Olivia Wilde Used To Be Married To An Italian Prince, And 14 Other Celebs Who've Been Royal By Birth Or Marriage
From Cinderella to What a Girl Wants, plenty of us grew up with stories about joining or discovering you're part of a royal family. For the rare few, those stories are reality.
Here are 15 celebs who were born or married into nobility:
1.In 1984, Jamie Lee Curtis married writer/actor/director Christopher Guest, who inherited a barony when his father died in 1996. His title is Lord Haden-Guest.
Jamie doesn't use the title Lady Haden-Guest.
In 2016, she told Architectural Digest, "It has nothing to do with me."
2.Thandiwe Newton is a Zimbabwean princess through her mother, Nyasha Jombe.
Following Shona custom, her daughters are also princesses.
3.From 2003-2011, Olivia Wilde was married to Tao Ruspoli, an Italian prince. They eloped on the school bus he lived in at the time.
In 2008, she told Women's Health, "Everyone expects him to pick me up in a limo or a yacht," she says. "Then Tao rolls up in this old Thunderbird, wearing flip-flops, his hair all crazy. People are like, 'He's a prince?'"
4.Rose Leslie's dad, Sebastian Arbuthnot-Leslie, is the Aberdeenshire Chieftain of Clan Leslie in Scotland.
5.Kit Harington is the son of Sir David Harington, 15th Baronet.
The title will be inherited by Kit's older brother, John.
6.In 2017, Jessica Chastain married Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, who's a count.
7.Baywatch and My So-Called Life actor A.J. Langer was married to Charles Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon, from 2004-2023. His title is Lord Courtenay.
They met in Las Vegas in 2002. She was in town for a bachelorette party, and he was there with his London Scottish rugby team.
In 2017, she told People, "We caught eyes and smiled. The kilt was a novelty. The smile was all I needed."
8.From 1949-1953, Golden Age of Hollywood star Rita Hayworth was married to Prince Aly Khan, the son of Aga Khan III.
He was determined to meet her after watching Gilda. So, gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell arranged for them to meet at one of her famous parties. At the time, both Aly and Rita were married to other people (though Rita's husband Orson Welles was living with another woman, and Aly had just ended an affair), and she was also being pursued by the Shah of Iran and business magnate Aristotle Onassis.
Aly continued to have affairs throughout their marriage. In 1950, Rita returned to the US to begin divorce proceedings.
9.Cara Delevingne is descended from nobility on both sides. Her paternal great-grandfather was Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood, and her maternal grandmother was Janie Sheffield — whose grandfathers were baronets — and who acted as Princess Margaret's lady-in-waiting for three decades.
In 2015, she told Vogue, "I grew up in the upper class, for sure. My family was kind of about that whole parties–and–horse racing thing. I can understand it’s fun for some. I never enjoyed it."
10.Actor Sophie Winkleman married Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, in 2009. Her title is Lady Frederick Windsor.
In 2024, she told Tatler, "I didn’t know anyone at my wedding. I had my best pals there, but basically, it was full of faces I’d never seen before. My mother-in-law, Princess Michael of Kent, took full personal charge of it all and did it brilliantly, including what dress I was wearing. I was so determined not to be a bridezilla, I didn’t even work out my hairstyle, and I cannot tell you how disgusting it looked. Coming up the aisle, the first thing I said when I saw Freddie was, 'I’m so sorry about the hair.' He said, 'Yes, what on earth have you done?' That’s pretty much all I can remember about it. My hair and being such a moron. But it was such a beautiful place."
11.Mulholland Drive actor Laura Harring was married to Carl von Bismarck, aka Carl-Eduard, Prince of Bismarck, from 1987-1989.
They met through his cousin Claudia, who was Laura's roommate in NYC.
Their relationship reportedly ended because Carl asked Laura to give up her acting career, and she refused.
12.The Color Purple actor Akosua Busia is a princess and member of Ghana's Royal House of Wenchi through her father, Kofi Abrefa Busia.
Her dad was also the Prime Minister of Ghana from 1969-1972.
13.In 1956, Old Hollywood icon Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco. Their televised wedding reached more than 30 million viewers.
They met at the Cannes Film Festival.
14.Dynasty actor Catherine Oxenberg is the daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Oxenberg and the granddaughter of Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark.
Princes Olga was Prince Philip's first cousin, making Catherine a relative of Queen Elizabeth II.
15.And finally, in 2018, Meghan Markle married Prince Harry. Their official titles are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
They secretly had a private wedding their days before their televised royal wedding.
In 2021, Meghan told Oprah, "No one knows that. But we called the archbishop and we just said, 'Look, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us.'"
