Some people are plucked from obscurity and gain worldwide fame when they get engaged and marry into royalty. Kate Middleton, who came from a well-off but otherwise ordinary family from the English countryside, is an example, and she will one day — barring divorce, or heaven forbid, death — be queen consort to the future King William.
Others, like Meghan Markle, already had some level of fame before falling in love with a royal, which can be a blessing and a curse, since they came with a public personal history and heightened scrutiny. The Duchess of Sussex is far from the only actress or otherwise famous person to fall for a blue blood. That includes male celebrities, who, after all, can fall in love with royal women just as easily, and are not immune to the appeal of living a fairy tale life.
That makes sense because famous people know famous people. Lots of the marriages between royals and celebrities happened because they ran in the same circles, or were invited to the same exclusive events and hit it off. Other royal-celeb romances have weathered opposition and scandal, but somehow made it to the altar when other romances fell by the wayside. Because of all the scrutiny, and all the rules and sacrifices involved in living as a royal — and in many cases, irreconcilable differences — some of these marriages didn't last, though others are still going strong.
Along the way, though, these celebrity royal brides and grooms have tweaked what it means to be royal. Here are 15 famous people who married royals.
Check out our Meghan Markle page for all the latest news about Meghan, Prince Harry, and their growing family.
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth, the most famous Hollywood screen siren from the 1940s — nicknamed the Love Goddess — got married five times, and the third time was to Prince Aly Khan, son of the Aga Khan and leader of a sect of Shia Muslims. Her marriage may have been the first time that a Hollywood actress became a princess, but it only lasted from 1949 to 1953, after which Rita returned to acting. The stunning Rita, it turned out, had been pursued by several royal men — including the Shah of Iran — but she never again married a royal.
Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly was an Oscar-winning actress with a bright future ahead of her in Hollywood when, like Rita Hayworth, she left it all behind to marry into a royal family. She met Prince Rainier of Monaco at the Cannes Film Festival — the same way Rita met Prince Aly. It's said that he wanted a famous wife, and that Marilyn Monroe was one of the candidates. However, after Cannes, the prince pursued and won Grace, demanding her millionaire father pay a $2 million dowry. (The actress reportedly paid some of it herself.) She also had to have a fertility test. The two wed in 1956, with Grace wearing one of the most iconic royal wedding dresses ever. They were married until her death in 1982.
Olivia Wilde
Though she was not famous at the time of her marriage, Olivia Wilde seemed destined for the spotlight, as she comes from parents who were prominent journalists and she starred in the Fox shows Skin and The O.C. around the time of her wedding. At just 18, Olivia and her boyfriend, Tao Ruspoli, got married — in an old-school bus that she and Tao had been living in in a rural area of Virginia, no less. Tao is a Prince of Cerveteri, an old Italian family that has a castle that dates back to the 1500s. That made Olivia a princess, though she never used the title while she was married from 2003 to 2011.
Sophie Winkleman
There was a time when being an actress would automatically disqualify a woman from joining a royal family. In the 1980s, Prince Andrew dated an actress, and it was a huge scandal (one of his many). But that's changed, and nine years before Meghan Markle married a senior member of the royal family, British actress Sophie Winkleman married the son of Queen Elizabeth's cousin, Lord Frederick Windsor, aka Freddie. Best of all, Sophie — whose credits include several seasons of Two and a Half Men, the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as well as work on the stage and in radio — didn't have to give up her career.
She is still a working actress.
Andre Agassi
Tennis legend Andre Agassi is royalty (at least in the sports world), but when he married Brooke Shields, he married the real deal in 1997. That's because Brooke, who has been acting and modeling since she was a kid, isn't just Hollywood royalty, she's actually the first cousin — though many generations removed — of the French King Louis XIV. Unfortunately, their marriage didn't last, and they got divorced in 1999.
Letizia Ortiz
Spanish journalist Letizia Ortiz was an unusual choice of bride for the future king of a Catholic country. She was divorced, an atheist, didn't believe in the monarchy, and had an established and prominent career as a TV anchorwoman. Nevertheless, when she met Spain's then-Crown Prince Felipe at a dinner party, the two were instantly smitten, and after dating in secret, they tied the knot in 2004. She's now queen, one who regularly breaks royal protocol with her fashion.
Kendra Spears
Kendra Spears was a sought-after fashion model who had walked the runway for top design houses Gucci, Hermès, Valentino, and others, when pal Naomi Campbell introduced her to Prince Rahim Aga Khan at a party. The American model converted to Islam in order to marry him in 2013, wearing a stunning embossed ivory sari, and they now have two sons — and she still has a thriving career modeling.
Casper Van Dien
Starship Troopers actor Casper Van Dien and his wife, Catherine Oxenberg, had their own reality show on Lifetime called I Married a Princess, a title that wasn't just a clever marketing ploy: It was based on reality. Catherine, who appeared on Dynasty in the 1980s, is the daughter of a princess from the Serbian royal family, and second cousin of Prince Charles. She was at Charles and Diana's 1981 wedding, where she turned down a marriage proposal from Prince Andrew.
Sofia Hellqvist
When she got engaged to Sweden's Prince Carl Philip, Sofia Hellqvist was already famous. She'd been a cast member on a reality TV show for single people, called Paradise Hotel, and appeared as a poster girl in men's magazines. After living together for many years, the couple got married in 2015, and as princess, Sofia has become known for her extensive charity work.
Charlene Wittstock
Plenty of people knew who Charlene Wittstock was before she married Prince Albert of Monaco and cried through the whole ceremony in one of the biggest royal wedding scandals ever. After all, she'd been an Olympic swimmer for her adopted homeland of South Africa. As the wife of the tiny principality's monarch, she's followed in the footsteps of Grace Kelly, another woman who was, of course, famous before her own royal wedding.
Mike Tindall
Boy, does Mike Tindall not look like your typical member of the royal family: He's a burly former rugby player who had a hugely crooked nose — thanks to repeated knocks in the face while playing — that he finally had repaired after resisting the royal family's requests that he fix it for eight years. He has been busted twice for drunk driving. Before walking down the aisle with Queen Elizabeth's granddaughter, Zara Phillips, in 2011, he was already a celebrity as a champion rugby player.
Iñaki Urdangarin
Before marrying into the Spanish royal family, Iñaki Urdangarin was a legendary handball player (yes, it's a thing), whose team won a bronze medal in the Olympics. He married Princess Cristina in 1997, and for a while, seemed to live the typically quiet life of a minor royal — until he got busted for tax fraud, embezzlement and influence peddling. It turned out he'd been stealing money he raised through his foundation, and hiding it in several offshore accounts, among other misdeeds. He's serving a five-year prison sentence, and his wife narrowly escaped a conviction herself.
They're still married.
Barbara Hutton
Though she inherited an enormous amount of money, New York socialite Barbara Hutton was known as the "Poor Little Rich Girl" her whole life. Her money had apparently failed to bring her happiness, and she married seven times — to a count, a baron, a playboy, actor Cary Grant, and three princes. (One was descended from the royal family of the country of Georgia, another from Lithuania's, and the last from a Laotian family.) "All the unhappiness in my life has been caused by men," Barbara once said. "I think I'm pretty timid about marriage, but I'm also too timid to live alone, and life doesn't make sense without men."
So sad.
Zsa Zsa Gabor
It's hard to imagine being married even more times than Barbara Hutton, but Zsa Zsa Gabor actually broke her record. The late Hungarian-born actress got hitched nine times. But wait, there's more! One of her husbands was a German dude born a regular Joe who was adopted by a German princess, Marie-Auguste of Anhalt, as an adult. He was one of 35 men whom the 80-year-old adopted — apparently out of kindness — or reportedly, as a way to make money. The "prince" and Zsa Zsa were married from 1986 until her death in 2016.
Brad Pitt
OK, we admit it: This is a bit of a stretch, but hear us out. Angelina Jolie is actually related to Queen Elizabeth — even if the connection is somewhat distant. (OK, very distant.) They are 26th cousins, but their shared ancestor is the French King Philip II. Somehow, though, we seriously doubt that Brad Pitt brags about this, especially since the two went through a nasty divorce.
