, their bond was said to be strictly platonic.
But when Queen Victoria died in 1901, her family showed that they didn’t quite feel the same about Karim and promptly deported the servant back to his native India.
But while Abdul may have felt truly honoured to enjoy even a temporarily close connection with the monarch, he wasn’t her only unexpected confidant.
Following the death of her beloved husband Albert, Queen Victoria “put her trust” in a Scottish servant called John Brown.
Their relationship was the subject of much discussion in British court and some speculated the Queen had even married Mr Brown in secret.
8. King Henry VIII creates the Church of England (so he could have multiple wives)
When Henry VIII grew tired of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, he wanted out.
But with divorce strictly forbidden by the Pope, the King had to come up with a creative way of annulling his union.
So he did what any forward thinking monarch would, and created his own Church – the Church of England – in 1534.
Free from the shackles of his unhappy marriage, Henry VIII went on to marry a staggering five times, beheading two of his later wives Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard along the way.
Charming.
No list of royal scandals would be complete without mentioning Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
WATCH this video to see how the Queen’s husband very nearly destabilised Britain’s relationship with other countries thanks to her controversial comments!
7. Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend’s ill fated romance
While today’s royal family enthusiasts might be too young to remember the inimitable Princess Margaret in her heyday, TV viewers were treated to a recap of Margaret’s tragic love life in Season One of The Crown.
Queen Elizabeth II‘s younger, more vivacious sister fell head over heels in love with a royal equerry named Group Captain Peter Townsend, 16 years her senior.
The problem? Peter Townsend was already divorced.
Despite years of anguished debate with her monarch sister and the British government, the Crown and the administration ultimately forbid Princess Margaret from marrying Captain Peter Townsend unless she relinquished her royal privileges.
Royal duty prevailed and the Princess chose her title and all that went with it.
In a now-famous Buckingham Palace statement from 1955, Margaret declared: “I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend.
“I have been aware that, subject to my renouncing my rights of succession, it might have been possible for me to contract a civil marriage. But, mindful of the Church’s teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have decided to put these considerations before any others.”
Peter Townsend was sent on assignment to Belgium to put distance between him and the Princess.
6. Princess Anne’s dog attack
In 2002 Princess Anne – the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip – was forced to pay a £500 fine and an additional £500 compensation to the families of two children who were bitten by her English bull terrier, Dotty.
While the boys, aged seven and 12, escaped without any serious injury, the incident earned the Princess Royal the dubious title of being the first senior member of the royal family to be convicted of a criminal offence.
Now that’s a right royal scandal!
5. Sarah Ferguson and the “cash-for-access” scandal
Sarah Ferguson – affectionately known as Fergie – is one of the most provocative members of the royal family.
The ex-wife of Prince Andrew, the Queen’s second son, has been involved in a series of royal scandals since their marriage crumbled into divorce in May 1996.
The Duchess of York found herself in a very sticky situation in 2010 when the News of the World caught her red-handed agreeing to give access to her royal ex-husband – Britain’s special trade representative at the time – in exchange for half a million pounds.
Undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood – known as the Fake Sheikh – posed as a businessman and recorded his entire conversation with the financially strapped mother of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
“Look after me, and he’ll look after you. I can open any door you want,” the Duchess was heard to say.
Sarah Ferguson later apologised for the incident, admitting her financial situation was “under stress” but admitted it provided “no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment”.
4. Princess Diana and Squidgygate
In 1992, the notorious royal scandal publishing giant The Sun released a recording of a 1989 phone call between the Princess of Wales and her ‘friend’, James Gilbey.
Gilbey repeatedly called Princess Di “squidgy” as a term of endearment while they discussed at length topics such as Diana becoming pregnant and the way Queen Elizabeth now looked at her.
Diana flatly denied allegations of a romantic relationship with James Gilbey, saying: “He [Mr Gilbey] is a very affectionate person. But the implications of that conversation were that we’d had an adulterous relationship, which was not true.”
Nevertheless, the damage of another royal scandal was done.
3. Princess Michael wears a racist brooch to lunch with Meghan Markle
Princess Michael of Kent is a member of the British royal family of German, Austrian and Hungarian descent.
She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, a grandson of King George V, and is also the first cousin of the reigning Queen Elizabeth II.
The Princess shocked the public when she arrived to a Christmas luncheon at Buckingham Palace in December 2017 wearing an ornate brooch in the style of ‘blackamoor’, which is considered offensive for ‘exoticising’ African people.
Her choice of accessory was deemed tone-deaf given Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry, who has long been vocal about her difficulties growing up mixed race, also attended the event.
A spokesperson for the Princess of Kent released a statement apologising for any offense caused to the Duchess of Sussex, saying: “The brooch was a gift and had been worn many times before. Princess Michael is very sorry and distressed that it has caused offense.”
2. The tragic love triangle of Price Charles, Diana Princess of Wales and Camilla Parker-Bowles
The world – 750 million people to be exact – watched in awe and wonder as Queen Elizabeth’s eldest son, Prince Charles, married the young Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on a sunny July morning in 1981.
But while TV viewers were enthralled by Diana’s iconic David Emanuel royal wedding dress and the sheer spectacle of the moment, most were oblivious to the fact that Charles, heir to the British throne, had fallen in love with another woman many years before: Camilla Shand, who would later become Camilla Parker-Bowles.
Their infatuation for one another was an unspoken secret inside the royal family, but just a few years after Charles and Diana said their vows the Prince of Wales began a clandestine affair with Camilla.
A devastated Princess Diana embarked on a series of flings herself, most famously with horse trainer James Hewitt.
After years of mudslinging in the tabloids and leaking stories to the press, Charles and Diana announced their official separation in 1992.
In her infamous Panorama interview with the BBC in 1995, Diana iconically remarked: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
1. The abdication of Edward VIII for love
In 1936, Britain’s monarch King Edward VIII announced his intention to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite.
The King immediately faced opposition from the government and the Church of England, of which he was head.
In an unprecedented move, Edward chose to abdicate the throne in favour of his younger brother, King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret.
The decision sent shockwaves through the nation and remains one of the greatest royal scandals of all time.
Wallis was subjected to a “brutal character assassination” by the public and press who cruelly dubbed her “that woman”, a conniving seductress hell bent on bewitching the then Prince of Wales and luring him away from his monarchical duties.
But despite the controversy, Edward married Wallis Simpson in 1937.
The couple lived in luxurious exile in an opulent cottage called Le Moulin de la Tuilerie at Gif-sur-Yvette just outside Paris, and later spent time living in the Bahamas where Edward acted as Governor from 1940 to 1945.
To add more drama to the already incredible fairy-tale gone wrong, Baltimore-born Wallis was alleged to have been born intersex – that is, born with male sex organs and genetic characteristics.
Per ABC News, a 2012 biography by royal writer Anne Sebba noted the Duchess of Windsor, as she would become, had a “raspy voice, square jaw and flat chest” while other authorities claim Wallis was infertile and never menstruated.
