Catherine, Princess Royal

Catherine, Princess Royal
Catherine, Princess Royal
Born	Catherine Charlotte Natalie Lauren Charles; January 28, 1969 (age 55); London, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Model; Actress; Businesswoman; Activist;
Years active	1995 - 2007
Spouse(s)	Jodie Foster (m. 2011)
Partner(s)	Madonna (1989 - 2008); Dennis Rodman (1993 - 1994)
Children	Charles Rodman
Parent(s)	Charles III (father); Lauren Bacall (mother)
	Modeling information
Height	170 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Hair color	Blonde
Eye color	Blue
Agency	IMG Models

Catherine, Princess Royal (Catherine Charlotte Natalie Lauren Charles; born 28 January 1969), known professionally as Kate Joan, is a British supermodel, actress, filmmaker, entrepreneur, 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 Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, the latter to whom she was often compared, with the media famously dubbing them "The Kates of England" owing to their similar first names and height.

In 2005, upon retiring from professional modelling, Catherine embarked on a new career path as an actress, beginning with her breakout role as Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. In the following year, she starred opposite Jamie Foxx and Matt Damon respectively in The Kingdom and The Bourne Ultimatum, the latter being a considerable commercial success while also establishing her as a rising female action star. To that end, following a brief role as Agent 99 in the 2008 spy comedy, Get Smart, in that same year, Catherine founded her own production company, Atlantic Hub, under which she later went on to personally produce and direct the widely-successful Kate Joan spy trilogy, which won her four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and three BAFTA Film Awards, while also consistently placing in the top ten list of highest-grossing films each time, with the third entry, Kate Joan: Cold Resolution notably becoming the highest-grossing film of 2014. In that, whilst primarily known for her work with the Kate Joan franchise, Catherine has also starred in a number of other films including The Dark Knight Rises, Ocean's 8, Ghostbusters, Enola Holmes, and Money Monster, directed by fellow actress and wife, Jodie Foster.

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, 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. Meanwhile, Catherine is also the mother of the American soccer player, Charles Rodman, whom she had by the former American basketball player, Dennis Rodman.

Early Life

Education

Modeling Career

Acting Career

Activism

Entrepreneurship

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", a title that she once described as "fancy to have, but not so pleasant to be known by, especially in public".

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.

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 instance being with former American basketball player, Dennis Rodman, by whom she later gave birth to a son, Charles 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, and which she then jokingly described as "wild lesbian fantasies". Separately, for a brief and mostly insignificant period of time, Catherine was also said to have momentarily dated the English rock singer, Mick Jagger, whom she later claimed to have liked marrying in an alternate reality.

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 would nonetheless begin to gradually 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

Around 1994, 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 that, given the shared wild nature of all three of them, gained much notoriety and fame, with both Catherine and Madonna often being nicknamed "Rodman's Little Ladies", given their shared romantic interest in the former American professional basketball player and their otherwise extremely short stature compared to Rodman, whom stood at roughly 2.01 metres tall to Catherine and Madonna's 1.6 metre stature.

In any case, the relationship, which initially began as a "semi-serious" affair, eventually reached a new high when after challenging both herself and partner, Madonna to an unconventional contest in which both women would attempt to have themselves impregnated by Dennis Rodman, then a mutual romantic partner of theirs, Catherine, in contrast to her otherwise unsuccessful female partner, later gave birth to a son, Charles. Consequently, the sudden and unexpected birth of her firstborn child prompted Catherine to temporarily halt her growing modeling career and instead move in together with Rodman so as to raise their only child together. However, amidst subsequent proposals that the two later officially marry, with Catherine herself, as a relatively unknown model concealing her true identity expected to use her would-be husband's name recognition to further her own career, after a year or so, the princess ultimately broke off the relationship, with Catherine herself assuming sole custody of her daughter before later transferring it to a close friend of hers, under whom the young Charles grew up throughout the subsequent years.

During an interview in 2019, in recollecting her past romance with the former basketball player, Catherine described Rodman as "a very wild and colourful guy, almost some sort of like my male equal", but stated that she felt that the latter was "more suitable as someone for you to have to just fool around with and have limitless fun with, not necessarily someone with who you can build a long-lasting family".

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 was 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