By Wonderwall.com Editors
1:30pm PST, Nov 7, 2023
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We like to throw around terms like "Hollywood royalty," but for a select few stars, that's no figure of speech. A few famous folks have actually fallen for royalty, and some have even gone on to marry and carry a title themselves. Let's take a look at some of the stars who've gone royal…
"My So-Called Life" star A.J. Langer — who played Rayanne Graff on the cult-hit '90s show — might not be acting much anymore, but she did take on a new role… as the Countess of Devon.
A.J. set herself up for the title when she married attorney Charles Peregrine Courtenay — also known as Lord Courtenay and the son of the Earl of Devon — in 2004. Charles then became the 19th Earl of Devon upon his father's death, making A.J. his countess.
The couple relocated to London in 2015 with their two children, Lady Jocelyn Skye Courtenay and Lord Jack Hayden Langer Courtenay.
But they didn't get their happily ever after: In October 2023, the earl confirmed their 18-year marriage was over.
"After much care and consideration, Charles Courtenay, the Earl of Devon, and Countess of Devon, Allison Joy Courtenay, have made the decision to separate and to divorce," read a statement from Powderham Castle. "Charlie would like to express his gratitude for his partnership with A.J. and all that they have created together as parents, friends and partners both in Los Angeles and at Powderham. The well-being of their wonderful children is the highest priority, as he and A.J. focus upon co-parenting in the years ahead."
Now keep reading for more…
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Movie star Grace Kelly is one of the most famous examples of Hollywood mingling with royalty.
The beauty was already considered a princess of Hollywood and was best known to movie lovers for her work with famed director and producer Alfred Hitchcock. When she gave up her film career and married Monaco's Prince Rainier III in 1956, she became an actual princess — Princess Grace of Monaco — and remained a huge celebrity until her death at 52 following a 1982 car accident.
MORE: Royal funerals through the decades
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Oscar winner Jessica Chastain wed Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, an executive with the French fashion brand Moncler, in 2017 after nearly five years of dating.
They got married in Treviso at the Passi de Preposulo family estate Villa Tiepolo Passi — which has been the family's residence since the 1800s — in northern Italy. Gian Luca's family have been members of the nobility for centuries and can trace their history back to the 900s. They still use their aristocratic titles — Gian Luca's father, Alberto, is the current Count Passi de Preposulo — even though the Italian government stopped recognizing the formal positions in 1946 when the Kingdom of Italy became a republic.
MORE: Best nostalgic photos of all your favorite royals
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"Suits" actress Meghan Markle is another actress who married a prince. Her romance with Britain's Prince Harry was made public in October 2016 and later confirmed by a chivalrous statement put out by Kensington Palace on behalf of the prince in which he condemned the harassment Meghan was facing in the wake of their dating news.
They announced their engagement in November 2017, married in May 2018 — giving us Duchess Meghan of Sussex — and welcomed son Archie in 2019 and daughter Lilibet Diana in 2021. They famously stepped down as senior royals in 2020 and are now based in California.
MORE: All the best photos from Harry and Meghan's royal wedding
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Olivia Wilde was once technically an Italian princess — or principessa. In 2003, she married Tao Ruspoli, a prince and filmmaker. Olivia has explained that the title had little effect on her personal life, aside from being a fun way to make dinner reservations. She filed for divorce in 2011.
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Though she's remembered today for her epic film career, Rita Hayworth's off-screen exploits also made big news, especially in 1949 when she married Prince Aly Khan, the son of Sultan Mohammed Shah, Aga Khan III. She then became Princess Aly Khan. It was the third of her five marriages: The union ended in 1953 with a dispute over whether to raise their daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, as a Muslim or a Catholic.
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Diane von Furstenberg isn't just fashion royalty — she's actual royalty!
Born in Belgium as Diane Simone Michelle Halfin, Diane married Germany's Prince Egon of Fürstenberg in 1969. The marriage produced two children, Prince Alexander and Princess Tatiana, and ended in 1972. Diane is no longer able to use the title of princess, but she kept the last name and arguably made it even more famous by attaching it to her fashion empire.
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She was born to Hollywood royalty — Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh — but Jamie Lee Curtis received an actual noble title when her husband, British comedy legend Christopher Guest, inherited the Barony of Haden-Guest from his father. The two then became Lord and Lady Haden-Guest.
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In 2018 — in the midst of a contentious divorce from her third husband, Marty Caffrey, after just a few months of marriage — "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Danielle Staub met Oliver Maier. A few months later, she quietly began dating the German and French managing director of Speyside Equity, a private equity firm based in New York City, and in February 2019, he popped the question in St. Barts about a week after Danielle's divorce was finalized.
People magazine reported that Oliver — Danielle's 21st fiancé — isn't just wealthy (his family owns two castles as well as 15 vineyards in the South of France, he told the magazine). He's also got royal blood: He told People he's the Duke of Provence.
Page Six soon debunked his claim ("He's a descendant of the duke from around 700 years ago," an insider said. "The lineage doesn't exist anymore. The title is pointless.") but knowing the Bravo reality TV star, it wouldn't have been surprising if she started styling herself "Duchess" when they wed.
Alas, she never got the chance: They split not long after getting engaged.
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You'd imagine she's one of those people who's seen it all and done it all. But is she royal? That depends on how you look at it. The late Zsa Zsa Gabor's ninth husband, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, is technically the son of German-born Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt, but only because she adopted him when he was 38. Frédéric, who was born Hans Robert Lichtenberg, actually bought his royal status when he got the princess to adopt him, and the rest of her legitimately royal family does not recognize him as part of their lineage.
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Actor Casper Van Dien was married to an actress who also happens to be royal: Catherine Oxenberg, who's best known for playing Amanda Bedford Carrington on "Dynasty." She also happens to have another impressive credential — she's the daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia! The actor filed for divorce in 2015 after 16 years of marriage.
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Jackie Kennedy Onassis's sister, the late socialite Caroline Lee Bouvier, became a princess in 1959 when she married Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł of the Polish princely House of Radziwiłł. During this time, she went by Lee Radziwill and was commonly referred to as "Princess Lee" in the press. Though the couple divorced in 1974, she continued to use the royal surname.
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Mike Tindall was famous in his own right — a super-successful rugby star who played for Bath Rugby and Gloucester Rugby, captained the England team and was a member of the 2003 World Cup-winning rugby team — before he met Zara Phillips, the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Though Zara doesn't hold a royal title (at the request of her mother, Princess Anne), she and Mike are royalty in the sports world thanks to his rugby background and her work as a professional equestrian (she won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics in London). Mike and Zara married in 2011 and have since welcomed three children.
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Mexico-born actress Laura Elena Harring's greatest role to date was in the 1999 mindbender "Mulholland Drive." But she had already taken on another interesting part in her private life: In 1987, she married Germany's Count Carl-Eduard von Bismarck-Schönhausen, giving her the title Countess von Bismarck-Schönhausen. Laura later divorced the count but retained her title.
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Born Lisa Najeeb Halaby in Washington, this royal has the distinction of being the only American-born woman to be crowned a queen. In 1978, the Princeton graduate — who was on the university's women's ice hockey team and went on to work internationally as an urban planner — married King Hussein of Jordan, taking the name Queen Noor. She sat on the Jordanian throne until her husband's death in 1999. She remains active in philanthropy on the world stage to this day.
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Even if you don't know history, seeing "The King's Speech" or "The Crown" should have taught you about Wallis Simpson, the American whose relationship with Prince Edward, heir to the British throne, caused an uproar during the 1930s. Wallis was still married to her second husband when her royal boyfriend became King Edward VIII upon his father's death. But she'd never became queen, because he wasn't allowed to marry a divorcée with two living ex-husbands as he was also head of the Church of England — so Edward abdicated for love. They married in 1937, becoming the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and lived the rest of their lives in exile.
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Barbara Hutton — the socialite known as the "Poor Little Rich Girl" as a result of her vast wealth but dramatic and highly publicized personal life — married seven times, and five of those unions were with nobility or royalty. The Woolworth heiress's first husband, Alexis Mdivani (pictured), was a Georgian prince. Then, from 1935 to 1938, she was married to Danish nobleman Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow. From 1947 to 1951, Barbara was married toa Russian prince, Igor Troubetzkoy. And from 1955 to 1959, she was wed to Gottfried von Cramm, a baron and tennis star. Finally, she wed a Vietnamese prince, Raymond Doan, who was her husband from 1964 to 1966. And in between, she also managed marriages to Cary Grant and Porfirio Rubirosa. Whew!
