Personal Life of Queen Alexandra
Since coming of age, as both a monarch and an individual herself, Alexandra has led a well-documented and highly-publicised lifestyle, thereby making her a subject of frequent coverage by various media outlets. Although initially born second in line to the throne as her father's eldest legitimate child, on 13 October 2017, Alexandra ascended to the throne while her coronation ceremony took place on 1 August 2019.
Relationships
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 of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the final entry into the series in 2011, Alexandra otherwise came to view the actress in a more positive light, so much so that the 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 herself 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. In this, The Independent described them as "unlikely sisters with a bond seemingly bound by destiny", owing to their very close friendship with each other and them being only around a decade apart in age.
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 would also occasionally assist the royal in her academic studies including her well-known thesis surrounding media polarisation for which the two would hold late-night discussions in order to better 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".
Although born to a commoner mother, by whom she is the granddaughter of a Salvadoran immigrant, through her father, Alexandra is otherwise related to a number of 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, and her fourth cousin Leonor, Princess of Asturias. In addition, Alexandra is also a distant niece of the late 20th-century English socialite and author Violet Trefusis who, after much speculation, was confirmed to have been the love child of 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 who was also an author like her sister. Meanwhile, by her aunt, Alexandra is the cousin of English model Georgia May Jagger, daughter of The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, and also the American model Kate Rodman, daughter of former American professional basketball player Dennis Rodman. Moreover, 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.
Romances
Jack Schlossberg
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Sometime in late 2017, rumours began to emerge that romantically linked Alexandra to the American lawyer and grandson of the late President John F. Kennedy Jack Schlossberg, who was quickly perceived by several media outlets to be the royal's "first true love", owing to the latter's rather secretive lifestyle. Such rumours involving the two were said to have begun emerging following a number of instances in which Alexandra and Schlossberg were seen talking to one another that have mostly been used as hints of a supposed hidden romantic relationship involving the two although neither Alexandra nor Schlossberg took the effort to issue any sort of confirmation of their supposed romantic relationship. However, in a later interview with Cosmopolitan, the very first instance in which she publicly confirmed the couple's relationship, Alexandra revealed that the two first became close friends and later romantic partners during her brief time abroad in the United States where Alexandra, owing to her family's warm ties to the influential Kennedy family, initially sought the advice of Schlossberg in picking her desired university of choice, for which she was first recommended the well-known Yale University where Schlossberg himself is an alumnus. Ultimately, although Alexandra herself opted to ultimately enrol at the Seattle University in Seattle, Washington, the two continued to remain cordial friends somewhat before later beginning a romantic relationship afterward, a decision that was said to be welcomed by both of their families who saw it as a revival of the memorable but ill-fated romance between Schlossberg's uncle John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, both of whom died in a tragic plane crash on 16 July 1999 when Alexandra herself was just three and Schlossberg being only six years old. As it was her first-ever serious romantic relationship, Alexandra has since credited it for helping her to become more "emotionally mature and aware", stating, "Pretty much, Jack taught me a lot about how a relationship should go and what one expects from and is expected of in a relationship. Simply put, after what happened before, I gradually learned not to shy away and instead dare myself to try again because in Jack himself I knew and felt assured that by chance or luck someone out there truly fits me and isn't necessarily out to use me for their own selfish means".
Eventually, by August 2022, it was then believed that the couple had ended their secret romantic relationship, a fact that was later confirmed by Alexandra who revealed that the two had broken up years beforehand in 2019, around the same time that she subsequently began a relationship with footballer Beth Mead, her current romantic partner. At the same time, both Alexandra and Schlossberg subsequently asserted that they will "continue to remain friends for the foreseeable future" regardless of past developments. Meanwhile, Alexandra revealed that the couple's preoccupation with their respective careers, coupled with the massive physical distance between them with Schlossberg, on his part, mostly residing in the United States while Alexandra herself mostly lived in the United Kingdom, ultimately led to the end of their relationship as it was reportedly found "untenable" to continue by both sides who then agreed to mutually terminate the romance in favour of a more casual and non-romantic friendship, with Alexandra herself later stating, "Regardless of what happened between us in the past, Jack is and will always be a good friend of mine that I'm personally much happy to have known in the first place".
Meanwhile, regarding popular assumptions and expectations surrounding her past relationship with Schlossberg, she remarked, "From the outsiders' perspective, it was definitely like a match made in heaven and that judging by who we are, what we do, and the history of our respective families, we should inevitably be together for life in the near future. Unfortunately, fate thought differently and in the end, by chance or circumstances, we weren't necessarily meant for one another which is something that both myself and Jack have come to terms with". Later on, she added, "In hindsight, I wouldn't certainly call it a bad memory or the sort. Instead, I found my time with Jack to be rather happy and somewhat educational for myself because it was then that I truly knew what to expect from my own partner and what he or she expected from me in return". Incidentally, although for only a short while, their parents, namely Alexandra's father King Thomas and Schlossberg's mother Caroline Kennedy were said to have been in a brief and discreet romantic relationship prior to their respective marriages in which religious differences, coupled with Kennedy's desire to avoid the spotlight of being a queen consort, brought an end to their romance although the two have since remained on friendly terms as evidenced by both Kennedy and Schlossberg attending Alexandra's October 2019 coronation.
Beth Mead
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On 31 July 2022, while celebrating England's back-to-back UEFA Women's Championship triumph in a 2-1 win over Germany in the Euro 2022 finals, Alexandra sparked some media interest when shortly after the whistle blew marking the end of the match the royal proceeded to embrace and kiss England forward Beth Mead whose tender moments with the former were promptly photographed and published by a number of leading newspapers which soon led to rumours of the Queen being in a same-sex relationship with the England and Arsenal forward, a theory that initially picked up the pace while sceptics suggested that the two were merely "good friends", citing the Queen's past with both Arsenal and the England women's national team and her own notoriously private stance on her sexuality. Meanwhile, when immediately asked for clarification, most of the couple's close associates largely responded with deliberate indifference, with head coach Sarina Wiegman describing the two as "very close friends just having fun after winning a major tournament".
Eventually, on 7 August 2022, in an interview with BBC Sport, Mead finally confirmed that the two are indeed a romantic couple, adding that the two have actually begun dating sometime after the end of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Final where Alexandra was nearing her planned retirement from professional football. In this, Mead, who first met the royal several years prior while playing together for England at the youth level before eventually joining the latter at Arsenal, was said to have become romantically attracted to Alexandra throughout the years that they spent together as teammates to which the royal's sudden decision to retire from football reportedly concerned Mead over the future of their friendship thereby causing the former to "take it to the next step" by asking her royal teammate out on a fairly innocent "girls' night out" at a restaurant in London. To that end, over the course of a single dinner, the two eventually agreed to start a serious romantic relationship after Alexandra, as per her own admission, was both "charmed" and "stunned" by Mead's "honest outpouring of emotions". Elaborating further, Alexandra herself also revealed that the two shared their first kiss that night and were "almost inseparable" on the way back home.
Despite this, immediate concerns relating to privacy and security encouraged the couple to initially conduct their relationship in a secretive manner out of fear of excessive media coverage. Meanwhile, it was also said that whenever the two are not preoccupied with their respective duties, the two would often go out together incognito with Alexandra herself revealing that whenever possible the couple would either stroll through London with little to no security while also wearing casual clothes or have lunches and dinners at restaurants in London of their choosing. Meanwhile, the couple also spoke of the mutual surprise expressed by both of their parents with those of Mead, despite some reasonable shock at the dynamics, being largely supportive of it while those of Alexandra, namely the former King and Queen, also expressed much support for it, with Alexandra herself stating, "Admittedly, it was a little shocking of course but in the end, we both loved each other so much that for as long as I'm happy then my parents should be too". Beforehand, the former King Thomas himself had also publicly defended his younger sister's decision to marry American actress Jodie Foster, stating, "If my little sister is happy then so am I too for whatever she does. Besides, I myself personally know all too well about unconventional marriages that some people with rather archaic views would not have approved of and that includes the one between my own dear parents back then where they used to say that my mother, a simple New Yorker and the daughter of an immigrant couple, is not seemingly allowed to marry my father, the future king of a country".
Almost unanimously so, the couple's relationship was met with a mostly positive reception by many with American soccer player Megan Rapinoe, who is herself engaged to former American professional basketball player Sue Bird, publicly congratulating the couple on social media. Moreover, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, in a sign of acceptance by the Church of England, also expressed a positive response to the couple's announcement, stating that he "wishes Her Majesty the Queen and Miss Mead all the best in their happy relationship together". Since then, the couple has been popularly referred to by the portmanteau of "Bethalex", a combination of their respective given names, while some have also described them as "the royalty of Arsenal", a term that also came to include Alexandra's younger brother Richard and partner Leah Williamson, both of whom also play for the club. Collectively, the quartet are popularly dubbed "The Four Gooners" and are well-known for their mutual closeness with each other.
Interests
Anti-Semitism
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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, including the Royalgate conspiracy which claimed that the Queen had used her vast personal wealth to supposedly influence the results of the 2020 United States presidential election which was won by Democrat Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris while Republican Donald Trump and running mate Mike Pence otherwise suffered defeat.
Beginning in 2017, Alexandra has come to be a strong critic of the United States's then-president and real estate mogul Donald Trump who she once attributed to "the rise of anti-Semitism in a country known for both its diversity, as well as for its liberty". For instance, in an August 2017 op-ed article published by The New York Times just a few days following the infamous white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which took place from 11 to 12 August 2017, Alexandra herself personally denounced the rally, which she called a "blatant and unmistakable evidence of the increasingly problematic rise of both white supremacism and anti-Semitism in the United States". In addition, Alexandra has also personally criticised Trump for his perceived links to either white supremacist or far-right politicians and organisations, including his then-senior advisor Stephen Miller, who was later revealed to have promoted articles from white nationalist publications, as well as the far-right political movement QAnon who would later become infamously involved in the attack on the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021.
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 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 neutral in British politics, Alexandra has otherwise mostly avoided openly criticising either Corbyn or other politicians. 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
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, "Obviously, 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.
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 both 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 mankind and it is best for everyone that they are not necessarily abused just to stoke conflicts and cause wars wherever they may be".
For instance, in July 2018, in response to a BBC article 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, in an apparent subtle endorsement of calls to have such marches, dubbed "orange walks", be rerouted, 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 fully remain unacceptable and shunned by every layer of society". Similarly, in recent years, the Queen was also known to have been somewhat critical of the Dutch-born politician Geert Wilders who she once indirectly accused of "stoking unnecessary division and hate amongst a pluralistic and tolerant society" during a speech on religious tolerance and multiculturalism.
LGBT Rights
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While initially somewhat muted and more reserved in her advocacy for the LGBT community, amidst her aunt's marriage to American actress Jodie Foster in 2011, Alexandra, especially since her ascension to the throne, has been a notable and well-known campaigner and advocate for the community, with the earliest instance being even actually prior to her ascension to the throne, when sometime in 2012, a then-sixteen-year-old Alexandra publicly spouted points defending the LGBT community in a friendly debate with American politician Mitt Romney who at one moment during the debate was famously told by the princess, "Isn't it baffling Mr. Romney that at any given time these days, the simple matter of consensual albeit unconventional love between two individuals could ever be more important and headline-grabbing than complex geopolitical issues? I personally hope not". Later, in 2017, when asked about her personal opinion towards her aunt's lesbian marriage to actress Jodie Foster, Alexandra famously replied, "Frankly speaking, I don't really mind it. For me, I see it as nothing else other than giving me one extra aunt who happens to be both very beautiful and smart!".
Especially so, ever since her romantic relationship with English footballer Beth Mead became publicly known, Alexandra herself gradually became a more outspoken advocate for LGBT rights and the community as a whole, a cause she described in a 2019 interview with CNN as "personally close to my heart, and it's not just because of who I happen to be, as well as the fact that at least one of my own aunt is a lesbian herself". She then added, "Personally, I feel that with all this wealth and influence I carry simply by being who I am right now, it would be absolutely worse for me to just sit it out and let all this injustice happen as opposed to being called some derogatory term by some angry men on television". Moreover, her most recent decision to personally abstain from attending the controversial 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar, albeit supposedly due to "work constraints", was also seen by some as the Queen subtly rebuking the Qatari government for its hardline stance against the LGBT community, as well as its controversial record relating to human rights, particularly those affecting migrant workers in the tiny Middle Eastern country.