Julian Hernandez (Taxi driver)
Julian Hernandez | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 11, 1954 |
| Known for | The long-term romantic partner of Catherine, Princess Royal |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Partner(s) | Catherine, Princess Royal (1988 - Present) |
| Children | |
| Parents |
|
Julian Hernandez (born 11 August 1954) is a retired American taxi driver, whom is best known for being the long-term romantic partner of Catherine, Princess Royal alongside the American singer, Madonna. Since their relationship began in 1988, he has fathered four children in total with the British royal, namely Julian Jr., Michael, James, and Anthony.
Amidst popular rumours surrounding their relationship, the two were never married, while his four children by the Princess Royal were never listed in the British line of succession, due to them being of the Catholic denomination, coupled with their illegitimate status.
Early Life
Hernandez was born on 11 August 1954 in Miami, Florida to a pair of Spanish immigrants, Adrian Hernandez (1925 - 2011) and Carla Romallo (born 1926). Born to a middle class family in Florida, Hernandez grew up in a relatively stable family, thereby allowing him to go to a primary school, and later, a secondary school, both of which were located in his home state.
Upon finishing secondary school, he subsequently furthered his studies at the Florida State University, from where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English.
Career
At the age of twenty two, Hernandez first worked as a school teacher at a primary school in Destin, a city situated in the northwestern part of Florida. He would continue to work there for approximately four years in total, before later earning a transfer to a secondary school in Jamestown, New York. In line with his transfer up north, he also began settling permanently in the state, having managed to find a home for himself in the city itself. Much like the previous one in Florida, his stint as a teacher in New York proved to be an overwhelmingly positive experience. However, just two years later, he, along with a number of teachers at the school were unexpectedly laid off, supposedly as a result of the 1981 - 1982 recession. In response, he soon attempted to have himself hired at some nearby schools, but to no avail.
Ultimately, after a month long term of unemployment, he eventually found work as a taxi driver for Taxi USA, one of the many taxi companies operating in the country at the time. Nevertheless, in contrast to his two previous stints as a teacher, his career as a taxi driver would prove to last much longer by comparison, one which lasted well until Hernandez himself eventually reached the age of fifty nine, from which point he made the decision to live in retirement.
Marriage
On January 1981, he met and subsequently married Ana Sofia Cavarron, a relatively successful bakery shop owner in Jameston, New York. Initially, the couple lived together in Jameston, before subsequently moving up north to the capital city of Albany, which became the couple's permanent residence up until their divorce in 1988. Nonetheless, sometime after moving to Albany, the couple later welcomed two children together, Emilio and Anna Hernandez, before going on to adopt a son, Julian Jr. (initially named David Michaels as an alias) in the final year of their marriage.
Eventually, around November 1988, Hernandez's wife, whom upon learning of her husband's infidelity, eventually filed for a divorce from her husband. This had been done in response to the findings of a DNA test which confirmed that the couple's adopted child, Julian Jr., was actually the love child of an affair between Hernandez himself and Catherine, Princess Royal, a member of the British royal family, as opposed to Hernandez's claim that the child actually belonged to that of a colleague of his, whom as a result of continous economic hardships, had supposedly asked him to temporarily take care of the aforementioned child. Soon enough, a divorce was legally granted by a New York court, which saw Cavarron, Hernandez's wife, assuming full custody of their two children together. At the same time, in exchange for her not choosing to leak the affair to the media, Hernandez's wife was also granted a monthly sum of approximately $1,500, so as to also better alleviate their newfound living circumstances.
Following his divorce from his wife, Hernandez has since remained largely unmarried to this day, although a number of rumours later claimed that he had actually been married to his long-term romantic partner, Catherine, Princess Royal, while the two were cohabiting together in the years following his divorce. The two have since largely denied this rumour, but have since remained on good terms with one another despite Catherine's marriage to her husband in 1999, which ended their almost decade long period of cohabitating together.
Romance with the Princess Royal
In 1988, while working as a longtime taxi driver in New York, a thirty four year old Hernandez first came into contact with the much younger twenty one year old Princess Royal, whom at the time when the couple's relationship later began, was in the midst of pursuing her studies abroad in the United States, namely at the University at Albany in the capital city of Albany, New York. Reportedly, after having just driven the princess back home to her residence, Hernandez's vehicle soon unexpectedly malfunctioned, which in turn led the Princess Royal to offer to temporarily accommodate the unfortunate Hernandez, whom for the span of the next three days or so, largely lived alongside the British royal at her New York residence, while awaiting the completion of repairs for his own vehicle. Soon enough, once Hernandez himself was able to continue his work as a taxi driver, the two soon parted ways, although, as evidenced by later developments, they nevertheless remained in almost persistent contact with one another, as per a later statement from Catherine herself, whom in one interview, spoke of the couple having a "number of meetings afterwards", with the word meeting being interpreted as a codeword for the term booty call instead. However, it was said that in the majority of those "meetings", the couple otherwise took many steps to preserve the secrecy of their activities together, so as to not jeopardize Hernandez's own marriage. In the midst of this, the Princess Royal subsequently gave birth to a son, Julian Jr., whom was initially said to have been the child of one of Hernandez's colleagues, so as to disguise the true nature of the child itself, but to no avail.
Soon enough, the couple's newly brewing affair gradually led to an eventual divorce between Hernandez and his wife, whom as part of the divorce settlement agreed upon between the two, assumed full custody of their two children together, Emilio and Anna. Nonetheless, not long after the divorce was finalised, Hernandez himself soon moved in together with the princess and their shared child together at the latter's New York residence. Then, just two years later, the couple welcomed another child together, Michael, thereby making them a complete family of four. However, as per a revelation by Catherine herself in a later interview, the initial family of four would soon grow into a family of six, when the princess, whom after having initially decided against further giving birth after their second child together, otherwise chose to give birth to two more children, James (born 1993) and Anthony (born 1995) in the following years, thus supposedly marking her "superior status" over Hernandez's ex-wife, by seemingly having twice the amount of children the two initially had prior to their divorce. This arrangement would last well throughout the rest of the 1990s, after which Catherine herself departed for the United Kingdom, following her marriage to her current husband, Alex Atkinson. Nonetheless, despite the princess's absence, the now family of five continued to live in a relatively stable state, achieved in part by the Princess Royal herself donating a monthly sum of $5000, while on his part, Hernandez continued to work as a taxi driver before eventually retiring from his occupation in 2013, at the age of fifty-nine. Around that same time, Catherine herself secretly provided an undisclosed amount of financial donation in favour of their son, Julian Jr.'s election campaign, which saw the latter being elected as one of the 150 members of the New York State Assembly under the Democratic Party.
Despite the couple being on largely positive terms with one another, even after the princess's departure, their relationship remained a close secret until Catherine herself later disclosed it in an interview with the British fashion magazine, Tatler. Sometime later, in a joint interview alongside the Princess Royal herself, Hernandez described the couple as having "lived like a true husband and wife, although we were never legally a husband and wife ourselves", while singer, Madonna, whom is also a long-term romantic partner of the Princess Royal claimed that "she (Catherine) loved him (Julian) more than her own husband".