by Kitty Kelley
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———: The Little Princesses, 1953.
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———: The Princess and the Duchess, 1989.
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———: Trading with the Enemy: An Exposé of the Nazi-American Money Plot 1933– 1949, 1983.
Hillier, Bevis: Young Betjeman, 1988.
Hoey, Brian: The Princess Anne, 1984.
———: All the Queen’s Men, 1992.
———: Anne the Princess Royal, 1989.
———: Mountbatten, 1994.
———: Charles and Diana: The 10th Anniversary, 1991.
Holden, Anthony: Charles: Prince of Wales, 1979.
———: The Tarnished Crown, 1993.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Lady Bird Johnson: A White House Diary, 1970.
Hope, Alice: Princess Margaret, 1955.
Hough, Richard: Edwina, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, 1983.
———: Born Royal, 1988.
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Junor, John: Listening for a Midnight Tram, 1990.
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———: Royal Pursuit, 1983.
———: Royal Wedding, 1981.
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———: Princess, 1988.
———: Queen Mother, 1987.
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———: The Royal House of Windsor, 1974.
———: Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes, 1989.
———: Queen Victoria: Born to Succeed, 1964.
———: Louisa Lady in Waiting, 1979.
———: The Queen, 1983.
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———: The Woman He Loved, 1973, 1974.
———: Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill, 1969.
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———: Diana: Her New Life, 1994.
———: The Wealth of the Windsors, 1989.
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———: Mountbatten, 1985.
Table of Contents
FRONT COVER IMAGE
WELCOME
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
PHOTO INSERT
AUTHOR’S NOTE
THE ROYAL HOUSE OF WINDSOR
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
EPILOGUE
AFTERWORD
CHAPTER NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY KITTY KELLEY
A CORONATION FOR THE ROYALS!
COPYRIGHT
KITTY KELLEY is an internationally acclaimed writer whose last book, Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography, sold faster than any biography in publishing history. Before that her book about Frank Sinatra, His Way, set another publishing record as the biggest-selling biography. Jackie Oh! and Elizabetha Taylor: The Last Star were also internetional bestsellers. Kelly, who has been honored by her peers, received the 1987 Outstanding Author Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors “for her courageous writing on popular culture.” She also received the Philip M. Stern Award form Washington Independent Writers for “her outstanding service to writers and the writing profession,” as well as the Medal of Merit from the Lotos Club of New York City. In 1993, Brandeis University National Women’s Committee established a major book collection in her honor. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband.
ALSO BY KITTY KELLEY
Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography
His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra
Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star
Jackie Oh!
OPRAH: A Biography
A Coronation for
THE ROYALS!
“Deliciously readable… pages that genuinely illuminate the careers of the flawed humans who have occupied and circled the throne this century. Never before have all the stories about all the bit players, from Prince Philip to Princess Margaret, from the Queen Mother to the grimly devoted old courtiers, been collected in a single, useful place.”
—Washington Post Book World
“Salacious… irreverent… juicy details… The product of four years’ research and is regarded as the most sensational of her scandal-packed oeuvre… gripping.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“Don’t you want to know who treated and counseled ‘Fergie’ and for what? Don’t you want to know the subject that was discussed on the missing minutes of the Princess Diana– James Gilbey ‘Squidgy’ tapes—Don’t you want to see the pictures of Edward and Mrs. Simpson greeting Hitler with a warm clasp?”
—Los Angeles Times
“A rarefied look inside the world of aristocracy.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Controversial… an often fascinating look at what everyone seems to be talking about in the wake of the death of the Princess of Wales… THE ROYALS is actually a close, and not always flattering, view of the entire royal family, starting with the present queen’s mother and father.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Scandal-packed.”
—Vanity Fair
“Miss Kelley is a fine writer and indefatigable researcher… She has lost none of her edge here in THE ROYALS… A delightful read… As early as the second page, Miss Kelley is referring to the royal family’s ‘secrets of alcoholism, drug addiction, epilepsy, insanity, homosexuality, bisexuality, adultery, infidelity, and illegitimacy’ in this century. None of this is exaggerated, none of it is false.”
—Washington Times
“Scathing… a tonic following the near-canonization of the People’s Princess.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Entertaining… fun to read… good stuff.”
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“The larger, hotter rumors are as interesting for the way they are presented and justified as for what they contain.”
—The New Yorker
“Illuminating insight into the royals’ lives and history.”
—Observer (London)
“The best pages in THE ROYALS are about the hedonistic lives of Princess Margaret and her former husband, Anthony Armstrong Jones/Lord Snowden… THE ROYALS makes a battle mace with which to dent a rusting crown.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune
“A genuinely independent book about the monarchy.”
—Guardian (London)
“An irresistible book… Kelley does a boffo job on Sarah Ferguson… her description of the Duke of Windsor… is worthy of Noel Coward… her Diana stories are a welcome antidote to the lachrymose news coverage of her death and funeral, as refreshing as sherbet between heavy courses. Choose your flavor.”
—American Spectator
“A smorgasbord of scandalous tidbits… warts-and-all biography.”
—People
“Kelley’s book sizzles.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Kelley’s pen is mightier than the sword.”
—Houston Voice
* George III spoke English but as a second la
nguage; he preferred German.
* Between themselves, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor referred to the winsome Princess as “Shirley” after Shirley Temple, the most successful child star in Hollywood history.
* In 1971, when Queen Elizabeth was forty-five years old, she caught chicken pox from her seven-year-old son, Edward. In 1982, at the age of fifty-six, she had her first wisdom tooth extracted.
* Because she is female and first in line to the throne, she is presumed to be the heir. If she were male (far more preferable), she would be called the heir apparent.
* Philip and Elizabeth were second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark, third cousins through Queen Victoria, and fourth cousins once removed through King George III.
* Movietone News was a newsreel shown in movie houses before the advent of television. By buying tickets to a cinema, people could see the news before or after the featured film. Newsreels, created in 1909, were especially popular in the 1930s and 1940s.
The British writer Nigel Nicolson recalls watching a newsreel in London in 1947 with his friend Sibyl Colfax. They had come to see the Mountbattens’ departure from India at the end of his term as Viceroy.
“They were seen off at the airport by [Prime Minister] Jawaharlal Nehru,” said Nicolson. “As the plane took off, Sibyl said to me, ‘But what they didn’t show was that Edwina at the last moment kissed Nehru full on the lips, which deeply shocked Indian feelings, undoing all the good that Dickie had done.’ The woman sitting immediately in front of us turned and said, ‘Hullo, Sibyl.’ It was Edwina Mountbatten, and sitting beside her was her husband. They had come incognito to the cinema to watch themselves. There was little doubt that they had heard what Sibyl said. I whispered to her, ‘Would you like to leave?’ ‘I think we’d better,’ she replied. We left.”
* The next year, 1948, the Labor government passed the British Nationality Act, making Commonwealth citizenship equivalent to British citizenship, thus giving every citizen of the Commonwealth a legal right to reside in the United Kingdom. When the Commonwealth was established, members agreed that the British monarch should be the “symbol of the free association of (Commonwealth) nations and as such Head of the Commonwealth,” regardless of whether a member country retained the British monarch as its head of state. By 1997, the Commonwealth had 53 member states with a combined population of 1.4 billion.
* The official engagement photograph shows Philip, handsome in his uniform, beside Elizabeth, her hands folded to display her platinum ring. A friend recalled how thrilled she was with the ring, which symbolized the end of her drab years and the beginning of a happy future. Elizabeth said, “It’s like turning a page in a book.”