Catherine, Princess Royal

Catherine
Princess Royal
Honorary Advisor to the Minister for Women and Equalities
Tenure	26 July 2016 - present
Preceded by	Position established
Minister	Nicky Morgan (CON)
Born	(1969-01-28) 28 January 1969 Buckingham Palace, London
Spouse	Jodie Foster (m. 2011)
Issue Detail	Kate Rodman Lauren Joan Eliza Joan
Full name Catherine Charlotte Natalie Lauren Charles
House	Hanover
Father	Charles III
Mother	Lauren Bacall
Religion	Protestant

Catherine, Princess Royal (Catherine Charlotte Natalie Lauren Charles; born 28 January 1969), known professionally as Kate Joan, is a British supermodel, actress, entrepreneur, activist, and a member of the British royal family. The only daughter of King Charles III and American actress, Lauren Bacall, she was made Princess Royal in 1996 upon the death of her great-aunt, Alexandra, Princess Royal.

Beginning in the late 1990s, Catherine first rose to fame as a Victoria's Secret model under the pseudonym Kate Joan, becoming the first British model to be made a Victoria's Secret Angel, while also being featured for major fashion brands and designers, namely Alexander Wang, Louis Vitton, and Balenciaga, all of which helped to establish her as one of the most highly-paid models at the turn of the century, as well as a leading figure in British fashion alongside the likes of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.

Following her retirement from professional modeling in 2007, Catherine subsequently found further fame as an actress, beginning with her debut role as Camille Montes in the 2008 spy film, Quantum of Solace, a role which won her an Empire Award for Best Actress, whilst also receiving much praise from critics. Following this, Catherine proceeded to gain further acclaim for her acting work, particularly through her depiction of strong and independent female characters, with her most well-known example being the role of Kate Joan, a female British spy in the Kate Joan cinematic franchise, which was widely praised by critics for being the first successful female spy film franchise in Hollywood history, and which also notably won her three Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards, along with making her one of the highest-paid actresses of the 21st-century. Since then, Catherine has also starred in a number of other films, namely Money Monster, S.W.A.T.: Firefight, Red Notice, and Knives Out.

In addition to her modeling and acting careers, Catherine has also been actively involved in activism, especially concerning women's and children's issues. In 2014, she founded the program Women Without Silence in order to combat domestic violence, workplace discrimination, and other related issues. In response, she was later made an honorary advisor to the Minister for Women and Equalities in 2017 by the current minister, Nicky Morgan. Aside from that, Catherine has also launched her own clothing line, Kate Joan Clothings, which is marketed as being "appropriate and fitting for all ages".

On January 2011, following a discreet three-year long relationship, Catherine married the American actress, Jodie Foster, becoming the first member of the British royal family to marry a partner of the same sex. Beforehand, the princess was known for her nearly two decades long relationship with the American singer, Madonna, with the relationship being the subject of much controversy and attention. Separately, in addition to being the mother of two daughters, whose father was never publicly revealed, Catherine is also the mother of the American model, Kate Rodman, whom she had by the former American basketball player, Dennis Rodman.

Personal Life

As per longstanding British royal customs, being the eldest and only daughter of the British monarch, in 1996, Catherine was given the title of Princess Royal by her father sometime after her great-aunt, whom previously held the title, had passed away. Ironically enough, during her subsequent years as a model and later an actress in her own right, Catherine largely avoided using the title herself, preferring to instead be referred to by her own given name as opposed to simply being known as "the Princess Royal".

In contrast to her otherwise physically tall older brothers, both of whom are at least above 1.8 metres tall, Catherine herself is only 1.64 metres tall, although this nonetheless makes her slightly taller than her wife, actress, Jodie Foster, whom is 1.6 metres tall.

Despite her past reputation as a "party girl" and, by her own admission, a "very wild person", Catherine is nonetheless said to be somewhat academically-inclined in her own right, as evidenced by a bachelor's degree in design that she earned from the University of London prior to her modeling career, as well as a master's degree in fine arts from the State University of New York, which she earned sometime between the end of her modeling career and the beginning of her ensuing acting career, which Catherine chose to pursue after being personally inspired by her then-girlfriend and later wife's academic prowess.

In a 2008 interview with the BBC conducted shortly after the release of Kate Joan: Inception, Catherine revealed that in preparation for the film, she personally underwent physical and weapons training with the British Army, whom subsequently taught the royal how to handle live firearms such as the standard British Army SA80 rifle, and a Glock handgun, among others. Aside from that, she also took extensive courses in martial arts, namely boxing, judo, and karate.

Relationships

Madonna

Prior to her marriage to American actress, Jodie Foster, Catherine, from the early 1990s to the late 2000s, gained much fame and notoriety for her sensational romance with American singer, Madonna. It was later reported that the two began their relationship in 1992, sometime after Catherine had first moved to the United States, where after attending one of the singer's concerts, Catherine, in a bid to know the controversial American singer further, attempted to reach out to the latter through one of her agents, an attempt that proved successful when she was then suddenly phoned by one of Madonna's agents, whom subsequently told the princess that the singer was "very interested" in meeting her personally. Soon enough, following their first physical encounter with one another at Madonna's estate, which then reportedly ended with the two women subsequently making out with one another through the night, with the singer later being claimed by the princess to have taken her virginity, the two afterwards began an almost decade-long romantic relationship that would last for roughly fifteen years, and which, due to Madonna's many bizarre acts as a singer and her controversial public image, was also riddled with a considerable amount of controversy, not least due to the nature of the couple's relationship.

Interestingly, while Catherine herself remained mostly unmarried throughout the course of the couple's relationship, Madonna, while still said to be "actively" in love with the Princesd Royal, went on to marry English director, Guy Ritchie, with whom she was married to from 2000 to 2008, a fact that otherwise proved little to no effect in disrupting the couple's sensational relationship. On the other hand, despite remaining largely unmarried throughout the course of her relationship with the American singer, Catherine, often in conjunction with the latter herself, nonetheless engaged in a few extra romantic affairs herself, with the most well-known instances being with former American basketball player, Dennis Rodman, by whom she later gave birth to a daughter, Kate Rodman, after being unexpectedly impregnated by Rodman for a daring challenge she had attempted alongside Madonna herself, in which the two women both reportedly offered the American basketball player $20 million each if he could impregnate them both in a single go, an endeavour in which he only succeeded with Catherine only, and not with the American singer. In addition to that, it was also later said that for an unspecified period of time, Catherine was in a three-way relationship with both Madonna and the American model, Jenny Shimizu, whom later claimed that the American singer would at times fly both her and the Princess Royal to destinations across the world for sexual liaisons, a claim that Catherine herself however denied in public interviews.

Among other things, throughout the course of her relationship with the singer, Catherine herself appeared in several of Madonna's music videos, with the most infamous being the music video for the 1990 single, Justify My Love, in which she, along with American model, Tony Ward, made love with the singer's character in the music video. In a subsequent recollection of the events surrounding her participation in the song, Catherine said, "On the surface, it definitely sounded like something I'm just willing to give a try for the sake of it, which I did, but it came with a very specific rule, in that my name would not be mentioned at all when talking about it (music video) ever". Meanwhile, when asked about her feelings at the time over having to appear partially nude and later engage in romantic acts with the singer and her then-girlfriend, Catherine said, "Personally, she (Madonna) cared a lot about making sure that I felt fully comfortable doing it and therefore, being able to get through it from beginning to end". She further added, "She understood well just how crazy shooting the music video is going to be, and so, she was always there to help me if I ever felt uncomfortable or needed some help in something related". Nonetheless, due to its explicit imagery, the music video itself provoked considerable controversy among the American public upon its release and was even met with a ban due to its overly explicit theme. However, despite her participation in the music video, it was also revealed that on the other hand, when suggested by her girlfriend to also star in the 1993 film, Body of Evidence, Catherine herself largely refused to do so, having been supposedly worried over her unpolished acting skills at the time, coupled with her own personal refusal to film a sex scene involving her character, which she feared would "come to haunt me years later". In the end, the role itself later went to American actress, Julianne Moore.

Then, throughout the later half of their relationship, although the couple would continue to remain mostly close with one another, Catherine, in addition to transitioning to a mother herself through the birth of her two daughters, Lauren and Eliza, would nonetheless begin to drift away from her partner after she began a relationship with the American actress, Jodie Foster, whom she first met while attending the 80th Academy Awards ceremony in 2008. Reportedly, Madonna, whom previously tolerated and even encouraged her partner's side affairs despite the two being romantically linked in the process, otherwise begin to grow gradually "distrustful" and, according to Catherine herself, "spiteful" of the American actress, whom the singer later said in an interview, "was looking to steal my girl". Eventually, the couple's long-term relationship came to an end in 2010, just a year before Catherine and Foster themselves later married in 2011. Since then, according to some sources, the two have continued to remain friends, while others claim that the two have "essentially cut each other off their lives" since the Princess Royal's marriage to the American actress, with observers noting the lack of further appearances of the two together, even under non-romantic circumstances. However, amidst the apparent silence and lack of further contact between the two, their past relationship briefly became a topic of interest following the release of the 2011 single, You're Gone by Madonna, in which the lyrics, despite not directly mentioning the Princess Royal by name, was believed by many to be about the royal and her past relationship with the singer, as well as the subsequent fallout of their romance.

Separately, in recent years, the couple's past sensational relationship, and the differing circumstances of their respective lives in the present, has made the two a subject of analysis and comparison between some media outlets, with Rolling Stones, in one article, framing the two women as "direct opposite of one another", stating, "Since their relationship took a dramatic end sometime in the 2010s, it is clear that one of them has quite moved on from the past and settled down with a stable, loving partner while the other is still stuck in the party limbo, even after all the years since then".

Dennis Rodman

From 1994 to 1996, while still in a romantic relationship with the American singer, Madonna, Catherine also pursued a separate simultaneous relationship with the former American basketball player, Dennis Rodman, whom she began dating after being introduced to the latter by none other than Madonna, a mutual friend of the two and whom was also said to be romantically involved with Rodman as well, thereby effectively creating a three-way relationship between themselves.

Nonetheless, the relationship, which initially began as a "semi-serious" affair, was said to have to drastically took off not long after Catherine, as a result of a challenge that she had participated in with both Madonna and Rodman, gave birth to a daughter, Kate Rodman, a sudden circumstance that prompted the princess to abruptly move in together with Rodman for sometime, during which she was forced to assume the duties of a mother for the couple's son. However, around a year later, following a period which she went on to describe as "challenging" and "emotionally taxing", Catherine abruptly left Rodman and their infant daughter together, reportedly in order to pursue her long-awaited modeling career, which she had been forced to initially put on hold as a result of her accidental pregnancy by Rodman. In doing so, all ties and communications between the princess and her former partner and their daughter together were effectively severed, with Catherine herself only acknowledging the existence of her daughter with Rodman almost a couple of decades later when she posed together with the latter for the cover of the 2015 issue of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, in which the two donned a matching pair of bikinis with the colors corresponding to their respective skin colours, them being black and white. Since then, the two are generally said to be on good terms with one another, with Catherine herself being a dedicated supporter of her daughter's modeling career. Meanwhile, Rodman herself later honoured her biological mother by naming her firstborn child, Catherine Graham, whom she had by the Canadian rapper, Drake in 2018.

Jodie Foster

In 2008, while attending the 80th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, California, Catherine met and subsequently began a relationship with American actress, Jodie Foster, all while still remaining romantically linked to the American singer, Madonna, at the time. Initially, fears and concern over excessive media coverage should their relationship ever become publicised led the couple to treat their relationship with utmost secrecy, and therefore, the two women were rarely seen in public together. Nonetheless, the relationship itself quickly progressed, with Catherine, in contrast to her then-girlfriend, seeing the actress as a less controversial and reserved partner, while also perceiving the latter as her "mentor" in the acting industry, given her newcomer status in Hollywood at the time while Foster, by comparison, had begun her acting career starting in the 1970s, and was therefore considered a more senior figure in the industry, and whose expertise in the industry Catherine greatly sought as a newcomer actress at the time. Interestingly, in a later interview, Catherine likened Foster's initial role as a mentor to her in the acting industry to that of the singer, Madonna, being her so-called "big sister" during her early years in the United States, stating, "When I first came to the United States, I needed someone well-known but most importantly, someone who I could trust to help me when in need, and I found that in Madonna, now, when I was just getting started in the acting industry at the time, funnily enough, Jodie was definitely my Madonna at the time, in that she was the well-known person that I needed and who I could trust to help me in need, which she absolutely did to the fullest".

Eventually, after several years of near secrecy, the couple was later married in a private ceremony in the Netherlands attended by both Catherine's and Foster's close friends and relatives, including the then-King Thomas, Catherine's own older brother. Reportedly, not long after the wedding concluded, it was said that King Thomas himself offered to make the American actress a duchess in honour of the couple's marriage, an offer which Foster herself personally refused before subsequently accepting a damehood instead, thereby officially becoming Dame Alicia Christian Foster. Interestingly, despite being born American, Foster, having acquired British citizenship prior to her marriage to the Princess Royal, was therefore allowed to use the relevant pre-nominal style of "Dame", as opposed to using the relevant post-nominal letters, an arrangement that remains strictly in use for a non-citizen of a Commonwealth country.

Since then, the couple has together embarked on a number of philanthropic and social causes, while in regards to acting, Foster herself, in a 2015 interview, expressed her "huge interest" in personally directing her wife, which she later did so for the 2016 film, Money Monster, in which Catherine starred as a major character opposite George Clooney. The film itself, despite mixed reviews, proved to be a box office success, grossing over $93 million at the box office against a $27.4 million budget. Then, in a subsequent interview, Catherine herself described the process of filming the movie as "extremely fantastic" as well as "reasonably challenging", given the film's tense nature, while also praising Foster as a "great director", whom she said, "was not afraid to let someone know that something is wrong and ensure the highest quality and standards, even if that someone is her own wife".

On March 2018, the couple were photographed together on the US island state of Hawaii, where the two were said to have spent their tenth anniversary together in relative secrecy.

Titles & Honours

• 28 January 1969 - 10 January 1979 Her Royal Highness The Princess Catherine
• 10 January 1979 - Present Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal

Ancestry

Ancestors of Catherine, Princess Royal

8. George IV and V of the United Kingdom and of the Netherlands 4. Frederick of the United Kingdom and of the Netherlands 9. Princess Sophia of Prussia 2. Charles III of the United Kingdom and of the Netherlands 10. Wilhelm II, German Emperor 5. Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia 11. Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg 1. Catherine, Princess Royal 12. Zalman Perski 6. William Perske 13. Sheyna Yofa 3. Lauren Bacall 14. Max Weinstein 7. Natalie Bacall 15. Sophia Bacall