Pride month 2024: 6 LGBTQ+ royals you won't learn about in history books
The movie Red, White, and Royal Blue, directed by Matthew Lopez, is not the only homosexual royal romance.?Historically, several royals were forced to conceal their LGBTQ+ identities. However, some modern royals, such as Prince Manvendra of India and Lord Ivar Mountbatten, forged their own paths by embracing who they were while keeping their royal status.
This Pride Month, we celebrate six LGBTQ+ royals that you won't learn about in history books.
1.?Princess Isabella of Parma
Princess Isabella of Parma exchanged hundreds of letters between 1760 and 1763.with her sister-in-law, implying that their connection was more than amicable.
However, questions regarding the royal's sexuality remain, including whether she had a romantic relationship with her brother's sister-in-law, Archduchess Maria Christina.
¡°I am writing you again, cruel sister, though I have only just left you. I cannot bear waiting to know my fate, and to learn whether you consider me a person worthy of your love, or whether you would like to throw me into the river¡. I can think of nothing but that I am deeply in love. If I only knew why this is so, for you are so without mercy that one should not love you, but I cannot help myself,¡± she wrote in one of the letters.
2. Philippe I, Duke of Orl¨¦ans
Philippe I, Duke of Orl¨¦ans, was renowned and frequently chastised for dressing in a woman's garb, and his homosexuality was widely understood.?
According to Retrospect Journal, it was widely believed that no woman could ever "enflame [Philippe's] heart." It is also commonly acknowledged that Philippe I had several homosexual encounters, most notably with the Chevalier de Lorraine, to which his brother, the king, turned a blind eye.
3.?King Umberto II of Italy
King Umberto II of Italy was married to Queen Marie-Jos¨¦ of Belgium, but former dictator Mussolini's secret police retained files on Umberto's male partners.King Umberto II reigned for only 34 days, from May 9, 1946, to June 12, 1946, following Mussolini's demise.?
Umberto was outed shortly after taking over the kingdom after his father, King Victor Emmanuel III, abdicated his throne, according to NBC News. Soon after, the Italian people chose to overthrow the monarchy.
4.?Prince Egon von Furstenberg
Prince Egon von Furstenberg, the second spouse of fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, was openly bisexual.The pair split in 1973 and divorced a decade later, following 20 years of marriage.?
After their divorce, von Furstenberg told New York Magazine that he was bisexual, and Diane had tried with another woman during their marriage, but she did not appreciate it. According to InStyle, the designer later stated that the article's release was the final straw in her marriage's separation.
5.?Lord Ivar Mountbatten
Lord Ivar Mountbatten is the first extended member of the British royal family to publicly admit to being gay.Lord Ivar Mountbatten, who is related to Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, married his boyfriend, James Coyle, in 2018, two years after publicly revealing that he is gay.
6. Manvendra Singh Gohil
Manvendra Singh Gohil became the world's first openly homosexual royal when he came out in 2006.?
He publicly came out at the age of 41 in a 2006 interview with a local newspaper, becoming the country's first openly gay prince.
Until 2018, homosexuality was illegal in India under colonial-era legislation that required up to life imprisonment for anybody who committed sexual actions "against the order of nature."
He appeared as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007. He founded the Lakysha Trust in 2000, an LGBTQ+ charity based in Gujarat. It is a non-profit organisation dedicated to HIV and AIDS prevention in India, as well as education, gender equity, and other charitable and social initiatives. He is also working to stop the country's legal conversion "therapy" practice.
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