28 Royal Weddings That Made Headlines
A royal wedding is never only a wedding. It is a state occasion, a fashion event, a diplomatic signal and, increasingly, a global television broadcast.
Some of these ceremonies made news for their splendor, others for the scandal, tragedy or rebellion surrounding them. A few changed the course of a country.
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s Secret Ceremony
Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn in a private ceremony in January 1533, while his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, had not yet been annulled. Anne was already pregnant with the future Elizabeth I.
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared the earlier marriage void that May, and Anne was crowned queen a few days later. The wedding sat at the heart of England’s break with the Roman Catholic Church, which reshaped the country’s religion and politics for centuries.
Barely three years later, Anne was executed at the Tower of London on charges most historians consider fabricated.
Marie Antoinette and the Future Louis XVI
Marie Antoinette, the 14-year-old daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, married the French heir in May 1770 at Versailles after an earlier proxy ceremony in Vienna. The match was meant to cement an alliance between Austria and France.
Celebrations in Paris ended in disaster when a crowd watching fireworks panicked, and more than a hundred people were crushed to death. Many saw it as a terrible omen.
The marriage was not consummated for years, a fact gossiped about across Europe. Both bride and groom were executed during the French Revolution.
Napoleon and Marie Louise of Austria
After divorcing Josephine because she had not produced an heir, Napoleon married Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria in 1810, first by proxy in Vienna and then in person in Paris. She was the great-niece of Marie Antoinette, a fact that did not go unnoticed.
The religious ceremony at the Louvre was boycotted by thirteen cardinals who disputed the annulment of Napoleon’s earlier church marriage, and he punished them by banning them from wearing their red robes. The couple had a son, born in 1811.
Four years later, Napoleon was in exile and Marie Louise did not follow him.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in White
Queen Victoria married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, at the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace in February 1840. Because she was the reigning monarch, protocol required that she propose to him rather than the other way around.
She wore a white satin gown trimmed with Honiton lace, at a time when royal brides often wore rich colors and silver. Images of the dress spread widely, and white wedding gowns became fashionable among brides who could afford them.
The marriage produced nine children whose own marriages linked royal houses across Europe.
Mary of Teck and Her Second Royal Fiance
Mary of Teck, a royal cousin raised partly in Florence, was first engaged to Prince Albert Victor, eldest son of the future Edward VII, but he died of pneumonia during an influenza epidemic in January 1892, weeks before the wedding. The royal family remained convinced she would make a good queen, and the following year she became engaged to his younger brother, Prince George.
They married at the Chapel Royal in July 1893. The arrangement struck some observers as cold, but the marriage proved strong.
George became King George V in 1910, and Mary became one of the most formidable queens of the 20th century.
Nicholas II and the Funeral Bride
Tsar Nicholas II married Princess Alix of Hesse, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, in November 1894, only about a week after the funeral of his father, Alexander III. Court mourning meant there was no grand celebration, and some Russians nicknamed Alexandra the funeral bride, an ominous label for a foreign empress.
The couple were devoted to each other and wrote passionate letters throughout their marriage. Their son’s hemophilia drew the family into dependence on Grigori Rasputin.
The entire family was executed by Bolsheviks in 1918, less than 24 years after the wedding.
Alfonso XIII and the Bomb in the Bouquet
King Alfonso XIII of Spain married Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, another granddaughter of Queen Victoria, in Madrid in May 1906. As the wedding procession returned to the palace, an anarchist named Mateu Morral threw a bomb hidden in a bouquet of flowers from a balcony.
The blast killed more than twenty bystanders and soldiers, and the bride’s dress was spattered with blood, though the royal couple were unhurt. Morral fled and later killed himself.
The marriage itself was troubled, and Victoria Eugenie passed hemophilia to two of her sons.
Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in Exile
Edward VIII abdicated the British throne in December 1936 so he could marry Wallis Simpson, an American who had divorced twice. They married in June 1937 at the Chateau de Cande in France, with no members of the royal family in attendance.
Photographer Cecil Beaton captured the couple, and Wallis wore a pale blue gown by Mainbocher, a shade that became known as Wallis blue. The new king, George VI, granted Edward the title Duke of Windsor but denied Wallis the style of Royal Highness.
The couple spent the rest of their lives largely outside Britain.
Elizabeth and Philip in a Rationed Britain
Little more than two years after World War II ended, Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in November 1947. Britain was still under rationing, and Elizabeth used clothing coupons toward her gown, designed by Norman Hartnell and embroidered with thousands of seed pearls.
Members of the public reportedly sent her their own coupons, which had to be returned because giving them away was illegal. The BBC broadcast the service on radio to an enormous international audience.
The marriage lasted 73 years, until Philip’s death in 2021.
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco
Hollywood star Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in April 1956, in a civil ceremony followed the next day by a religious service at Saint Nicholas Cathedral. Her studio, MGM, released her from her contract in exchange for the right to film the wedding, and the result was a documentary called The Wedding in Monaco.
Her gown was designed by Helen Rose, the studio’s costume designer. Television audiences across Europe and North America watched the event.
Kelly never made another film, and the wedding remains one of the defining images of 1950s glamour.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Farah Diba
The Shah of Iran married Farah Diba, an architecture student who had been studying in Paris, in Tehran in December 1959. His previous marriage, to Soraya Esfandiary, had ended in divorce largely because she had not produced an heir.
The bride wore a gown designed by the young Yves Saint Laurent, then working for the house of Dior. The couple had four children, including a son, Reza, within a year.
In 1967, Farah was crowned Shahbanu, the first Iranian queen to receive such a coronation. The 1979 revolution drove the couple into exile.
Akihito and Michiko Shoda, a Commoner Bride
Crown Prince Akihito of Japan married Michiko Shoda in April 1959, making her the first commoner to marry an heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She was the daughter of a wealthy flour company president, and the couple had famously met on a tennis court in the resort town of Karuizawa.
The match triggered a wave of public enthusiasm nicknamed the Mitchi boom, and many families reportedly bought their first television sets to watch the wedding parade. Some traditionalists at court were reportedly hostile to the new princess.
Akihito became emperor in 1989.
Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones on Television
Photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones married Princess Margaret at Westminster Abbey in May 1960, in the first British royal wedding broadcast on television. Millions watched around the world.
The match came several years after Margaret had abandoned plans to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend, a divorced war hero, under pressure from the government and the church. Armstrong-Jones was given the title Earl of Snowdon after the wedding.
The couple had two children but separated in 1976 and divorced in 1978, the first divorce of a senior royal since Henry VIII’s era.
Charles and Diana at St Paul’s Cathedral
Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in July 1981, in a ceremony watched by an estimated 750 million people worldwide. Diana’s ivory silk taffeta gown, by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, had a train roughly 25 feet long, which famously crumpled in the carriage on the way there.
During the vows, the nervous 20-year-old bride mixed up the order of Charles’s names. The couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.
Diana died in a car crash in Paris the following year, and the wedding is now often remembered with a sense of foreboding.
Naruhito and Diplomat Masako Owada
Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito married Masako Owada in June 1993 after a long courtship. She was a Harvard-educated diplomat working in Japan’s foreign ministry, and she reportedly turned down his proposal at first because she was reluctant to give up her career.
The wedding ceremony at the Imperial Palace followed Shinto tradition, with the couple dressed in elaborate court robes. Public expectation that she would produce a male heir placed her under heavy pressure.
Naruhito became emperor in 2019, and Masako’s quiet resilience has won her wide public sympathy.
Haakon and Mette-Marit, a Single Mother
Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon married Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby at Oslo Cathedral in August 2001. The engagement had been controversial because she was a single mother whose past included involvement in Oslo’s party scene.
Days before the wedding, she gave an emotional press conference acknowledging her past and asking for understanding, which helped turn public opinion. Her young son was part of the wedding party, a gesture that signaled the family’s acceptance.
The couple went on to have two children, including Princess Ingrid Alexandra, who is expected to become queen one day.
Willem-Alexander and Maxima’s Missing Father
Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander married Maxima Zorreguieta, an Argentine-born investment banker, in Amsterdam in February 2002. Her father, Jorge Zorreguieta, had served as agriculture minister under Argentina’s military dictatorship, and the Dutch parliament made it clear he could not attend.
Maxima’s parents watched from abroad. During the ceremony, a bandoneon player performed Adios Nonino, a tango by Astor Piazzolla, and the bride was visibly moved to tears.
Willem-Alexander became king in 2013, and Maxima became one of Europe’s most popular royals. She is also known internationally for her work as a United Nations advocate on financial inclusion.
Felipe and Letizia, a Divorced Newsreader
Crown Prince Felipe of Spain married Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, a former television news anchor, at Almudena Cathedral in Madrid in May 2004. She was a divorcee and a commoner, which made the match unusual by the standards of Spanish royal tradition.
The wedding took place under heavy security, just two months after the Madrid train bombings killed 193 people, and the city was still in mourning. Rain fell throughout the day.
Felipe became King Felipe VI in 2014 after his father abdicated, and Letizia became queen.
Frederik and Mary From a Sydney Pub
Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik met Mary Donaldson, an Australian marketing consultant from Tasmania, at the Slip Inn pub in Sydney during the 2000 Olympic Games. He reportedly introduced himself simply as Fred.
They married at Copenhagen Cathedral in May 2004, and Frederik was visibly emotional as she walked up the aisle. The Australian connection made the wedding a major media event in both countries.
In January 2024, Frederik became King Frederik X after his mother, Queen Margrethe II, abdicated, making Mary the first Australian-born queen of a European monarchy.
Charles and Camilla at Windsor Guildhall
Camilla Parker Bowles married Prince Charles in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall in April 2005, followed by a church blessing at St George’s Chapel. The wedding had to be moved back a day so Charles could attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
Queen Elizabeth II did not attend the civil ceremony, though she attended the blessing and hosted the reception. The relationship had been a source of public controversy since the collapse of Charles’s first marriage.
When Charles became king in 2022, Camilla became queen, and the two were crowned together in 2023.
Victoria of Sweden and Her Personal Trainer
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden married Daniel Westling at Stockholm Cathedral in June 2010, on the anniversary of her parents’ wedding. Westling was a gym owner and her former personal trainer from the small town of Ockelbo, and King Carl XVI Gustaf was reportedly slow to approve the match.
Westling underwent years of preparation in languages, protocol and public life before the engagement was announced. He became Prince Daniel, Duke of Vastergotland.
The wedding was the largest royal wedding in Europe since 1981 and drew huge crowds in Stockholm.
William and Catherine at Westminster Abbey
Prince William married Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey in April 2011. She wore a gown by Sarah Burton for the house of Alexander McQueen, and her sister Pippa’s fitted bridesmaid dress drew almost as much attention.
The couple had met as students at the University of St Andrews. Audiences in the hundreds of millions watched the service, and a public holiday was declared in Britain.
Kate was the first woman without aristocratic or royal background to marry a direct heir in centuries. The couple’s balcony kiss became one of the most reproduced images of the year.
Albert II and Charlene Wittstock in Monaco
Monaco’s Prince Albert II married Charlene Wittstock, a Zimbabwe-born South African former Olympic swimmer, in July 2011. She had competed for South Africa at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
In the days before the wedding, French media reported rumors that she had tried to leave the principality, claims the palace firmly denied. Cameras caught the bride in tears during the religious ceremony in the palace courtyard.
Albert was the son of Grace Kelly, so the wedding inevitably invited comparisons. The couple had twins, Jacques and Gabriella, in 2014.
Bhutan’s King and Jetsun Pema
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan married Jetsun Pema, a 21-year-old student, at the Punakha Dzong monastery fortress in October 2011. The ceremony combined Buddhist rituals with nationwide celebrations, and the young king was often described in the press as the Himalayan Prince William.
He made headlines by announcing that he would take only one wife, unlike his father, who had married four sisters. Thousands of Bhutanese traveled to Punakha for the occasion.
The bride received the title of queen during the ceremony itself. The couple’s first son was born in 2016.
Harry and Meghan at St George’s Chapel
Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in May 2018. The service broke with tradition in several ways, including an impassioned sermon on the power of love by Bishop Michael Curry of the US Episcopal Church and a gospel performance of Stand By Me by the Kingdom Choir.
Meghan’s gown was designed by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy. Her father did not attend after a series of media controversies.
Less than two years later, the couple stepped back from royal duties and moved to North America.
Princess Mako and Kei Komuro
Princess Mako of Japan married her university classmate Kei Komuro in October 2021, after a delay of more than three years caused largely by tabloid reports about a financial dispute involving his mother. Because Japanese law requires female members of the imperial family to give up royal status when they marry commoners, Mako left the imperial family.
She declined a one-time payment of roughly 150 million yen offered to departing princesses, and the couple held no wedding ceremony or banquet. They registered the marriage quietly and moved to New York weeks later.
Jordan’s Crown Prince and Rajwa Al Saif
Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein married Rajwa Al Saif, a Saudi architect, at Zahran Palace in Amman in June 2023. The wedding drew royals and dignitaries from around the world, including the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Celebrations spread across the country, with public gatherings and concerts. The match was widely seen as strengthening ties between Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
The bride wore a gown by Elie Saab. Hussein is the eldest son of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania.
In 2024, the couple announced the birth of their first child, a daughter named Iman.
Princess Martha Louise and a Self-Described Shaman
Princess Martha Louise of Norway married Durek Verrett, an American who describes himself as a shaman, in the village of Geiranger in August 2024. The relationship had been controversial in Norway, partly because of Verrett’s claims about alternative healing, and the princess had already given up her royal duties in 2022.
The couple sold exclusive media rights to the wedding, which also prompted criticism. King Harald and Queen Sonja attended the celebrations.
The event underlined how modern royals increasingly balance private choices against public expectations and commercial interest.
Vows Under a Public Spotlight
Royal weddings were once mainly about alliances, heirs and territory. Over the past century they have become something closer to public theater, broadcast to audiences that previous monarchs could never have imagined.
The bride’s dress now gets as much scrutiny as the treaty it once might have sealed.
What these weddings reveal is how monarchy adapts to stay relevant. Commoner brides, divorced partners and rejected traditions all appear on this list, often over the protests of courtiers.
Each surprising match became a small negotiation between an ancient institution and the modern public it depends on.
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