Personal Life of Queen Alexandra

Relationships

The American actress Alexis Bledel as her character Rory Gilmore in the comedy drama series Gilmore Girls which sterred Bledel and fellow actress Lauren Graham

Much like her predecessors, in her own right, Alexandra herself is also well-connected to a number of famous individuals and celebrities, with her most well-known celebrity acquaintance being the English actress Emma Watson. In an interview with the BBC, it was reported that the Queen, who was said to have had a "deeply passionate interest" in playing the role of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series, first came to learn of Watson after seeing the actress in the first few entries of the series, a decision that Alexandra herself later claimed to have briefly instilled in her "some sense of jealousy", given her own passionate dream of playing the role herself, which she ultimately failed to do given her extremely young age at the time of the first film's release, that being in 2001, at which point the royal was then only five years old, almost half a decade younger than the then-eleven-year-old Emma Watson at the time. Ironically, by the time that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 released, making it the final entry into the series, Alexandra ultimately came to view the actress in a more positive light to the point that two later publicly embraced one another momentarily during the film's premiere at Trafalgar Square, London, with Alexandra herself later jokingly referred to it as the end of her feud with Watson over the Hermione Granger character, stating, "Whatever my feelings were before, Emma's clearly done a very good job portraying and bringing the character to life and that's personally good enough for me".

Aside from Watson, Alexandra is also particularly close with American actress Alexis Bledel whom she first met after becoming a fan of the comedy-drama series Gilmore Girls which Bledel starred in alongside Lauren Graham. To that end, the two first met one another at the 2006 Teen Choice Awards in California, United States where Alexandra, accompanied by her parents, met Bledel for the first time in public and was even later included in the latter's speech when she won the award for Choice TV Actress Comedy in which the actress described the royal as "my biggest little fan in the world". afterward, Alexandra even made a cameo appearance in the 2016 sequel Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life after having reportedly missed out on a chance of appearing in the preceding series due to her young age at the time. In 2014, she was even one of the few select guests in attendance at Bledel's wedding to American actor Vincent Kartheiser. Meanwhile, on the political side, Alexandra is known to be particularly close to Sanna Marin, Finland's prime minister from 2019 to 2023, with whom she has maintained regular contact and occasionally hangs out with during her spare time. The Independent, a British newspaper, described them as "unlikely sisters with a bond seemingly bound by destiny", noting how Marin, in contrast to other world leaders, seemingly enjoyed a more relaxed and casual interaction with the Queen as seen during the latter's state visit to Finland where the two were often photographed holding hands and giggling with each other, a distinct degree of friendliness attributed by many to them being relatively close in age and sharing a largely similar worldview. In this, Marin, born in November 1985, is only around eleven years older than Alexandra who was otherwise born in May 1996.

Following the marriage of her aunt Catherine, Princess Royal to American actress Jodie Foster in 2011, the first same-sex wedding involving a member of the British royal family, in the years that followed, Alexandra is said to have quickly become close with her new aunt-in-law whose intelligence was said to have greatly attracted the young princess to the American actress so much so that, as Alexandra herself later revealed, she would occasionally serve as a "home tutor" to the former, particularly in the French language given Foster's incredible proficiency in the language. In addition, Foster also occasionally assisted the royal in her academic studies including her well-known thesis surrounding media polarisation for which the two would hold late-night discussions to improve Alexandra's thesis each time. Regarding this relationship, Alexandra has since come to describe Foster as her "second mother", stating, "Obviously, I very dearly love my biological mother and all for the entirety of my life but, when it comes to relationships between an aunt and a niece, I think the connection that I currently have with her is just very rare in nature and not something that you always usually see especially between an aunt and a niece. Overall, she has been very helpful when I needed her to and not to mention she is also smart, pretty, and kind". Meanwhile, aside from Foster, Alexandra is also close to her other aunt-in-law, namely the former German tennis player Steffi Graf who wedded her uncle Prince Nelson. In this, Alexandra quickly became attached to Graf due to the latter's notable prowess in tennis, adding that at one point she almost opted to pursue a professional career in tennis and rather than in football under the guidance of her uncle and aunt-in-law, both of whom are considered to be some of the finest and most successful tennis players in history. However, she ended up choosing football over tennis due to reportedly two primary reasons, namely the influence of her half-brother and the launch of the Women's Super League at the turn of the decade, thereby leading to her ensuing nine-year-long career with Arsenal.

Through her father, Alexandra is notably related to several other European royals including her second cousins King Frederik X of Denmark and King Paul II of Greece, her second cousin once removed King Harald V of Norway, her fourth cousins Leonor, Princess of Asturias and Afonso, Prince of Beira, her fifth cousins Boris, Prince of Tarnovo and Vittoria, Princess of Naples, and her first cousin once removed Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia who, in turn, is the niece of Peter II, the last King of Yugoslavia. In addition, Alexandra is also a distant niece of the late 20th-century English socialite and author Violet Trefusis who was born from a longstanding affair between the socialite Alice Keppel and the Queen's great-great-great grandfather King William V whose affair with his royal mistress also led to the birth of Sonia Cubitt, a fellow author like her sister. Meanwhile, Alexandra is even distantly related to former British prime minister David Cameron who is her fifth cousin once removed given that the two share a common ancestor in King William IV whose illegitimate daughter Elizabeth FitzClarence by his royal mistress Dorothea Jordan is Cameron's great-great-great-great grandmother. Moreover, Iran's Crown Princess Noor Pahlavi is a fifth cousin of Alexandra by virtue of being the granddaughter of Italy's Princess Maria Gabriella, the aunt of King Emmanuele and the widow of the late Iranian ruler Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whom she controversially wedded in 1960 while also converting to Shia Islam and taking the name "Maryam", the Persian variation of her given name. Otherwise, through her mother, Alexandra is the cousin of American singer Gracie Abrams, the only daughter of American filmmaker J.J. Abrams and Erin Turlington, her mother's older sister, and of American model Grace Burns, daughter of American actor Edward Burns and Kelly Turlington, her mother's younger sister. Ironically, despite both of her first cousins being named "Grace" or "Gracie", Alexandra, who is older than both of them, proved to be an exception to the trend but has nonetheless described the aforementioned coincidence as "a little quirky fact about my beloved cousins".

As the current wife of Jack Shand, the son of Massachusetts Senator Caroline Kennedy and British travel writer Mark Shand, Alexandra is known for her close friendship with members of the Kennedy family, a bond that was the result of a longstanding friendship between Alexandra's grandfather, the late King Charles III, and the late President John F. Kennedy. In this, the President's son John F. Kennedy Jr., currently a United States Senator from New York, has been one of Alexandra's godfathers and, much like his father, is also said to be generally close with Alexandra's father, the former King Thomas. Moreover, John Jr.'s only daughter Alexandra Kennedy, born in January 2003, was reportedly named after her.

Romances

Jack Shand

Jack Shand, the grandson of US President John F. Kennedy and son of Senator Caroline Kennedy with the British travel writer Mark Shand. A lawyer by profession, he married his longtime partner Queen Alexandra and was subsequently styled as "Prince of the Commonwealth" in his capacity as prince consort

Beginning in 2014, while studying abroad in the United States, Alexandra began a discreet romantic relationship with Jack Shand, an American lawyer and grandson of the late President John F. Kennedy and who, by virtue of his father, is her third cousin once removed. Beforehand, the two were said to have first met sometime in mid-2013 when Alexandra, unsure of her choice of university in the United States, sought the advice of Jack, himself being an alumni of the prestigious Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and a close family friend of the royal. However, despite not ultimately taking up Jack's suggestion of Yale University and instead opting for the more modest Seattle University in Seattle, Washington, warm longstanding ties between their two families, namely the Kennedy family and the British royal family, saw the two initially begin an initially unassuming friendship that gradually blossomed over the following months. Eventually, under much secrecy, the couple chose to celebrate New Year's Day together in marking the arrival of the year 2014, a moment that saw the two eventually begin a romantic relationship. Considered to be reminiscent of a previous short-lived romance between Jack's mother Caroline Kennedy and Alexandra's father King Thomas, the couple's romance was generally welcomed by both of their families early on. In this, for the first few years or so, a number of personal duties on both of their parts, coupled with general assumptions of the two being slightly too young to take things seriously, saw Alexandra and Jack take their romance somewhat casually early on. During this period, Jack's attendance alongside his mother at Alexandra's August 1st investiture gradually gave credence to rumours of a romance between the two, particularly given the well-known strong bond between their respective families.

Eventually, on 25 December 2022, a date that also happened to be Christmas Day, Alexandra announced her engagement to Jack in a post on Instagram in which she revealed that the couple had been engaged back in May when her fiance proposed on her twenty-sixth birthday, a moment that she subsequently described as "one of the happiest in my life", adding that having known the latter since they were only children, given the close, strong bond between their respective parents and families, she was thus "immeasurably thrilled to call someone that I have known for almost my entire life a future husband of mine". Following this, after a preceding private reception at Oheka Castle in New York, thereby continuing the family tradition of getting married at the luxurious Upstate New York estate, on 19 January 2023, a date that also doubled as Jack's 30th birthday, the couple subsequently held a grand reception at the traditional site of Westminster Abbey, marking the first royal wedding involving the British monarch to take place at the site in almost a century since the wedding of King Frederick and Princess Margaretha of Sweden in 1925. As was expected of any royal wedding, the event was attended by various high-profile guests including members of both the British royal family and the Kennedy family including the bride's parents King Thomas and Queen Christy, Senators Caroline Kennedy (the groom's mother), John F. Kennedy Jr., and Joe Kennedy III, Governor Josephine Kennedy, Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, and others. Officiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the ceremony marked the third successive instance of the British monarch marrying an American commoner and the second successive instance of the British monarch marrying a Roman Catholic, a previously forbidden practice that was eventually allowed following a series of changes in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, following the couple's marriage, amidst speculations over the new title for Jack, given that he is the first male British royal consort in over three centuries since Prince George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne, it was announced that Jack would receive the title of Prince of the Commonwealth, a choice made to highlight the importance and prominence of the Commonwealth of Nations, of which the United Kingdom is the leading member. Then, on 11 November 2023, the couple welcomed their first few children together, namely a pair of fraternal twins that included a daughter Anne, named after her sister-in-law actress Anne Hathaway and the historical Queen Anne, and a son Christian whose given name is the male variation of Alexandra's mother Queen Christy, whom she wanted to personally honour in the process.

Interests

Anti-Semitism

Since coming of age, Alexandra has been an active and outspoken proponent against anti-Semitism, an issue which she considered "personal" and "close to myself as someone of Jewish background". Incidentally, her Jewish background, coupled with her overtly liberal character, has consequently made her the subject of various conspiracy theories, many of which are anti-Semitic in nature and which generally allege that a combination of her Jewish identity and her personal wealth meant that she has the capability to influence the outcome of certain events.

Back in the United Kingdom, the Queen's spirited condemnation of anti-Semitism has also prompted calls from a large number of local Jewish leaders and a considerable number of members of the public urging for her to also criticise the then-Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, a controversial figure in British politics who has been the subject of various accusations and allegations concerning anti-Semitism. However, given her requirement to remain largely impartial neutral in British politics, Alexandra has otherwise mostly avoided openly criticising either Corbyn or other politicians and instead opted for more general forms of criticism against any perceived missteps committed by them. However, in a somewhat rare exception, in response to Corbyn's dismissal of a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission concerning anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, which he framed as having been "dramatically overstated for political reasons", the Queen remarked, "As an ever-changing country with a strong tradition of liberal democracy, the United Kingdom, through its politicians, who command and attract followers and supporters, must always remain consistently committed in safeguarding that sacred tradition against any unsavoury elements that seek to infringe upon it, which includes, among others, unwarranted prejudice or discrimination against any particular group, be it based on sexuality, religion, race, and gender. Otherwise, to abandon such a duty could and will amount to unfortunate consequences that may change the country as we know it".

Latin America

The Salvadoran politician Nayib Bukele being sworn in as President of El Salvador, a post which he has held since 2019

Despite her predominantly British heritage, her partial Hispanic roots via her maternal grandmother has also led to Alexandra becoming a rather vocal figure, particularly on issues concerning Hispanics and countries in Latin America as a whole. To that end, as the granddaughter of a Salvadoran immigrant, Alexandra has at times criticised the "corrupt" and "self-serving" regimes in the region whom she claimed are "fostering and cultivating a constant state of lawlessness and instability", thereby contributing to the region's reputation for crime and poverty. In addition, Alexandra has also expressed her sense of despair at the outflow of professional talent from Central America due to its often violent and turbulent nature, stating, "While I'm not necessarily saying that my maternal grandmother emigrating abroad is wrong per se but in the grand scheme of things, the fact that these seemingly promising countries are losing valuable talents each day, be it to violence or migration, is just absolutely disheartening and definitely plays a great deal in preventing or stunting a nation's overall development".

Since ascending to the throne, Alexandra has made several visits to Latin America with the most notable instances being her state visits to Cuba and El Salvador, the former a communist country run by the Castro brothers and the latter a country recently emerging from its previous state of lawlessness under the current presidency of Nayib Bukele who the Queen herself personally met. Aside from this, she has also visited the countries of West Indies, Barbados, and Belize, all of which are members of the Commonwealth of Nations. However, lingering tensions and longstanding disputes since the Falklands War meant that the Queen is yet to visit Argentina in an official capacity although she has met several famous Argentinean figures, namely those in the sporting industry such as the late Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, and Diego Simeone. In addition, Pope Francis, the current head of the Catholic Church, is also Argentinean and has previously met the Queen himself with reports largely indicating that the two share a mutually friendly relationship.

Media Polarisation

In recent years, Alexandra has also come to be a notable voice in the issue of media polarisation, an issue which she described in an interview with The Guardian as "close to my heart, given especially my status as a public figure who's bound to receive more media coverage than arguably any other individual". In this, the Queen also cited the months she spent living in the United States, primarily in order to further her studies, as another reason behind writing the thesis, stating, "When I lived in an American city, it was quite obvious that I'm going to be immediately exposed to the American media, especially the news outlets. From the looks of it, the media environment there looked so toxic and felt very negative, especially with one side just relentlessly bashing and scrutinising the current president who they just happen to dislike".

Moreover, her strong passion for the cause against media polarisation has also seen her engage in intermittent but well-publicised feuds with the likes of Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch whose ownership of a large number of media outlets in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in Australia itself, a situation that was described by Alexandra herself as "perhaps the single most undemocratic thing to ever exist in the 21st century aside from the obvious few dictatorships still existing in the world". To that end, during the course of achieving her Doctor of Philosophy degree, Alexandra notably wrote a thesis titled The British & American media compared: A case for a truly fair and nonpartisan media in which she compared and contrasted the different media environments in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively while also criticising the perceived "dangerous levels of media polarisation" in the United States, a situation that she once likened to a "warzone between the liberal-leaning CNN and the conservative-leaning Fox News that is owned by a man who is not even an American citizen". Conversely, she has otherwise expressed praise for what she perceived as the comparably less polarised media environment of the United Kingdom which is mostly dominated by the likes of the BBC and its close rival ITV, both of which traditionally commit themselves to impartiality.

Religious Pluralism

Having been born to a Protestant father and a Roman Catholic mother as well as being the descendant of a Jewish grandmother, Alexandra is also a noted advocate for religious pluralism, be it within religious sects themselves or between religions in general. During a 2018 interview with the BBC, the Queen remarked, "The matter of the fact is, with the increasing tide of religious extremism and fanaticism we're seeing in recent years, especially from certain groups, co-operation, or at the very least, a spirit of peaceful co-existence between all the major religions of the world must be established because, at the end of the day, religions are here to stay, perhaps until the end of time and with that, it is best for everyone that they are not necessarily abused just to stoke conflicts and cause wars wherever they may be".

In July 2018, in response to a BBC report in which a Roman Catholic priest was reportedly attacked by unidentified assailants while a march by the Orange Order was happening nearby, the Queen publicly voiced her criticism of the incident and also called for "vigilant measures to be taken immediately in order to ensure that no such ugly incidents ever happen again", stating, "Be it in England, Scotland, or anywhere else in the United Kingdom, incidents like this must remain wholly unacceptable and rightly shunned by every layer of society". Moreover, given the Roman Catholic plurality in an otherwise traditionally Protestant nation, Alexandra has, on various occasions, stressed the importance of avoiding sectarian conflicts, an issue particularly relevant in the northern portion of Ireland where incidents believed to be motivated by sectarianism have occurred from time to time since the granting of home rule to the island in 1912.

Given that a landmark 1998 amendment to the Act of Settlement 1701 meant that British monarchs are no longer required to be Protestant and could thus legally practice the Roman Catholic faith under the guise of state secularism, when asked in an interview with BBC News about her personal faith as the new monarch, Alexandra described herself as "personally a Protestant" while stating that she holds "the utmost respect for the other established religions that blend in well together and make up the modern multicultural British society of today". In the meantime, the Queen sparked some minor controversy by appearing to criticise laïcité, the form of secularism that has been used for decades in France, stating that she was "somewhat worried" by reports of alleged discrimination, particularly against the country's Muslim minority whose women are legally barred from wearing the hijab, a head covering for Muslim women.

LGBT Rights

Much like her father, Alexandra has also been a vocal supporter of the LGBT community in her own right. Such a sentiment was first seen when she, together with her family members, attended the wedding of her aunt Catherine, Princess Royal to the American actress Jodie Foster in January 2011. Then, during an appearance on BBC News discussing the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom, Alexandra publicly expressed her support for the community, stating, "In the end, there is no absolute or practical justification to be constantly oppressing or discriminating against a particular group of people simply for loving someone from the same gender. If anything, rather than upholding a sense of virtue or righteousness, it is instead simply a rather heavy-handed expression of a certain group of people's unwillingness to change or accept alternative ways of living, even if most of them do not present harm in any significant manner". Moreover, Alexandra has cited her interactions and experiences with other same-sex couples, namely fashion models Amber Valletta and Shalom Harlow, Miranda Kerr and Stella Maxwell, singer Elton John and filmmaker David Furnish, as well as actress Angelina Jolie and model Jenny Shimizu, as the main factor behind her somewhat liberal stance towards the LGBT community, stating, "It is fair to say that, despite my background and upbringing, I have met and talked with my fair share of people considered queer or non-heterosexual and, based on all the interactions so far, I don't really see a reason as to why I should be admonishing or isolating them from society as demanded by some people". As a member of the British royal family, Alexandra was notably present at the wedding of her first cousin once removed Lord Ivar Mountbatten to James Coyle in September 2018 where Ivar, a grandson of King Frederick through his daughter Margaret and a great-nephew of the decorated British naval officer Lord Mountbatten, became only the second member of the royal family to have a same-sex marriage after his cousin Catherine, Princess Royal, who wedded the American actress Jodie Foster in January 2011.

During a 2023 interview with the BBC, it was revealed by Alexandra that at one point, she "had some thoughts about liking women rather than men". However, Alexandra added that she ultimately never explored her newfound feelings to any significant degree but said that she "remains slightly open to a possibility of me being with a woman at some point if fate decides it", adding, "As a grown woman with a sane and conscious mind, I don't really see a reason as to why an opinion shared by some people should dictate who I choose to love or spend my life with. Ultimately, I'm responsible for what happens in my life and the consequences that come with it". Later, in February 2024, Alexandra vocally criticised the policies of the Russian government after reports emerged that Russia was declaring the LGBT movement in the country an "extremist organisation", a decision that has sparked much condemnation from Western countries.