Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Royal Family Today
It seems you can't pick up a British newspaper without some mention of the latest
event, scandal, or oddity involving the royal family. Here is the cast of characters:
Queen Elizabeth II wears the traditional crown of her great-great grandmother
Victoria. Elizabeth's husband is Prince Philip, who's not considered king.
Their son, Prince Charles (the Prince of Wales), is next in line to become king.
But it's Prince Charles' sons who generate the tabloid buzz. The older son, Prince
William (b. 1982), is a graduate of Scotland's St. Andrews University and served as
a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot with the Royal Air Force. In 2011, when Wil-
liam married Catherine “Kate” Middleton, the TV audience was estimated at one-
quarter of the world's population—more than two billion people. Kate—a com-
moner he met at university—is now the Duchess of Cambridge and will eventually
become Britain's queen. Their son, Prince George Alexander Louis, born in 2013,
will ultimately succeed William as sovereign. (A conveniently timed change in the
law ensured that William and Kate's firstborn would inherit the throne, regardless
of gender.)
William's brother, redheaded Prince Harry (b. 1984), has mostly shaken his
reputation as a bad boy: He's proved his mettle as a career soldier, completing a
tour in Afghanistan, doing charity work in Africa, and serving as an Apache air-
craft commander pilot with the Army Air Corps. Nonetheless, Harry's romances
and high-wire party antics are popular tabloid topics.
For years, their parents' love life was also fodder for the British press: Charles'
1981 marriage to Princess Di, their bitter divorce, Diana's dramatic death in 1997,
and the ongoing drama with Charles' longtime girlfriend—and now wife—Camilla
Parker Bowles. Camilla, trying to gain the respect of the Queen and the public,
doesn't call herself a princess—she uses the title Duchess of Cornwall. (And even
when Charles becomes king, she will not be Queen Camilla—instead she plans to
call herself the “Princess Consort.”)
Charles' siblings are occasionally in the news: Princess Anne, Prince Andrew
(who married and divorced Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson), and Prince Edward (who
married Di look-alike Sophie Rhys-Jones).
Royal Sightseeing
You can see the trappings of royalty at Buckingham Palace (the Queen's London
residence) with its Changing of the Guard; Kensington Palace—with a wing that's
home to Will, Kate, and baby George, and a cottage that serves as Harry's bachelor
