Library:Personal Life (Thomas): Romances

Relationships

Lynda Carter

The American actress Lynda Carter as the superhero character Wonder Woman, a role that she played from 1975 to 1979 and which earned her international stardom.

Beginning in 1978, while residing in the United States for his academic studies, Thomas first met the American actress Lynda Carter. Reportedly, their first meeting was arranged exclusively by the producers of Wonder Woman who were informed by Thomas of him having taken a liking towards the star actress who was none other than Lynda Carter herself who played the titular superhero character. In any case, Carter, at the time in an unhappy marriage with her former talent agent Ron Samuels, immediately took a liking to the "bold" and "charming" Thomas, who she saw as an escape from her unhappy marriage. Consequently, under much secrecy, the two soon began an extramarital affair that promptly escalated with the birth of a son William in May 1979, an event that, in turn, led to Carter finally divorcing her husband for good the following year in favour of a serious relationship with her British lover. Then, in June 1983, the couple welcomed a daughter Jacqueline, their second child and only daughter together.

Although their romance showed initial encouragement in the face of its sudden pace, the couple's relationship was briefly put to the test when, after initially seeking his father's permission to marry Carter in light of their growing affair, Thomas was unexpectedly denied from doing so with the main reason being that, as a divorcee whose former husband is still alive, Carter was deemed unfit by the Church of England to be a proper queen consort, thus sparking considerable controversy and scandal if the two were to marry. Nonetheless, despite the apparent impossibility of marriage, the two chose to remain together throughout the 1980s for the common sake of their children. Eventually, despite the two enjoying a mutually happy relationship, the couple later parted ways on mutual terms just a few years prior to Thomas's subsequent marriage, thereby ending their almost fifteen-year-long relationship. Despite this, the two continued to maintain warm relations even after their separation as they reunited in the early 2000s when the career of their son William as a professional footballer for the English football club Manchester United led Carter to the United Kingdom. In the meantime, since their separation, both Thomas and Carter went on to marry their respective spouses, with the former marrying the American supermodel Christy Turlington while the latter married the American lawyer and video game executive Robert A. Altman, with whom she subsequently had two more children, namely a son James in January 1994 and a daughter Jessica in October 1996. Following their father's passing in 2021, at which point James and Jessica were twenty-seven and twenty-five respectively, Thomas legally adopted the Altman siblings as his own, thereby making them adopted members of the royal family although neither of the two hold any royal titles or are included in the line of succession.

The American actress Lynda Carter with Jessica Altman, her daughter by her late husband Robert A. Altman.

During an interview in 2020 on Thomas's 60th birthday, in recounting their past life together, Carter described the former as "one of the kindest men I have ever met", adding, "When the whole separation thing happened, which was obviously very difficult for both of us, I knew from the start just how much he tried to be there for the people he cared about the most, especially his two children, which is something that I'll always appreciate him for even if we are no longer together as a couple". In addition, Carter further revealed that up until their reunion in London, Thomas would, among other things, call his two children every few weeks and also on their respective birthdays where, if possible, Thomas would spend some alone time with either of them. In one interview, Carter remarked, "During those years, we all pretty much missed his voice and presence. Out of us three, Jacqueline was definitely the most excited one each time whenever her dearest daddy was on the phone whose mere voice was just very soothing for her as a young teenager missing her beloved father so much". Likewise, William Carter, the couple's eldest child, has also heaped praise on his father's character, even going so far as to describing the latter as "very gentlemanly" and "the best loving father anyone could ever ask for", adding that the latter "never forgot or abandoned us at all even if he had to be away for a long period of time and would instead always find a way to ensure that he was talking to us from time to time". Later, on 11 October 2015, the two became grandparents for the first time when their son William fathered a pair of fraternal twins named William and Anne with the American actress Anne Hathaway, followed by a daughter Andy in 2018 and a son John in 2019, while their daughter Jacqueline, who married English actor Henry Cavill, gave birth to a son Thomas in 2017 and a daughter Elizabeth in 2019, thereby making it a total of six grandchildren. Meanwhile, on 3 February 2021, at seventy-three years old, Carter's second husband Robert A. Altman, whom she met after parting ways with Thomas, passed away from a rare type of leukemia, thereby leaving behind his two children James and Jessica Altman by the actress. In response, via a brief ensuing statement, Thomas posthumously thanked Altman for "earnestly taking care of the mother of my first two children", adding that he was satisfied that his former partner had found someone to move on with after their relationship came to an end while their two children together also found a suitable temporary fatherly figure in his absence.

During an interview with The Guardian, when asked if he would have eventually married Carter had the circumstances been different, Thomas said, "If the circumstances were different back then, perhaps we would have married with our two children becoming the next in line to the throne but in the end, there are just so many variables to consider including the fate of our careers, especially since Lynda is an actress, that the question of marriage might not be so straightforward. Before I married Christy, we talked a lot about how her modeling career would be after we married. After a lot of discussions here and there, we came to a mutual understanding of what was going to happen to us afterward and ultimately went ahead with the marriage as planned, a decision that we have absolutely enjoyed ever since". Meanwhile, on her part, Carter said, "By chance, perhaps we're not really meant for each other after all. Regardless, we both had a good time together while it lasted and even if we both had moved on with other people, the two of us know that William and Jacqueline, our very own two kids, are our most beloved and nothing could ever change that".

Caroline Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy, the eldest of two daughters of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Since 2009, she has served as the senior Senator for the state of Massachusetts, doing so jointly with her cousin Joe Kennedy III, while her sister Josephine has served as the Governor of Massachusetts since 2023.

During the mid-1970s, for several years, Thomas was said to have engaged in a secretive and little-known romantic relationship with Caroline Kennedy, the only daughter of President and later Massachusetts Governor John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Accordingly, their romance was said to have initially begun as a somewhat innocent friendship around late 1963 when Thomas, together with his father, visited Caroline's father John F. Kennedy while the latter was recovering at the Parkland Memorial Hospital from a near-fatal assassination attempt where President Kennedy was shot by the United States Marine Corps veteran Lee Harvey Oswald during a trip through Dallas, Texas in an attempt that also injured then-Governor of Texas John Connally. In this, as President Kennedy later made a full, miraculous recovery, a then four-year-old Thomas and a seven-year-old Caroline Kennedy gradually bonded with each other over the latter's father's condition with Kennedy recounting in a subsequent interview how Thomas gifted her a tiny lion keychain, with the lion symbolising strength and courage, to help her cope with her father's temporary comatose state, a poignant souvenir that she kept to the present day. In the meantime, King Charles III, Thomas's father, and Jacqueline Kennedy, Caroline's mother, also similarly bonded over the tragedy that hit the latter's husband. In another interview, Kennedy remarked, "While my mother obviously had her brothers-in-law to find solace in when my father was in a coma for a while, for whatever reason, Thomas's father, whom I even personally consider to be an uncle of mine long afterward, really struck a chord with her when she was at her lowest. Since then, we sometimes love to joke that if my father had died while Thomas's father was unmarried, the two would probably make a good couple even if the rules back then wouldn't really allow them to marry at all".

Eventually, around the late 1970s, at which point the two had matured somewhat, their blossoming friendship soon developed into a romantic relationship that was reportedly met with considerable encouragement from both of their families with Caroline's British romance being largely seen as reminiscent of the ones between her aunt Kathleen, who wedded the British aristocrat William Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, and her other aunt Rosemary, the wife of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury, a cousin of the aforementioned Duke of Devonshire and the great-grandson of former British prime minister Lord Salisbury. However, despite initial positive signs, a longstanding ban on marriages to Roman Catholics imposed on Thomas as a British royal, coupled with Kennedy's uncertainties over becoming a potential royal consort who will be under constant media coverage, resulted in the two eventually ending their relationship after just a couple of years. Nonetheless, having ultimately parted ways on generally mutual terms, Thomas and Kennedy continued to remain close friends over the following decades, with Thomas subsequently attending the state funerals of the latter's parents while Kennedy herself reciprocated by attending Thomas's coronation as monarch in March 1997 and the state funeral of his father in March 2011. In the meantime, Thomas also introduced Kennedy to the British travel writer and conservationist Mark Shand, a distant cousin of his as the great-grandson of King William V through his famous mistress Alice Keppel whose granddaughter Sonia is Shand's paternal grandmother. Soon enough, the couple later tied the knot in June 1986 and went on to have four children together, including three daughters and one son. However, their marriage ultimately came to an end in April 2014 when Shand died from a head injury caused by a fall near the Gramercy Park Hotel with his subsequent funeral being attended by both Kennedy and Thomas as well as their respective families. Moreover, in light of their father's passing, Thomas himself later personally walked Caroline's daughters Rose and Tatiana down the aisle at their respective weddings.

During a 2017 interview marking Kennedy's 60th birthday, Thomas described the American politician as the "first love of my life", noting that despite the two never ultimately ending up together, their bond is otherwise extremely profound unlike any other given that it began as early as when the two were mere adolescents and has since survived over the following decades as both of them went on to marry their respective spouses and have their own families. Similarly, Kennedy herself once said that the two "worked better as a pair of siblings rather than lovers", adding that while the two do not feel for each other as strongly as before, they otherwise continue to remain in frequent touch with each other and are usually aware of each other's problems whenever they arise. Moreover, ever since their first encounter, the two have gone on to establish an annual tradition of exchanging gifts with each other on their respective birthdays, coupled with either Thomas or Kennedy occasionally joining the other for celebrations including Christmas, New Year's Eve, Saint Patrick's Day, and others. Otherwise, despite the two never ultimately ending up together, Thomas's niece Georgia May Jagger is married to Kennedy's first cousin once removed Patrick Schwarzenegger, the son of Austrian bodybuilder and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver, Kennedy's first cousin, while their children Alexandra and Jack began a decade-long romance of their own before eventually marrying in January 2023 and later welcoming a pair of fraternal twins, namely a daughter Anne and a son Christian in the following November, their first two grandchildren together. In the 2016 biographical drama Jackie, starring the American-Israeli actress Natalie Portman as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, the two's first encounter at the very young ages of four and seven at the Parkland Memorial Hospital was dramatised on-screen, with Thomas, who portrayed his late father in the film, largely re-enacting the two's memorable first encounter at the hospital. In a subsequent personal review of the film, Kennedy, who was consulted heavily for her own memories of the event, praised Thomas for "authentically embodying the calm and loving spirit of his father", adding at one point that watching the scenes involving the late King Charles III felt "extremely surreal", noting that the words spoken by Thomas as his father in the film were "almost the exact same ones that I heard five decades ago".

Christy Turlington

Sometime in December 1992, while accompanying his sister to the Met Gala in New York, United States, Thomas was first introduced to the American supermodel Christy Turlington by his own sister Catherine who, as a fashion model herself, had come to know and subsequently befriend the American supermodel. Following this, Thomas, at the time a highly successful actor in his own right, proved quick to establish an initially cordial and unassuming friendship with the American supermodel who was then in the final year of her relationship with her then-boyfriend, the American actor Roger Wilson. In any case, a promising first encounter, in which Christy herself later recounted being "absolutely awestruck" by her future husband's "charm" and "politeness", soon gave way to an eventual romance with the former subsequently ending her relationship with her then-partner Roger Wilson by the following year. However, fearing immediate media attention that would soon follow, the couple agreed to keep their relationship a close-knit secret that was only known to a select few, including their closest friends and family members. Eventually, after a couple of years had passed, Thomas decided to disclose his relationship with the American supermodel for the first time. To that end, during a 1994 New Year's Eve speech, Thomas announced that he had "finally found the one and only woman after so long" before proceeding to reveal his burgeoning relationship with the American supermodel Christy Turlington who subsequently made her first appearance later that May by accompanying Thomas during his visit to South Africa where the couple met with Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid figure recently elected as South Africa's first black president roughly four years after he was released from longtime incarceration under the apartheid regime, of whom Thomas was previously a vocal critic.

The American supermodel Christy Turlington attending the 1992 Met Gala in Manhattan, New York. According to popular reports, the couple met for the first time at the event before later tying the knot in June 1995.

Almost immediately, Christy's status as a fashion model, coupled with her Roman Catholic faith, made the revelation a source of considerable controversy as critics, particularly those in favour of "classical" queen consorts, claimed that the American supermodel "lacked the proper character and image for a queen consort" while others also expressed their worry over the latter's Roman Catholic faith given that it meant a marriage between the two would come into direct conflict with the terms laid out by the Act of Settlement 1701 which legally disqualifies any member of the royal family who either converts to or marries a partner of the Roman Catholic faith. In response, during an infamous interview with the BBC, Thomas publicly accused his critics of "social bigotry" and "religious apartheid", stating, "Regardless of who my future wife would be, it cannot be ignored that my own mother, who I love dearly until the very end, was of a background that one would not necessarily expect for the wife of a British monarch. The daughter of a pair of Jewish Romanian immigrants, my mother bravely faced those prejudicial people who wished to prevent her from seeking happiness in marrying my father until they all finally relented and allowed her to do so as she wishes. Yet, it seems that just a few decades later, such a conflict appears to be inevitable once again, which says a lot about the society of this country as a whole". Eventually, both Prime Minister John Major and Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey jointly agreed to approve such a union under the strict condition that Christy herself would ultimately convert to Anglicanism in order to avoid any further complications, a condition that the American supermodel was reportedly on board with just for the sake of marrying her beloved partner. Meanwhile, Thomas's own father King Charles III also personally came out in support of the union, stating that "it is wrong for me to say that having a Roman Catholic-turned-Anglican convert as my very own daughter-in-law would be something entirely strange or a new concept for myself for my own beloved wife is a proud Jewish woman, an identity that no one shall absolutely be able to take away by any possible means".

In the end, such a religious conversion proved unnecessary when, after much lobbying by Thomas, who was also joined by the mostly Roman Catholic Irish politicians, the prime ministers of the remaining Commonwealth realms unilaterally agreed to amend the succession laws for the first time in almost two centuries in what became known as the Perth Agreement. To that end, in the United Kingdom, the passage of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995, thereby amending the Act of Settlement 1701, resulted in, among others, the lifting of restrictions on marriages to Roman Catholics, meaning that Christy was no longer required to convert to Anglicanism upon marriage although Thomas, as the head of the Church of England, is still required to be of the Anglican faith, a condition that Thomas himself had little qualms about amidst calls from some politicians to allow Roman Catholics to ascend to the throne again. Nonetheless, the likely possibility of a Roman Catholic queen consort for the first time in centuries was met with considerable attention in Ireland with Taoiseach Albert Reynolds particularly heralding the "end of an ancient, discriminatory rule that deserves no place in a modern and tolerant world". In the meantime, the lifting of restrictions also saw the position of Prince George, Earl of St Andrews, Thomas's fourth cousin, in the line of succession restored after he was initially disqualified for marrying the Canadian academic Sylvana Tomaselli, a Roman Catholic, in 1988. However, two of their children, barring the youngest, were confirmed in the Roman Catholic faith and thus lost their succession rights as per the Act of Settlement 1701.

On 14 June 1995, the couple was wedded in a private and intimate ceremony at Oheka Castle, New York, the site where Thomas's parents were previously wedded themselves almost five decades prior. The ceremony was attended by, among others, the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, British Prime Minister John Major, US President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, as well their closest friends and relatives which included the groom's parents King Charles III and Queen Lauren, and European royals including the crown princes of Norway, Denmark, Hungary, and Spain, the kings of Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, the queen of the Netherlands, the grand duke of Luxembourg, and the reigning princes of Monaco and Liechtenstein. Dubbed by the New York Times as "the wedding of the century" and broadcasted live by various TV networks including the BBC, ITV, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and FOX, the ceremony saw the attendance of various figures from both politics as well as the entertainment and fashion industries. In addition to this, several of the prince's former servicemen from the Royal Navy were also in attendance and even later took part in the saber arch wedding tradition afterward where the newlyweds walk under an arch made up of sabers held up in unison. Meanwhile, for the occasion itself, Thomas opted to don a standard Royal Navy ceremonial uniform, a tribute to his military background, which he paired with a peaked cap and a gilded sabre tightly held at waist-level. Meanwhile, having drew much inspiration from the iconic wedding dress of the American actress Grace Kelly, a fellow Roman Catholic, Christy donned an elaborate ivory satin bodice designed by the noted British fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood with the estimated £430,000 cost that accompanied it reportedly paid by Thomas himself who personally insisted on the wedding being privately funded rather than by taxpayer money.

Meanwhile, for entertainment purposes, the couple was serenaded by the American singer Whitney Houston who sang her 1992 hit single "I Will Always Love You", a choice that Thomas explained in a subsequent interview to be a deliberate one as he came to immediately love the song upon listening to it for the first time and thus felt compelled to have it played at his eventual wedding. At the same time, citing Houston's African-American heritage, Thomas also said that he personally wanted to "break barriers" by having a popular black artist sing at a royal wedding watched by millions, stating, "When my parents got married back in 1950, in the United States, the thought of a non-white singer performing at such a prestigious event was quite taboo and controversial, especially given that half of the country at the time was legally discriminating minorities and whatnot. Now, around forty years later, I feel that the country or just society as a whole has moved past these archaic beliefs of racism, segregation, and the like and so, as someone who believed strongly in equality between people, I just feel that it's right for someone as famous and talented like Whitney to come and perform on what is a special day for me and my wife, a truly special honour that one should not be denied simply due to the colour of their skin". In addition to Houston, a few other select artists also took part, including the Canadian singer Bryan Adams who sang his 1991 single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", the British singer Seal with his 1994 hit single "Kiss from a Rose", the English rock band The Police with their 1983 single "Every Breath You Take", and the American singer Lionel Richie who, together with fellow singer Diana Ross, sang their 1981 hit duet "Endless Love". Moreover, the Irish singer Bono of the rock band U2, a close friend of the bride, notably sang three select singles from the band's discography, namely "With or Without You", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and "All I Want Is You", while singer Jon Bon Jovi, the frontman of Bon Jovi and a close friend of the groom, instead sang "I'll Be There for You", "This Ain't a Love Song", "Always", and "Bed of Roses", after which Thomas himself personally serenaded his newlywed wife with his own rendition of Dean Martin's 1954 hit single "Sway", for which he received much applause from critics who noted his "near-perfect" impression of Dean Martin, whom Thomas later revealed in an interview having spent "countless months" attempting to match, particularly Martin's powerful baritone voice, stating, "My father was great friends with men like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and essentially the whole Rat Pack and all. So, out of the many great artists I listened to as a teen, I was immediately left awestruck by how Martin sang Sway and that is how my lifelong love and perhaps obsession with the song began". Following this, the couple went on to spend a few weeks under relative secrecy at Christy's hometown of Walnut Creek, California before spending much of their ensuing honeymoon period in Hawaii, a place chosen for its tropical vibe, relative isolation, and Thomas's own close friendship with the Hawaiian royal family, namely the reigning King Kawānanakoa IV.

The American actresses Anne Hathaway (left) and Zoey Deutch (right), Thomas's daughters-in-law through his respective sons William and Richard.

In just a year into their marriage, the couple would welcome the birth of their first child together, the future Queen Alexandra, although this was in turn followed by a roughly three-year-long period during which the couple chose to live separately from one another so as to accommodate for Christy's decision to focus on her university studies back in the United States which in turn led to rumours falsely claiming that the couple's marriage was in an allegedly terrible state as several media outlets began claiming, often without basis, that both Thomas and Christy have begun seeing another romantic partner in order to overcome their supposedly miserable state of affairs. Nonetheless, it was also during this period that Thomas's father-in-law Dwain Turlington passed away in June 1997 at the age of sixty-four from lung cancer, just a year after the birth of his granddaughter. Eventually, following Christy's graduation from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study in New York in 1999, the two did eventually begin living together, which they initially did so as a relatively small family of three. Then, in the following year, Christy gave birth to their only son Richard, followed by another daughter Nicole in 2003. Then, in the year afterward, the couple welcomed a pair of fraternal twins Elle and Vivian who were named after the two female characters from the 2001 romantic comedy film Legally Blonde, namely Elle Woods and Vivian Kensington, portrayed by American actresses Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair respectively. Otherwise, Christy's sisters Erin and Kelly later married filmmaker J.J. Abrams, with whom he had previously worked on the 1991 drama film Regarding Henry, and actor Edward Burns respectively, thereby making Thomas the uncle to singer Gracie Abrams and model Grace Burns respectively. In addition to this, the couple is also godparents to singer Elijah Hewson and actor Jake Bongiovi, sons of their close friends, namely singers Bono and Jon Bon Jovi, with the latter having befriended Thomas as a supporter of the New England Patriots, the National Football League franchise that Thomas owns. Moreover, in recent years, Thomas has also become close friends with Lea Thompson, the American actress best known for her role in the Back to the Future trilogy as Lorraine Baines and whose daughter, fellow actress Zoey Deutch, is currently engaged to Thomas's own son and professional footballer Richard.

Given their unique dynamic, namely their differing social standing and respective occupations, in subsequent years, the couple has been compared to other famous pairings including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, the Italian singer and model Carla Bruni who is herself a friend of Christy in the modeling industry. In addition, in August 1998, Denmark's King Frederick X, the then-crown prince, wedded the Danish supermodel Helena Christensen after first crossing paths at the royal wedding although the two did not ascend to the throne as King and Queen until much later on when Queen Margrethe II abdicated the Danish throne in January 2024. Meanwhile, in June 2022, Hungary's King Charles V remarried to the Hungarian model and Victoria's Secret Angel Barbara Palvin, a woman notably thirty-two years his junior in a scaled-down and private ceremony amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, while Swedish model and fellow Victoria's Secret Angel Elsa Hosk married in June 2015, Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland, the younger brother of Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria and only son of the reigning King Carl XVI Gustaf.