Personal Life (Thomas): Romances

Relationships

Lynda Carter

The American actress Lynda Carter as the superhero character Wonder Woman

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

However, despite positive signs, the couple's relationship was briefly put to the test when, after initially seeking his father's permission to marry Carter in light of their growing affair, Thomas was unexpectedly denied from doing so with the main reason being that, as a divorcee whose former husband is still alive, Carter was deemed unfit by the Church of England and the conservative parts of British society to be a proper queen consort. In this, even after attempting to explain that Carter was escaping from an unhappy marriage and that their two children together would be treated as legitimised upon marriage so as to avoid any major scandal, Thomas was once again denied permission to marry his romantic interest. Nonetheless, despite the apparent impossibility of marriage, the two chose to remain together throughout the 1980s for the common sake of their children. Eventually, despite the two enjoying a mutually happy relationship, the couple later parted ways on mutual terms just a few years prior to Thomas's subsequent marriage, thereby ending their almost fifteen-year-long relationship. Despite this, the two continued to maintain warm relations even after their separation as they later reunited in the early 2000s when the career of their son William as a professional footballer for the English football club Manchester United led Carter to the United Kingdom. In the meantime, since their separation, both Thomas and Carter went on to marry their respective spouses with the former marrying the American supermodel Christy Turlington while the latter married the American lawyer and video game executive Robert A. Altman, with whom she subsequently had two more children, namely a son James in January 1994 and a daughter Jessica in October 1996.

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

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 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 and also a symbol of strength, a reference to her father's miraculous recovery from a near-fatal assassination attempt.

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.

Christy Turlington

Sometime in December 1992, while accompanying his sister to the Met Gala in New York, United States, Thomas was first introduced to the American supermodel Christy Turlington by his own sister Catherine who, as a fashion model herself, had come to know and subsequently befriend the American supermodel. Following this, Thomas, at the time a highly successful actor in his own right, proved quick to establish an initially cordial and unassuming friendship with the American supermodel who was then in the final year of her relationship with her then-boyfriend, the American actor Roger Wilson. In any case, a promising first encounter, in which Christy herself later recounted being "absolutely awestruck" by her future husband's "charm" and "politeness", soon gave way to an eventual romance with Christy herself subsequently ending her relationship with her then-partner Roger Wilson by the following year. However, fearing the immediate media attention, the couple agreed to keep their relationship a close-knit secret that was only known to a select few including their closest friends and family members. Eventually, after a couple of years had passed, Thomas made the decision to disclose his relationship with the American supermodel for the first time. To that end, during a New Year's eve speech marking the arrival of the year 1994, in his statement, Thomas declared that he had "finally found the one and only woman after so long" whose identity was promptly revealed to be none other than Christy Turlington herself.

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 infamous 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 was reportedly on board with for the purpose of marrying her beloved partner. Meanwhile, Thomas's own father King Charles III also personally came out in support of the union, stating that "it is wrong for me to say that having a Roman Catholic-turned-Anglican convert as my very own daughter-in-law would be something entirely strange or a new concept for myself for my own beloved wife is a Jew, an identity that no one shall absolutely be able to take away by any possible means". In the end, such a religious conversion proved unnecessary when, after much lobbying by Thomas, who was also joined by the mostly Roman Catholic Irish politicians, the prime ministers of the remaining Commonwealth realms unilaterally agreed to amend the succession laws for the first time in almost two centuries. To that end, 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, meaning that Christy was no longer required to convert to Anglicanism upon marriage although Thomas, as the head of the Church of England, is still required to be of the Anglican faith, a condition that Thomas himself had little qualms about. Nonetheless, the likely possibility of a Roman Catholic queen consort for the first time in centuries was met with considerable attention in Ireland with Taoiseach Albert Reynolds particularly heralding the "end of an ancient, discriminatory rule that deserves no place in a modern and tolerant world".

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 European royals including the crown princes of Norway, Denmark, Hungary, and Spain, the kings of Sweden, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, the grand duke of Luxembourg, and the reigning princes of Monaco and Liechtenstein. Dubbed by the New York Times as "the wedding of the century" and broadcasted live by various TV networks including the BBC, ITV, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and FOX, the ceremony saw the attendance of various figures from both politics as well as the entertainment and fashion industries. In addition to this, several of the prince's former servicemen from the Royal Navy were also in attendance and even later took part in the saber arch wedding tradition afterward where the newlyweds walk under an arch made up of sabers held up in unison. Meanwhile, for the occasion itself, Thomas opted to don a standard Royal Navy ceremonial uniform, a tribute to his military background`, which he paired with a peaked cap and a gilded sabre tightly held at waist-level. On the other hand, having drawn much inspiration from the iconic wedding dress of the American actress Grace Kelly, a fellow Roman Catholic, 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. Meanwhile, for entertainment purposes, the couple was serenaded by the American singer Whitney Houston who sang her 1992 hit single "I Will Always Love You". Later on, Thomas revealed that as a huge fan of the late English singer George Michael, he initially thought of having the latter sing his iconic 1984 single "Careless Whisper" wedding but ultimately decided against it after coming across Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", a song that he later said to have immediately loved and thus wanted it to be the centerpiece of his wedding. Meanwhile, aside from Houston, other artists also took part including the Canadian singer Bryan Adams who sang his 1991 single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", the British singer Seal who sang his 1994 hit single "Kiss from a Rose", the English rock band The Police who sang their 1983 single "Every Breath You Take", and the American singer Lionel Richie who, together with fellow singer Diana Ross, sang their 1981 hit duet "Endless Love". Moreover, after being initially considered as the wedding's main musical act, George Michael, who previously enlisted Christy Turlington and her supermodel friends in the music video for "Freedom! '90", also sang Thomas's favourite song "Careless Whisper" and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", with the latter song seeing him briefly reunite with his former Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley.

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 his 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. Then, in the year afterward, the couple welcomed their last few children, namely a pair of fraternal twins Elle and Vivian who were named 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 French President 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 until much later on prior to the abdication of Queen Margrethe II in January 2024.