Personal Life (Thomas): Romances

Relationships

Jaclyn Smith

Jaclyn Smith, (left) photographed with costars Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson for the popular crime drama show Charlie's Angels

Around 1977, Thomas, who had then been residing in the United States for a while, first came into contact with the American actress who, in that year, had been steadily rising in prominence thanks to her role in the popular crime drama show Charlie's Angels in which she had a major role alongside fellow actresses Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Soon enough, Thomas, having been a somewhat regular watcher of the show, decided to personally meet Smith himself, an endeavour in which he proved successful when the prince was personally invited by one of the show's executive producers Aaron Spelling who subsequently arranged a meeting between the prince and the actress while the latter was shooting for an episode of the show's second season.

In any case, despite the relative age gap of twelve years, the arranged meeting proved to be an instant success, with Smith, a divorcee from her first husband and actor Roger Davis, later describing Thomas as "very easy-going" and "impeccably charming" in their first encounter while Thomas himself later admitted to "immediately falling over heels" for the American actress. Soon afterward, the two began a longstanding and passionate affair that lasted throughout much of the following decade although this relationship, upon the behest of Thomas himself, was kept largely secret from the media and the public and its knowledge restricted to only a select few which included Smith's co-stars Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, both of whom agreed to remain silent on the affair out of respect for the couple's privacy. On the other hand, the couple's relationship also allowed Thomas to appear on the show himself at the invitation of the show's producers who, reportedly with the couple's own agreement and supervision, gave the prince the role of Patrick Williams, a retired US Navy officer and briefly a romantic interest of Smith's character Kelly Garrett. At the same time, in order not to deliberately reveal his true identity, Thomas was otherwise cast in the show under his alias of "Charles T. Lawrence" Then, roughly two years into their relationship, the couple would welcome their first child together, which is also Smith's firstborn child, that being a son William, a circumstance which led to the show temporarily halting its production for a few months or so in order to give much-needed time for Smith to raise her firstborn son with the help of Thomas himself who, despite the accompanying risks and potential scandal should his affair with the actress ever be discovered and made public, opted to remain close with his romantic partner. Later, in a 2005 interview with Larry King, the prince said, "Frankly, when Will was born, we initially had little idea in going forward with our relationship, and were kind of a little freaked out at the beginning, but then, we just soldiered up and decided that with what we have now, we are just going to do the best we could". A few years later, on 22 June 1983, the couple welcomed a daughter Jacqueline.

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 nineteen-year-long relationship. Despite this, out of personal generosity, Thomas continued to provide some unofficial form of "spousal aid" in the years that followed which lasted well until both William and Jacqueline, their two children together, later reunited with their father. Meanwhile, following the end of the couple's relationship, while Thomas went on to marry the American supermodel Christy Turlington, Smith instead married the cardiothoracic surgeon Brad Allen, her first husband since Roger Davis and her first romantic partner since the end of the affair with her long-term romantic partner.

During an interview in 2015 held on Thomas's 60th birthday, in recollecting their past life together, Smith 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". In this, Smith further revealed that up until their reunion, Thomas would often call his two children monthly and also on special holidays as well as their respective birthdays, stating, "During those years, we all pretty much missed his voice and presence of course. Out of us three, Jacqueline was definitely the most excited one each time to hear her dearest daddy's voice". Likewise, William Smith himself has also heaped praise on his father's character, describing the latter as "very gentlemanly" and "the best loving father anyone could ever ask for". Meanwhile, 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 Michelle in 2018 and a son John in 2019, while their daughter Jacqueline later gave birth to a son Thomas in 2017 and a daughter Elizabeth in 2019, thereby making it a total of six grandchildren.

Caroline Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy, the only daughter and the eldest of two children of President and Massachusetts Governor John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy

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 Massachusetts Governor John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy. In this, the two were said to have initially known each other as friends when sometime in February 1964, Thomas accompanied his father in visiting a recovering President John F. Kennedy at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in the state of Maryland where Caroline's father was in the midst of recovering from a near-fatal assassination attempt back in November 1963 during a trip through Dallas, Texas. During this occasion, Thomas's personal charm, coupled with an already strong friendship struck by their fathers, saw him immediately strike a good rapport. Following this, during the ensuing Christmas celebrations that year, Thomas even personally sent a gift to the presidential family himself, with the aforementioned gift revealed by Kennedy herself decades later to be a miniature lion statue, a reference to England's national animal.

Eventually, around the mid-1970s, at which point the two have matured somewhat, an already blossoming friendship soon saw the two decide to begin a discreet romantic relationship that was reportedly met with much immediate positivity from both of their families who largely encouraged and even tolerated the two's budding romance. 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 formally ending their relationship after just a couple of years. However, having parted ways on somewhat mutual terms, Thomas and Kennedy continued to remain close friends over the following decades with Thomas himself later attending the state funerals of the latter's parents whereas Kennedy reciprocated by attending Thomas's March 1997 coronation and the state funeral of his father in March 2011. In the meantime, before later marrying her husband, Kennedy also briefly dated the British travel writer Mark Shand, Thomas's second cousin once removed by virtue of being the grandson of the British socialite Sonia Cubitt, one of King William V's illegitimate children by his famous mistress Alice Keppel. Moreover, in an interesting connection between Kennedy and Thomas's other romantic interest, the actress Jaclyn Smith, her mother Jacqueline Kennedy, the First Lady of the United States from 1960 to 1968 during the presidency of her husband John F. Kennedy, was portrayed by Smith in the 1981 biographical drama film Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy while her father was portrayed by the actor James Franciscus whose co-star Rod Taylor portrayed John Vernou Bouvier III, Kennedy's maternal grandfather. Later, in May 2022, Thomas's daughter Alexandra and Kennedy's son Jack Schlossberg married in a lavish ceremony at the Westminster Abbey, thereby effectively uniting the two prominent families for the first time. In this, the couple currently have one child, a son named Christian.

Christy Turlington

Sometime around January 1994, while accompanying his sister, the Princess Royal, to an exclusive gala in Paris, France, Thomas was first introduced to the American supermodel Christy Turlington by none other than his own younger sister who was rather familiar with Christy and other well-known fashion models of the time. To that end, Thomas, by then a highly successful actor in his own right, proved quick to establish an initially cordial and unassuming friendship with the American supermodel who had previously ended a relationship with American actor Roger Wilson the year before. In this, despite soon appearing to be well-suited for each other, the two initially chose to remain as friends only whereas Thomas, as per a later revelation, said that the fateful meeting "left me with little to no doubt that Christy will be my long-awaited wife". Eventually, under much secrecy, the couple reportedly spent the ensuing Valentine's Day together in Hawaii during which they officially agreed to commit to a serious romantic relationship. However, fears of an immediate conservative backlash owing to Christy's line of work and her Roman Catholic faith, a major obstacle for any marital prospects, saw them conduct the affair under much secrecy with the expectation that the romance would eventually be made public after a few years or so. Eventually, later that December, while giving a brief speech on his 41st birthday, Thomas opted to disclose his relationship with the American supermodel for the first time, stating, "For quite a while, a number of factors and complications have prevented me from finding the one true love that my heart desires. Now, after about a year or so, I'm happy to say that I have found the lovely lady that I desired for so long".

The American supermodel Christy Turlington at the Christian Lacroix Spring Summer 1994

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 interview with the BBC, Thomas publicly accused his critics of "social bigotry", 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 king. 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 Christy herself seemed content on abiding. Meanwhile, Thomas's own father King Charles III also personally came out in support of the union, claiming that "it is wrong for me to say that having a 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 Jew, an identity that no one shall absolutely be able to take away by any possible means". In the end, such a conversion proved unnecessary when, after much lobbying, the prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms, countries that still recognise the British monarch as its head of state, unilaterally agreed to amend the succession laws where, in the United Kingdom, the passage of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995 resulted in, among others, the lifting of restrictions on marriages to Roman Catholics which meant 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 also applies to his future successors.

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 (and officiated) by 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, American politician and Secretary of the Treasury Jane Rockefeller, and several European royals including the crown princes of Norway, Denmark, and Spain, the kings of Sweden, Hungary, Romania and Greece, and the reigning princes of Monaco and Liechtenstein. Described by the New York Times as "the wedding of the century", the ceremony featured an appropriately star-studded lineup of groomsmen and bridesmaids that consisted of the likes of the groom's own brother Prince Nelson, US Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, attorney John F. Kennedy Jr., actors Hugh Grant, George Clooney, and Pierce Brosnan, singers Frank Sinatra Jr., Nancy Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand, along with fellow well-known supermodels including Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, and Elle Macpherson. 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, regarding their respective outfits, Thomas opted to don a Royal Navy ceremonial uniform, hence acknowledging his military background, which he paired with a peaked cap and a gilded sabre tightly held at waist-level. In the meantime, drawing much inspiration from the iconic wedding dress of the American actress Grace Kelly, Christy donned an elaborate ivory silk bodice designed by an up-and-coming British fashion designer Alexander McQueen with the estimated £430,000 cost that accompanied it reportedly paid by Thomas himself.

For entertainment purposes, at Thomas's request, the couple was serenaded by the well-known American singer Whitney Houston who sang her 1992 hit single "I Will Always Love You". Regarding this, Thomas later joked that as a huge fan of the late George Michael, he initially thought of having the latter's iconic 1984 single "Careless Whisper" sang at his eventual wedding but ultimately decided against it after reconsidering its appropriateness and having also come across Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", a song that he felt would be better suited for an intimate wedding ceremony. Consequently, Houston became the first black artist to perform at a royal wedding, an honour that only further increased her already burgeoning popularity as a widely-acclaimed singer and also helped establish a long-lasting friendship, in spite of their differences, that lasted well until Houston's death in February 2012. As one of the several high-profile figures invited to the late singer's funeral, Thomas remarked, "At only forty-eight, an irreplaceable singer with a truly enchanting voice has left us all for good. Now, while others may perhaps thank and remember her for their own respective reasons, I would like to personally thank Miss Houston for one final time for having made the day with my beloved wife a moment that I will remember for a lifetime". Nonetheless, aside from Houston, other artists also took part including the Canadian singer Bryan Adams, who sang "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", English rock band The Police, which sang "Every Breath You Take", and the American singer Lionel Richie who, together with fellow singer Diana Ross, sang their 1981 hit duet "Endless Love".

Actresses Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair as their respective characters Elle Woods and Vivian Kensington from the 2001 film Legally Blonde, after whom Thomas's twin daughters were named

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 the latter's granddaughter. Eventually, following Christy's graduation from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study in New York in 1999, the two would finally begin to live together, initially starting as a family of three. Then, in the following year, Christy gave birth to their only son Richard, followed by another daughter Nicole in 2003. The year afterward, the couple further welcomed a pair of fraternal twins Elle and Vivian named respectively after the two female characters from the 2001 film Legally Blonde, namely Elle Woods and Vivian Kensington, portrayed by American actresses Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair respectively.

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 President of France Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, the Italian singer and model Carla Bruni who was herself a friend of Christy in the modeling industry. In addition, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2017 also saw the royal couple compared to the American presidential couple which consisted of the real estate mogul and his wife Melania Trump, a former model hailing from the Central European nation of Slovenia. Meanwhile, in 2018, Sultan Muhammad V, the then-King of Malaysia, also attracted headlines himself when reports emerged of his marriage to the Russian beauty queen Oksana Voevodina who subsequently converted to Islam and took the new name of Rihana Petra, thereby becoming the first non-native Queen of Malaysia. However, in a much closer example, in 1998, Denmark's King Frederick X, at the time a crown prince, wedded the Danish supermodel Helena Christensen although the two did not ascend to the throne as King and Queen much later on until the abdication of Queen Margrethe II in January 2024.