These Royal Relatives Stirred Up Ridiculous Scandal

Anyone who watched Netflix’s The Crown will recall that Prince Philip had some problematic relatives with Nazi connections. Three of the Duke of Edinburgh’s sisters married German princes — all of whom were reportedly members of the Nazi party, which led to an embarrassing photo taken during the Second World War in which the young prince attended a funeral alongside uniformed Nazis, including Herman Goring. Meanwhile, one of his sisters was such a big fan of Der Fuhrer that she named one of her sons Karl Adolf in Hitler’s honour.

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Princess Margaret’s tumultuous marriage to Antony Armstrong-Jones (a.k.a. Lord Snowdon) have been well documented, but the scandals continued even after their 1978 divorce — including the the revelation that he fathered an illegitimate child (with his best friend’s wife, no less) shortly before his marriage to Margaret. In addition, persistent rumours of his affairs with men continued to follow Lord Snowdon throughout his life, even after his death in 2017.

He may be only distantly related to the royals, but David Matthews (father of the husband of Pippa Middleton, sister of the Duchess of Cambridge) delivered some big scandal points when he was arrested in 2018 after being accused of allegedly raping an underage teenage girl in the 1980s. After his arrest, a second woman came forward claiming she too had been raped by Matthews. For the record, he has denied the allegations.

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Sarah Ferguson’s divorce (and subsequent toe-sucking scandal) were already enough to make her a pariah to the royal family. However, she took things to a whole other level in 2010 when she accepted a $600,000 bribe from a News of the World reporter (posing as a businessman) in exchange for access to ex-husband Prince Andrew. When the video was released, the humiliated Fergie had no choice but to fess up and apologize, admitting that she’d made a “serious lapse in judgement.” You think?

Princess Michael of Kent has a long and well-documented history of making crude, racist statements, including one incident when she was reportedly annoyed by a table of talkative black diners at a New York restaurant, expressing her wishes that they “go back to the colonies.” Most recently, she took heat for wearing a broach (pictured here) that was judged by many to be downright racist.

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Sophie, Countess of Wessex (wife of the Queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward), was reportedly never a favourite of the Queen, and became even less so with the release of the scandalous “Sophie Tapes” in 2001. In the tapes (secretly recorded in a sting operation launched by a newspaper), her business partner in her PR firm offered to set up sex tours for clients, and professed his fondness of cocaine. In addition, Sophie can be heard making disparaging remarks about former British PM Tony Blair and other British politicians. She subsequently resigned from the firm due to the ensuing scandal.

Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, reportedly caused a rift in the royal family with his eulogy at the funeral of his late sister containing veiled comments such as his hope that her sons will not have to suffer the “anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair.”

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Kate Middleton’s uncle Gary Goldsmith has what is euphemistically known as a colourful past — including the time that undercover reporters filmed him chopping up lines of cocaine on the party island of Ibiza. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife during a vicious fight about his cocaine consumption. According to reports, Goldsmith hit his wife so hard she was left unconscious on the pavement outside their home.

Meghan Markle’s father has been a constant source of embarrassment to his daughter, appearing regularly on television to complain about being ostracized by the royals due to such antics as taking money from a paparazzi to stage photos, which he first denied but later admitted when incontrovertible evidence was made public. He remains estranged from the Duchess of Sussex, and his continual TV interviews about his daughter aren’t exactly thawing the chill emanating from Buckingham Palace.

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While Meghan Markle’s dad continues to deliver scandalous headlines about his daughter, he’s small potatoes compared to her half-sister Samantha Markle, who upped the ante significantly with her incessant complaining about how Meghan has cut off her family after her royal wedding. Her incendiary statements about Duchess Meghan (a few examples here) continue to make headlines, and she took things to a whole new level when she paid an in-person visit to Buckingham Palace to hand-deliver a letter, only to be turned away by palace guards (she denied she was given the boot). On the plus side, the stunt gave her even more to complain about. At this point, family reunion seems wildly unlikely.

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