EARLY LIFE |
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Alexandra was born on May 11th 1996 at Wales House, a British royal residence in Albany, New York. Born in the midst of her mother's university studies in the United States, she was the third British monarch to have been born outside of the United Kingdom after her grandfather (Haga Palace, Sweden) and great-grandfather (Rideau Hall, Canada). When news of her birth promptly reached the United Kingdom, it briefly became a subject of controversy, as no future British monarchs before her have been born in the United States. However, the controversy was immediately quashed when then-Prime Minister John Major issued a statement confirming the princess's British citizenship, by virtue of her own father being a British-born citizen himself. At the same time, then-President Bill Clinton otherwise argued that "America's very first English princess is free to become a proud and freedom-loving American if she so desires", although this was instead met with ridicule from some of Clinton's critics, whom derided the then-president's perceived attempts at "gaining another American princess after the likes of the princess's mother and grandmother, both of whom married into British royalty."
Upon baptism, she was named Alexandra Katharine Nicole Lauren Elizabeth Francis Albert William, with her given name, meaning "defender of men", first signifying her future role as queen regnant, while her subsequent middle names, in no particular order, paying tributes to the English ruler, Queen Elizabeth, the American actress, Katharine Hepburn, a close friend and later relative of her paternal grandparents, her paternal grandmother, Queen Lauren, the late American actor and singer, Frank Sinatra, also a close friend of her grandparents, and followed by her own parents, the later King William VI and Queen Christy. On the other hand, her godparents included singers, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, actresses, Katharine Hepburn, Kim Cattrall, and Hedy Lamarr, supermodels, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, and lastly, the American politician and Alexandra's 2nd cousin once removed, Princess Hedy, Mrs Bennington. Known for her largely diverse ethnic background, through her paternal ancestors, she is said to be of English, German, Belgian, and of Romanian descent, while through her maternal ancestors, she is otherwise said to be of Salvadoran descent, particularly through her maternal grandmother, Maria Elizabeth.
For the first three years of her life, which spans from her very own birth in May 1996 to her mother's graduation from university in 1999, an infant Alexandra lived largely alongside her mother in the state of New York. As a result, throughout much of those years, she was thoroughly exposed to a more American way of life, which strongly differs from that of her ancestors' back in the United Kingdom. Initially, there had been a contentious debate between Alexandra's family members as to whether the young princess would be traditionally raised in her home country, although at the cost of being temporarily separated from her mother, or whether she would be raised abroad in the United States, with the responsibilities falling largely upon Queen Christy herself, whom at the time of Alexandra's birth, was pre-occupied with her studies at a university in New York. Thus, a decision was ultimately agreed upon whereby the young princess would largely remain with her mother in New York, so as to not separate mother and daughter, especially in the latter's earliest years, before later returning to the United Kingdom after a certain period of time. Nonetheless, while Queen Christy herself did indeed take most of the responsibility of raising her daughter at the royal family's New York residence, she was also aided in this endeavour by the likes of Alexandra's 2nd cousin once removed, and then-United States Secretary of State, Princess Hedy, Mrs Bennington and a number of Alexandra's other distant relatives living in the United States, particularly in the state of New York.
It was also said that on some occasions, she would also sparingly live with the likes of her mother's many supermodel friends, whom on some occasions would reportedly babysit the young Alexandra whenever possible, thereby indirectly exposing the toddler princess to the supermodel lifestyle prevalent among her own mother and the latter's many supermodel friends. In that same time period, an infant Alexandra was hit by her first personal loss, when on June 1997, her maternal grandfather, Dwain Turlington passed away at the age of sixty four from lung cancer, after which, he was then exclusively buried in Westminster Abbey by the behest of Alexandra's own father, whom along with the rest of Alexandra's immediate family members attended the former's burial service, while Alexandra herself was otherwise reportedly kept at home throughout the duration of the entire service by actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom had abstained from attending the burial service, and thus, was entrusted with the care of the infant princess for the time being. Then, allegedly, so as to not "ruin" her precious childhood years, a young Alexandra was largely left unknown of her maternal grandfather's demise, until she was roughly eighteen years old. Therefore, as of current, with the demise of both her paternal grandfather and grandmother in 2011 and 2014 respectively, her maternal grandmother, Maria Elizabeth is currently the only remaining and living grandparent of Alexandra's.
In an interview with the BBC, she later recalled her years of living in New York as "the most unique and intriguing years of my life", stating that "being a tiny little princess with almost no worldwide recognition at the time, I was able to largely avoid and be free of media attention as a young little girl, and was thus able to live my life in a fairly normal way as an individual." Despite the overall positivity associated with her first three years in New York, both Alexandra and her mother soon returned back to the United Kingdom, a decision which was taken just a few months before the subsequent birth of Alexandra's younger twin brothers, Richard and Nicholas. Even so, sometime after the birth of her twin brothers, Alexandra's mother promptly returned back to her university studies, although this time, she now opted for a local university in England as opposed to returning back to the United States for her master's degree, which she did eventually earned at the well-known Cambridge University.
Beginning from around 2003, with the inclusion of Alexandra's half-mother, namely the actress, Kim Cattrall, along with the princess's older half-sister, Victoria into the royal household, a decision primarily orchestrated by Alexandra's own father, the young princess was thus forced to undergo her subsequent childhood years alongside the likes of her half-sister, whom she would gradually come to strongly bond with, and her half-mother, Kim Cattrall, whom Alexandra herself would also gradually come to embrace as a "second mother" along with her own biological mother. As a result of this arrangement, it was believed that in an effort to promote a "general sense of harmony" between both her biological mother and her half-mother respectively, both Alexandra and her siblings, as well as their half-sister, Victoria were all reportedly encouraged by their father, the King to generally refer to the other's mother as if their own, so as to lessen any feelings of potential animosity or exclusion on either side. In the meantime, with the addition of the Cattrall's into the ranks of the royal family, coupled with the birth of Alexandra's younger twin sisters, Elle and Vivian, the entirety of Alexandra's immediate family unit, along with the Cattrall's, together moved up north to the Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland, so as to avoid the metropolitan scene in London for the time being, while others suggest that the move was instead done in response to the deadly London bombings that year perpetrated by Islamist terrorists.
At the same time, until she was around seven years old, Alexandra also lived closely together with the retired American actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom by the royal family's own invitation, had prior chosen to take up residence in Buckingham Palace, as opposed to further alternating between her own family home in the United States and the royal residences in the United Kingdom. Consequently, in order to properly distinguish the actress from her similarly named niece and fellow actress, Katharine Houghton, whom is also the princess's aunt by marriage, and her own similarly named aunt, the Princess Royal, she would thus often refer to the much older actress as Grandmother Kate, in alluding to her more advanced age compared to the other two Catherine's, while both Houghton and the Princess Royal are more simply referred to as Aunt Kate themselves respectively.
During much of her past adolescent years, Alexandra, whom in addition to undertaking her mandatory academic studies, was also said to have almost routinely followed her mother abroad as well on various international trips in support of the latter's widely recognised humanitarian activities. To that end, at the mere age of nine, Alexandra would embark on her very first trip abroad when in 2005, she, along with her mother, Queen Christy together visited the latter's ancestral home of El Salvador, where Alexandra's maternal grandmother, Maria Elizabeth had originated from. Subsequently, in both the years 2007 and 2008, Alexandra herself went on to embark on another couple of visits alongside her mother, specifically to the countries of Swaziland and Peru respectively, which was then followed by another trip with her mother to Ethiopia in 2010. Later on, she would recount her aforementioned trips abroad with her mother in a mostly positive light, while also describing them as "undeniably eye-opening and thought challenging", and as a "truly effective way to connect one's self with people from all walks of life."
Upon baptism, she was named Alexandra Katharine Nicole Lauren Elizabeth Francis Albert William, with her given name, meaning "defender of men", first signifying her future role as queen regnant, while her subsequent middle names, in no particular order, paying tributes to the English ruler, Queen Elizabeth, the American actress, Katharine Hepburn, a close friend and later relative of her paternal grandparents, her paternal grandmother, Queen Lauren, the late American actor and singer, Frank Sinatra, also a close friend of her grandparents, and followed by her own parents, the later King William VI and Queen Christy. On the other hand, her godparents included singers, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, actresses, Katharine Hepburn, Kim Cattrall, and Hedy Lamarr, supermodels, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, and lastly, the American politician and Alexandra's 2nd cousin once removed, Princess Hedy, Mrs Bennington. Known for her largely diverse ethnic background, through her paternal ancestors, she is said to be of English, German, Belgian, and of Romanian descent, while through her maternal ancestors, she is otherwise said to be of Salvadoran descent, particularly through her maternal grandmother, Maria Elizabeth.
For the first three years of her life, which spans from her very own birth in May 1996 to her mother's graduation from university in 1999, an infant Alexandra lived largely alongside her mother in the state of New York. As a result, throughout much of those years, she was thoroughly exposed to a more American way of life, which strongly differs from that of her ancestors' back in the United Kingdom. Initially, there had been a contentious debate between Alexandra's family members as to whether the young princess would be traditionally raised in her home country, although at the cost of being temporarily separated from her mother, or whether she would be raised abroad in the United States, with the responsibilities falling largely upon Queen Christy herself, whom at the time of Alexandra's birth, was pre-occupied with her studies at a university in New York. Thus, a decision was ultimately agreed upon whereby the young princess would largely remain with her mother in New York, so as to not separate mother and daughter, especially in the latter's earliest years, before later returning to the United Kingdom after a certain period of time. Nonetheless, while Queen Christy herself did indeed take most of the responsibility of raising her daughter at the royal family's New York residence, she was also aided in this endeavour by the likes of Alexandra's 2nd cousin once removed, and then-United States Secretary of State, Princess Hedy, Mrs Bennington and a number of Alexandra's other distant relatives living in the United States, particularly in the state of New York.
It was also said that on some occasions, she would also sparingly live with the likes of her mother's many supermodel friends, whom on some occasions would reportedly babysit the young Alexandra whenever possible, thereby indirectly exposing the toddler princess to the supermodel lifestyle prevalent among her own mother and the latter's many supermodel friends. In that same time period, an infant Alexandra was hit by her first personal loss, when on June 1997, her maternal grandfather, Dwain Turlington passed away at the age of sixty four from lung cancer, after which, he was then exclusively buried in Westminster Abbey by the behest of Alexandra's own father, whom along with the rest of Alexandra's immediate family members attended the former's burial service, while Alexandra herself was otherwise reportedly kept at home throughout the duration of the entire service by actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom had abstained from attending the burial service, and thus, was entrusted with the care of the infant princess for the time being. Then, allegedly, so as to not "ruin" her precious childhood years, a young Alexandra was largely left unknown of her maternal grandfather's demise, until she was roughly eighteen years old. Therefore, as of current, with the demise of both her paternal grandfather and grandmother in 2011 and 2014 respectively, her maternal grandmother, Maria Elizabeth is currently the only remaining and living grandparent of Alexandra's.
In an interview with the BBC, she later recalled her years of living in New York as "the most unique and intriguing years of my life", stating that "being a tiny little princess with almost no worldwide recognition at the time, I was able to largely avoid and be free of media attention as a young little girl, and was thus able to live my life in a fairly normal way as an individual." Despite the overall positivity associated with her first three years in New York, both Alexandra and her mother soon returned back to the United Kingdom, a decision which was taken just a few months before the subsequent birth of Alexandra's younger twin brothers, Richard and Nicholas. Even so, sometime after the birth of her twin brothers, Alexandra's mother promptly returned back to her university studies, although this time, she now opted for a local university in England as opposed to returning back to the United States for her master's degree, which she did eventually earned at the well-known Cambridge University.
Beginning from around 2003, with the inclusion of Alexandra's half-mother, namely the actress, Kim Cattrall, along with the princess's older half-sister, Victoria into the royal household, a decision primarily orchestrated by Alexandra's own father, the young princess was thus forced to undergo her subsequent childhood years alongside the likes of her half-sister, whom she would gradually come to strongly bond with, and her half-mother, Kim Cattrall, whom Alexandra herself would also gradually come to embrace as a "second mother" along with her own biological mother. As a result of this arrangement, it was believed that in an effort to promote a "general sense of harmony" between both her biological mother and her half-mother respectively, both Alexandra and her siblings, as well as their half-sister, Victoria were all reportedly encouraged by their father, the King to generally refer to the other's mother as if their own, so as to lessen any feelings of potential animosity or exclusion on either side. In the meantime, with the addition of the Cattrall's into the ranks of the royal family, coupled with the birth of Alexandra's younger twin sisters, Elle and Vivian, the entirety of Alexandra's immediate family unit, along with the Cattrall's, together moved up north to the Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland, so as to avoid the metropolitan scene in London for the time being, while others suggest that the move was instead done in response to the deadly London bombings that year perpetrated by Islamist terrorists.
At the same time, until she was around seven years old, Alexandra also lived closely together with the retired American actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom by the royal family's own invitation, had prior chosen to take up residence in Buckingham Palace, as opposed to further alternating between her own family home in the United States and the royal residences in the United Kingdom. Consequently, in order to properly distinguish the actress from her similarly named niece and fellow actress, Katharine Houghton, whom is also the princess's aunt by marriage, and her own similarly named aunt, the Princess Royal, she would thus often refer to the much older actress as Grandmother Kate, in alluding to her more advanced age compared to the other two Catherine's, while both Houghton and the Princess Royal are more simply referred to as Aunt Kate themselves respectively.
During much of her past adolescent years, Alexandra, whom in addition to undertaking her mandatory academic studies, was also said to have almost routinely followed her mother abroad as well on various international trips in support of the latter's widely recognised humanitarian activities. To that end, at the mere age of nine, Alexandra would embark on her very first trip abroad when in 2005, she, along with her mother, Queen Christy together visited the latter's ancestral home of El Salvador, where Alexandra's maternal grandmother, Maria Elizabeth had originated from. Subsequently, in both the years 2007 and 2008, Alexandra herself went on to embark on another couple of visits alongside her mother, specifically to the countries of Swaziland and Peru respectively, which was then followed by another trip with her mother to Ethiopia in 2010. Later on, she would recount her aforementioned trips abroad with her mother in a mostly positive light, while also describing them as "undeniably eye-opening and thought challenging", and as a "truly effective way to connect one's self with people from all walks of life."
At the age of three, upon being confirmed as heir apparent to her father through an Act of Parliament, an infant Alexandra was promptly created Duchess of Cornwall by her father, thereby becoming the first female British royal to ever hold the title in her own right. Just a month later, with overwhelming support from both the British public and government, she was historically created Princess of the Welsh, a title she also held for the first time in her own right as a female royal in British history. Prior to this, the title has otherwise been traditionally held by male royals only, due to the former succession laws being of a male primogeniture nature, which effectively guaranteed the status of the heir apparent to those of the male gender only, as any female heirs would immediately be succeeded by a younger male sibling in the line of succession. Thus, her creation as Princess of the Welsh was then referred to as a "proud and wonderful milestone for gender equality in Britain" by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom also compared it to his predecessor, Margaret Thatcher becoming the first and only female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom so far in 1979.
However, despite the overall positivity surrounding the occasion itself, one notable incident would later prove to be a source of tragedy, when in just mere minutes after legislators in the Hanoverian Parliament had voted to unanimously recognise the princess's succession rights to the Hanoverian throne, the building itself was momentarily occupied by Theodor Gerstr, a radical German separatist whom had personally opposed the lawmakers' decision to abolish the kingdom's centuries long Semi-Salic Law which, had it not been for its fateful termination, would have ultimately resulted in a second break of the personal union between the United Kingdom and Hanover following a previous reunification in November 1851 under William V, whose successful efforts at restoring the union helped overcome the effects from the initial dissolution of the union caused by the accession of Queen Victoria a couple of decades prior. However, Gerstr was soon killed in a firefight against a joint British SAS and Hanoverian SRU taskforce, with himself being the sole casualty from the incident.
Academically, Alexandra's general academic performance was largely described as "somewhat remarkable" and "overall exemplary" by her school teachers, some of whom were quick to note the young princess's apparent interest in the subject of Science, in which Alexandra is often reported to have somewhat excelled in comparison to her peers, along with her keen and passionate interest in sports, particularly in the game of football, which prompted her father into successfully securing the fourteen year old princess a spot at the Manchester United Academy, which was supposedly preferred due to her father's own support for the said football club. Nevertheless, for the next four years, whilst carefully balancing both of her academic and football commitments, she performed expectedly well for herself in the attacking midfielder position. In the following year, she was then officially inducted into the club's U16 squad, which proved to be an overall benefit for the princess, whom continued to exhibit a generally positive performance while being a part of the squad herself.
Thus, with the unanimous backing and support she received, Alexandra went on to further her youth football career through a contract extension, propelling her next to the U18 squad, in which this time, she distinctively played instead in the central midfielder position, whilst being appointed captain for a total amount of seven times and even vice-captain on a couple of instances. However, with her departure for the United States, her association with the football club promptly ended, although she would nonetheless continue to actively indulge in football through her universities' football clubs. For her apparent proficiency in the sport, she was reportedly given the nickname "Captain Alex" by her fellow teammates.
While she would mostly spend her kindergarten years at home with her family and close relatives, the princess, whom upon reaching the age of seven, was enroled at the Broughton Primary School in Edinburgh, Scotland. Initially faced with some setbacks of her own in her early days there as a result of intense media scrutiny, the subsequent days however would prove to be more overall accomodating when then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, with the support of Parliament passed a law, affectionately nicknamed and formally known as the Princess Alexandra Act 2004, which notably prohibited the paparazzi from further photographing underage subjects under any possible circumstances, thereby giving the princess much needed privacy while undergoing her daily life. Moreover, despite being described by one of her teachers as a "bright and engaging learner throughout", she was otherwise described by another as "lacking considerably in communication skills", a trait most likely derived from Alexandra herself having never attended kindergarten beforehand, although, Alexandra's "bubbly" and "sparkling" personality, which was said to be most prominent when she was doing either presentations or public speeches herself, was nevertheless a subject of overwhelming praise by her teachers.
At the age of thirteen, she was subsequently enroled next at the Broughton High School, also based in Edinburgh, whereby this time, her communication skills were said to have otherwise been more excellent by comparison, while her teachers there began to note her own particular interests in the subjects of Physical Education, as well as History, with one teacher of hers later remarking that "she (Alexandra) was never the more excited to learn about the lives of her past ancestors and beyond, such as the infamous King Henry VIII and the popular King Richard the Lionheart." Nonetheless, following an initially and overwhelmingly positive academic performance in her first year at the school, it otherwise began to slightly falter in the following years or so as a result of her having to balance both her school and football commitments, which led to her achieving a number of both B and C grades on several occasions afterwards, though this trend proved rather temporary, with the princess herself being able to successfully better her overall academic performance over the following months, which in turn culminated in her receiving approximately 1 A*, 8 A's, and one B grade for her GCSE exams.
However, despite the overall positivity surrounding the occasion itself, one notable incident would later prove to be a source of tragedy, when in just mere minutes after legislators in the Hanoverian Parliament had voted to unanimously recognise the princess's succession rights to the Hanoverian throne, the building itself was momentarily occupied by Theodor Gerstr, a radical German separatist whom had personally opposed the lawmakers' decision to abolish the kingdom's centuries long Semi-Salic Law which, had it not been for its fateful termination, would have ultimately resulted in a second break of the personal union between the United Kingdom and Hanover following a previous reunification in November 1851 under William V, whose successful efforts at restoring the union helped overcome the effects from the initial dissolution of the union caused by the accession of Queen Victoria a couple of decades prior. However, Gerstr was soon killed in a firefight against a joint British SAS and Hanoverian SRU taskforce, with himself being the sole casualty from the incident.
Academically, Alexandra's general academic performance was largely described as "somewhat remarkable" and "overall exemplary" by her school teachers, some of whom were quick to note the young princess's apparent interest in the subject of Science, in which Alexandra is often reported to have somewhat excelled in comparison to her peers, along with her keen and passionate interest in sports, particularly in the game of football, which prompted her father into successfully securing the fourteen year old princess a spot at the Manchester United Academy, which was supposedly preferred due to her father's own support for the said football club. Nevertheless, for the next four years, whilst carefully balancing both of her academic and football commitments, she performed expectedly well for herself in the attacking midfielder position. In the following year, she was then officially inducted into the club's U16 squad, which proved to be an overall benefit for the princess, whom continued to exhibit a generally positive performance while being a part of the squad herself.
Thus, with the unanimous backing and support she received, Alexandra went on to further her youth football career through a contract extension, propelling her next to the U18 squad, in which this time, she distinctively played instead in the central midfielder position, whilst being appointed captain for a total amount of seven times and even vice-captain on a couple of instances. However, with her departure for the United States, her association with the football club promptly ended, although she would nonetheless continue to actively indulge in football through her universities' football clubs. For her apparent proficiency in the sport, she was reportedly given the nickname "Captain Alex" by her fellow teammates.
While she would mostly spend her kindergarten years at home with her family and close relatives, the princess, whom upon reaching the age of seven, was enroled at the Broughton Primary School in Edinburgh, Scotland. Initially faced with some setbacks of her own in her early days there as a result of intense media scrutiny, the subsequent days however would prove to be more overall accomodating when then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, with the support of Parliament passed a law, affectionately nicknamed and formally known as the Princess Alexandra Act 2004, which notably prohibited the paparazzi from further photographing underage subjects under any possible circumstances, thereby giving the princess much needed privacy while undergoing her daily life. Moreover, despite being described by one of her teachers as a "bright and engaging learner throughout", she was otherwise described by another as "lacking considerably in communication skills", a trait most likely derived from Alexandra herself having never attended kindergarten beforehand, although, Alexandra's "bubbly" and "sparkling" personality, which was said to be most prominent when she was doing either presentations or public speeches herself, was nevertheless a subject of overwhelming praise by her teachers.
At the age of thirteen, she was subsequently enroled next at the Broughton High School, also based in Edinburgh, whereby this time, her communication skills were said to have otherwise been more excellent by comparison, while her teachers there began to note her own particular interests in the subjects of Physical Education, as well as History, with one teacher of hers later remarking that "she (Alexandra) was never the more excited to learn about the lives of her past ancestors and beyond, such as the infamous King Henry VIII and the popular King Richard the Lionheart." Nonetheless, following an initially and overwhelmingly positive academic performance in her first year at the school, it otherwise began to slightly falter in the following years or so as a result of her having to balance both her school and football commitments, which led to her achieving a number of both B and C grades on several occasions afterwards, though this trend proved rather temporary, with the princess herself being able to successfully better her overall academic performance over the following months, which in turn culminated in her receiving approximately 1 A*, 8 A's, and one B grade for her GCSE exams.
PRINCESS OF THE WELSH
As Alexandra matured well into her teenage years, so did her future responsibilities as Queen. On March 3rd 2011, her very first public appearance as Princess of the Welsh came about when she, alongside the rest of the British royal family attended the funeral of the late King Charles III, where at one point, she was allowed to give her own speech in honour of the late former British monarch. Her speech, which lasted for approximately fifteen minutes was widely received and praised by the public, although she would not appear in public again until a year later, in order to make way for her studies. Upon completing her secondary level education at the Mulberry School for Girls, she refocused her interests in assuming her official duties as heir apparent to her father. For instance, prior to her very first official visit abroad, Alexandra had mostly been accompanying her parents in their usual state visits but was soon given a chance to do so herself in the form of a solo diplomatic visit to the United Arab Emirates in March 2013, where the seventeen year old Alexandra was hosted by the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. During the visit, she was exclusively treated to an aerial performance by the Emirati Air Force and later a tour around Dubai's notable landmarks, which included the famous Burj Khalifa tower, the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo, as well as the Aquaventure WaterPark located on the nearby man-made Palm Islands.
The following April, she went on to embark on another official visit abroad in her own capacity as the Princess of the Welsh, when she then visited the island city-state of Singapore, at the invitation of then-President Tony Tan, whom along with the princess, held a nationwide tour around the island, during which the two toured and visited government facilities, tourist attractions, and construction sites scattered across the island city-state. In the midst of this, she met with both Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the latter's father, the famed statesman and former Singaporean prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, whom Alexandra popularly referred to in a dinner speech at The Istana as "an exemplary leader of the Asian continent." Later on, following the passing of Lee Kuan Yew himself on March 23rd 2015, Alexandra was said to have reportedly penned a personal letter to the late Singaporean statesman's family, which was described by The Straits Times as "a heartfelt letter full of nothing more than condolences and praises for the former prime minister's family." Four years later, she would once more visit Singapore in an official capacity, this time as Queen of the British, during which she once again met Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, whom up to that point has been in power for roughly fifteen years, starting from August 2004.
Then, on August 1st of that same year, Alexandra, along with the rest of the British royal family together observed nationwide celebrations marking the 300th year anniversary of the House of Hanover's continuous reign over the United Kingdom since the ascension of King George I of Great Britain to the British throne in August 1714, after which the dynasty is expected to surpass the House of Plantagenet as the longest ruling dynasty in England by August 2045. On the other hand, the Hanoverian monarchs have since ruled the state which would go on to become modern-day Hanover for around 379 years, beginning with the dynasty's founder, George, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg in 1635, during which he became the ruler of the Principality of Calenberg. Nonetheless, the event itself, while largely noted for its considerable overall grandeur, was also known for being the very last public appearance of the Queen Mother prior to her subsequent passing just eleven days later at the royal family's private residence in Albany, New York.
In the meantime, the princess, in following her father's lead, opted to further her studies abroad in the United States by enroling at the prestigious New York University, located in the metropolitan city of New York City. However, after an initial period of relative silence during the princess's first few months at the university, during which her academic performance was said to have been of a predominantly excellent state, the death of her paternal grandmother, the Queen Mother on August 12th that year soon throw her academic future there into question, since Alexandra herself, fearing that her late grandmother's death could severely impact her current studies, had chosen to take a temporary leave from her studies by returning back to the United Kingdom alongside the rest of her family members. Afterwards, in the immediate weeks following the Queen Mother's passing, Alexandra, whom upon being somewhat initially hesitant on further resuming her studies abroad in the United States, went on to ultimately abandon her prospects there altogether instead, preferring to otherwise remain in her European home country, while also excluding herself from any further academic studies for the time being.
Almost immediately, her late grandmother's passing led her to subsequently suffer an almost month long depressive episode, with the climax of her episode being a near-fatal overdose of her prescribed antidepressant pills, thus leading her to be consequently sent to a rehab facility in Scotland, where under the advice of medical experts, she was then kept at the facility for an approximate amount of three months (later reduced to just a month), with her half-sister, Victoria acting as her primary guardian there. In the midst of this, under the guise of preventing any knowledge of her being admitted there ever being leaked to the media, was otherwise admitted there under her assumed alias, Elizabeth Morgan. At the same time, Prime Minister David Cameron, whom was also privately told of the princess's condition, even reportedly suggested replacing the princess as heir apparent by parliamentary procedures, as to avoid the rather mentally unstable Alexandra from ever coming to the throne herself in the near future in the case of her father's passing in the near future, although this suggestion was ultimately discarded, with the King decidedly choosing not to have his heir apparent and eldest daughter immediately disinherited from the throne, having opted instead on waiting for the treatment to otherwise work itself out.
Eventually, after a much successful rehabilitation period at the facility, the princess herself was eventually allowed to return back to her family home of Buckingham Palace. However, soon after returning from the facility, Alexandra was then sent on a private vacation trip alongside her half-sister to the island country of Maldives, where for a whole month afterwards, she would spend most of her time there vacationing under her assumed alias along with the latter herself, whom later recounted the princess being in an "overwhelmingly positive mood throughout, with some admittable instances of alcoholism." Nevertheless, the vacation itself proved to be an overall success in aiding Alexandra's recuperation from her initially concerning depression, with the princess herself going so far as to reportedly profess her own desire to resume her academic studies that have then been put on hold as a result of her previous depressive episode. However, instead of going back to her previous university in the United States, Alexandra ultimately opted to otherwise further her studies at both the locally and internationally prestigious Oxford University, which subsequently admitted the British royal amidst having initially deliberated on doing so over concerns of her past alcoholism and drug abuses.
Ever since her creation as Princess of the Welsh through letters patent issued by her father, prospects of an investiture ceremony as the new Princess of the Welsh were quick to gain nationwide attention, having received the support and endorsement of both the late King Charles III and the late Queen Lauren, alongside a number of Welsh-born politicians themselves whom argued for a more gender-inclusive take towards the ceremony itself. Eventually, plans for an investiture ceremony were formally announced by Buckingham Palace following her 20th birthday. Meanwhile, in order to familiarise herself with the local Welsh community in Wales, she was sent to live in the country for approximately two weeks under the care of a prominent local Welsh family, from whom she was expected to learn the Welsh language. While residing in Wales, she visited a number of local Welsh factories and a number of prominent historical sites around the country, such as the Pembroke and Caernarfon castles. Eventually, on June 5th, her investiture ceremony was held at Caernarfon Castle, from where her speech was read aloud in both English and Welsh. In addition to that, the event itself was noted for reportedly being one of the most viewed events that year, with an estimated amount of up to 29.5 million people, including both UK citizens and non-UK citizens, although this was later surpassed by her May 2019 coronation, which otherwise reported an estimated total amount of viewership at 32 million.
During the last few years of her father's reign, the former had shown little signs of ailing health, helped by the fact that the monarch himself being a keen sportsman, particularly in the game of tennis, an interest inherited from the late King Charles III. Nonetheless, on October 6th, the King suddenly collapsed in his bedroom, but this was soon noticed by Alexandra's mother, Queen Christy, whom promptly had him transferred to an operating room within Buckingham Palace. At the same time, by the Queen's own insistence, the incident was never relayed to Alexandra herself in particular, out of the need to prevent her from experiencing another depressive episode should her father unexpectedly pass away during the subsequent surgery. Ultimately, after a two day long surgical operation, King William VI himself was able to recover from what was believed to have been a temporarily incapacitating stroke. However, as a result of this incident, questions over his future ability to rule were soon raised, with the King himself then being somewhat initially hesitant on abdicating, as it would consequently disrupt Alexandra's own academic studies.
Eventually, after a few days long worth of deliberation between the British royal family and government, it was agreed upon by both parties that William would effectively abdicate the throne on the grounds of "ill health and personal issues", while for the time being, Alexandra's own mother, Queen Christy, was to become a temporary regent in order to allow the new Queen Alexandra to fully complete her studies. On Alexandra's part, she was eventually told of this by Prime Minister David Cameron, whom then paid a personal visit to the princess's university in order to personally relay the news to the new Queen himself. Around that same time, Alexandra herself went on to graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, before proceeding to do so a second time just a couple of years later, albeit with a more prestigious master's degree, thereby following in the footsteps of her mother and her half-sister, both of whom had graduated with a master's degree from Cambridge University and Oxford University themselves respectively.
The following April, she went on to embark on another official visit abroad in her own capacity as the Princess of the Welsh, when she then visited the island city-state of Singapore, at the invitation of then-President Tony Tan, whom along with the princess, held a nationwide tour around the island, during which the two toured and visited government facilities, tourist attractions, and construction sites scattered across the island city-state. In the midst of this, she met with both Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the latter's father, the famed statesman and former Singaporean prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, whom Alexandra popularly referred to in a dinner speech at The Istana as "an exemplary leader of the Asian continent." Later on, following the passing of Lee Kuan Yew himself on March 23rd 2015, Alexandra was said to have reportedly penned a personal letter to the late Singaporean statesman's family, which was described by The Straits Times as "a heartfelt letter full of nothing more than condolences and praises for the former prime minister's family." Four years later, she would once more visit Singapore in an official capacity, this time as Queen of the British, during which she once again met Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, whom up to that point has been in power for roughly fifteen years, starting from August 2004.
Then, on August 1st of that same year, Alexandra, along with the rest of the British royal family together observed nationwide celebrations marking the 300th year anniversary of the House of Hanover's continuous reign over the United Kingdom since the ascension of King George I of Great Britain to the British throne in August 1714, after which the dynasty is expected to surpass the House of Plantagenet as the longest ruling dynasty in England by August 2045. On the other hand, the Hanoverian monarchs have since ruled the state which would go on to become modern-day Hanover for around 379 years, beginning with the dynasty's founder, George, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg in 1635, during which he became the ruler of the Principality of Calenberg. Nonetheless, the event itself, while largely noted for its considerable overall grandeur, was also known for being the very last public appearance of the Queen Mother prior to her subsequent passing just eleven days later at the royal family's private residence in Albany, New York.
In the meantime, the princess, in following her father's lead, opted to further her studies abroad in the United States by enroling at the prestigious New York University, located in the metropolitan city of New York City. However, after an initial period of relative silence during the princess's first few months at the university, during which her academic performance was said to have been of a predominantly excellent state, the death of her paternal grandmother, the Queen Mother on August 12th that year soon throw her academic future there into question, since Alexandra herself, fearing that her late grandmother's death could severely impact her current studies, had chosen to take a temporary leave from her studies by returning back to the United Kingdom alongside the rest of her family members. Afterwards, in the immediate weeks following the Queen Mother's passing, Alexandra, whom upon being somewhat initially hesitant on further resuming her studies abroad in the United States, went on to ultimately abandon her prospects there altogether instead, preferring to otherwise remain in her European home country, while also excluding herself from any further academic studies for the time being.
Almost immediately, her late grandmother's passing led her to subsequently suffer an almost month long depressive episode, with the climax of her episode being a near-fatal overdose of her prescribed antidepressant pills, thus leading her to be consequently sent to a rehab facility in Scotland, where under the advice of medical experts, she was then kept at the facility for an approximate amount of three months (later reduced to just a month), with her half-sister, Victoria acting as her primary guardian there. In the midst of this, under the guise of preventing any knowledge of her being admitted there ever being leaked to the media, was otherwise admitted there under her assumed alias, Elizabeth Morgan. At the same time, Prime Minister David Cameron, whom was also privately told of the princess's condition, even reportedly suggested replacing the princess as heir apparent by parliamentary procedures, as to avoid the rather mentally unstable Alexandra from ever coming to the throne herself in the near future in the case of her father's passing in the near future, although this suggestion was ultimately discarded, with the King decidedly choosing not to have his heir apparent and eldest daughter immediately disinherited from the throne, having opted instead on waiting for the treatment to otherwise work itself out.
Eventually, after a much successful rehabilitation period at the facility, the princess herself was eventually allowed to return back to her family home of Buckingham Palace. However, soon after returning from the facility, Alexandra was then sent on a private vacation trip alongside her half-sister to the island country of Maldives, where for a whole month afterwards, she would spend most of her time there vacationing under her assumed alias along with the latter herself, whom later recounted the princess being in an "overwhelmingly positive mood throughout, with some admittable instances of alcoholism." Nevertheless, the vacation itself proved to be an overall success in aiding Alexandra's recuperation from her initially concerning depression, with the princess herself going so far as to reportedly profess her own desire to resume her academic studies that have then been put on hold as a result of her previous depressive episode. However, instead of going back to her previous university in the United States, Alexandra ultimately opted to otherwise further her studies at both the locally and internationally prestigious Oxford University, which subsequently admitted the British royal amidst having initially deliberated on doing so over concerns of her past alcoholism and drug abuses.
Ever since her creation as Princess of the Welsh through letters patent issued by her father, prospects of an investiture ceremony as the new Princess of the Welsh were quick to gain nationwide attention, having received the support and endorsement of both the late King Charles III and the late Queen Lauren, alongside a number of Welsh-born politicians themselves whom argued for a more gender-inclusive take towards the ceremony itself. Eventually, plans for an investiture ceremony were formally announced by Buckingham Palace following her 20th birthday. Meanwhile, in order to familiarise herself with the local Welsh community in Wales, she was sent to live in the country for approximately two weeks under the care of a prominent local Welsh family, from whom she was expected to learn the Welsh language. While residing in Wales, she visited a number of local Welsh factories and a number of prominent historical sites around the country, such as the Pembroke and Caernarfon castles. Eventually, on June 5th, her investiture ceremony was held at Caernarfon Castle, from where her speech was read aloud in both English and Welsh. In addition to that, the event itself was noted for reportedly being one of the most viewed events that year, with an estimated amount of up to 29.5 million people, including both UK citizens and non-UK citizens, although this was later surpassed by her May 2019 coronation, which otherwise reported an estimated total amount of viewership at 32 million.
During the last few years of her father's reign, the former had shown little signs of ailing health, helped by the fact that the monarch himself being a keen sportsman, particularly in the game of tennis, an interest inherited from the late King Charles III. Nonetheless, on October 6th, the King suddenly collapsed in his bedroom, but this was soon noticed by Alexandra's mother, Queen Christy, whom promptly had him transferred to an operating room within Buckingham Palace. At the same time, by the Queen's own insistence, the incident was never relayed to Alexandra herself in particular, out of the need to prevent her from experiencing another depressive episode should her father unexpectedly pass away during the subsequent surgery. Ultimately, after a two day long surgical operation, King William VI himself was able to recover from what was believed to have been a temporarily incapacitating stroke. However, as a result of this incident, questions over his future ability to rule were soon raised, with the King himself then being somewhat initially hesitant on abdicating, as it would consequently disrupt Alexandra's own academic studies.
Eventually, after a few days long worth of deliberation between the British royal family and government, it was agreed upon by both parties that William would effectively abdicate the throne on the grounds of "ill health and personal issues", while for the time being, Alexandra's own mother, Queen Christy, was to become a temporary regent in order to allow the new Queen Alexandra to fully complete her studies. On Alexandra's part, she was eventually told of this by Prime Minister David Cameron, whom then paid a personal visit to the princess's university in order to personally relay the news to the new Queen himself. Around that same time, Alexandra herself went on to graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, before proceeding to do so a second time just a couple of years later, albeit with a more prestigious master's degree, thereby following in the footsteps of her mother and her half-sister, both of whom had graduated with a master's degree from Cambridge University and Oxford University themselves respectively.
QUEEN OF THE BRITISH
In the following year, despite effectively being Queen herself already as a result of her father's abdication, Alexandra was nevertheless allowed to further pursue her education with her mother otherwise further serving as a temporary regent for the time being. Eventually, in the later months of 2018, Alexandra went on to graduate once more from Oxford University, this time with a master's degree in Psychology, thus making her the only British royal so far with such an academic degree, since both her father and her closest relatives have so far only graduated with a bachelor's degree in their own respective rights. Later on, when questioned on why she opted to continue furthering her studies well after her ascension to the throne, she said, "When I look back and realise that my own mother never gave up on her university studies even after just having gone through the undeniably painful experience of giving birth to her very first child, I felt somewhat ashamed as both her daughter and a woman at the thought of just not trying to keep going on when there's some extra load being unloaded on my shoulders. Simply put, if my mother can do it, then so can I too." At the same time, she also revealed how in the days immediately prior to her enrolment at Oxford University, she had also initially thought of either enlisting in the British military, playing for the England women's national football team, or even pursuing a career in modelling instead, with the last option receiving much support from her family members, particularly from her mother, a successful and established supermodel herself.
On February 2018, in response to the death of Christopher Cattrall, brother of actress and the Queen's half-mother, Kim Cattrall, Alexandra publicly issued a personal statement mourning the loss of the actress's brother, whom she referred to in an Instagram posting as "my dear uncle whom will be undoubtedly missed very dearly."
Even so, despite the preoccupation with her academic studies, Alexandra, whom throughout the year of 2018, otherwise successfully achieved a number of feats herself throughout that particular year, beginning with a speech she gave on January 8th 2018 commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Fourteen Points speech made by President Woodrow Wilson in the aftermath of the First World War, in which she proclaimed, "For exactly a hundred years since the late President Wilson made it known to the whole world the necessity and importance of self-determination, the struggle in achieving such an idea has never ceased to end, and thus it is our collective duty to ensure that the effort itself succeeds in the end." Later that May, she was also said to have subtly criticised the US government's decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement, having emphasised the "importance of constructive dialogues over aggressive armed confrontations" in a speech she gave just a day after the decision was made. However, despite this perceived criticism of the US government, on November 30th that year, Alexandra, along with her father, the Duke of Hanover, later travelled to the United States, where they attended the state funeral of former President George H. W. Bush, in the presence of other global leaders, then-President Donald Trump and former US presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
That same December, she, along with other members of the Royal Family together observed the 100th annual Remembrance Day event, which commemorates the end of the First World War on November 11th 1918. In that same year, she also presided over the opening ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which was held in Queensland, Australia between 4 and 15 April 2018.
In the midst of this, a rumour briefly circulated by a number of media outlets popularly claimed that in the days following the North Korea-United States Singapore Summit involving North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un and then-President Donald Trump, a supposedly similar summit meeting between the North Korean leader and Queen Alexandra herself was already in the works, although this rumour was soon denied by both the British and North Korean governments. Even so, had it actually been realised, it would have been the very first official diplomatic summit involving a North Korean leader and a British head of state. Irrespective of this, on September 2018, a state visit by Alexandra herself to South Korea later took place, during which she met South Korean President Moon Jae-in and a select number of KPOP idols, while also touring the 250 kilometres long Korean Demilitarized Zone.
On May 11th 2019, Alexandra was eventually coronated as Queen of the British at the traditional site of Westminster Abbey. Her coronation, which is the second coronation in British history to ever involve a female sovereign after that of Queen Anne's in April 1702, also saw a major shift in both its overall tone and setting, with the discontinuing of the traditional act of homage from the ceremony, and perhaps most notably enough, the inclusion of other major religious faiths in the United Kingdom, namely Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and others. Meanwhile, a law was also narrowly passed just a few days later which altered her traditional Defender of the Faith moniker to a more contemporary and inclusive one, hence the current Defender of the Faiths moniker. In doing so, Prime Minister David Cameron argued that "while Her Majesty The Queen would continue to remain as the supreme governor of the Church of England, it is inevitable that in an always modernising and evolving Britain, Her Majesty should assume the nominal role of protector of all the religions British citizens are allowed to freely preach and practise." Moreover, in the days following her coronation, Alexandra herself publicly announced the continuation of a tradition first created by her grandfather, the late King Charles III, whom had then made it permissible for a British monarch to be taxed at roughly the same rate as those of the British upper-class income group.
Much like her predecessors', Alexandra's coronation also saw a large number of guests in attendance from multiple countries around the world, with royal guests including most of the European monarchs, along with those from the Middle East and Asia. Meanwhile, non-royal guests generally include the presidents of the United States, Brazil, France, India, and others. However, in the case of the United States, for reasons unknown, neither then-President Donald Trump nor then-United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was ever officially invited to represent the United States at the Queen's coronation, with Woody Johnson, the appointed ambassador at the time to the United Kingdom being chosen instead to represent the United States at the May 11th coronation, a decision that was later believed to have been a personal snub of the controversial US President by the Queen herself.
In addition to that, another tradition started by her grandfather that the young Queen chose to inherit is where for four days a week, namely Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, she would routinely reply to ten randomly selected letters written by members of the general public. Furthermore, since and even before her ascension to the throne, Alexandra has also held a large number of personal interviews herself, with the interviews either being held with various journalists and interviewers, be it those from the UK or even from abroad, leading to one BBC article describing her as "Britain's media-savvy queen", while critics, particularly The Daily Telegraph published an article critical of the Queen's perceived "openness", stating that "the British monarch is not your typically popular celebrity always ready for a hundred interviews, but is instead a loyal servant and the crowned head of the country", while also being particularly critical against the Queen's perceived break from the traditionally apolitical status of the British monarch, a move deemed to be "in violation against the constitutional monarchy system established in Britain a few centuries ago."
On the other hand, some have otherwise attributed her consistently high levels of popularity among the general public to both her apparent openness towards conducting interviews and her supposed media-friendly personality, with Emily Graham of The Guardian writing that "a simple, yet major factor that has been propelling her consistently high levels of popularity has most likely been her consistent attempts in humanising the British monarch as an entirely normal individual, thus continuing the long struggle from her much beloved late grandfather in modernising the British monarchy as a whole." In addition to that, her physical beauty has also been posited as one of the major factors behind her overwhelming popularity, particularly among the younger male demographic. However, Alexandra has since also been involved in a number of personal disputes herself, particularly with the paparazzi, whom she once described as being akin to "a pack of gruesome looking wolves whom are always out for blood." Meanwhile, her seemingly mixed attitude towards the press has often been compared to the likes of the late actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom like Alexandra, had a turbulent history with the press. Moreover, some have also highlighted the apparent state of conflict existing between the Queen and the British media, particularly with right-wing media outlets and newspapers in the country, a majority of which have been perceived to be largely critical of the Queen's reign and personal character.
Moreover, the overwhelming popularity of Alexandra's grandparents, namely the late King Charles III and the late Queen Lauren, coupled with the general popularity of Alexandra's mother, the American supermodel, Christy Turlington, is also said to be one of the major factors behind her overwhelming popularity as the British monarch.
On the day of her coronation, a YouGov poll recorded her approval rating at approximately 92% as the country's head of state. Meanwhile, in the days immediately following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, her approval rating rose to a slightly higher amount of 94%, although, in the midst of the George Floyd protests held across the United Kingdom, her approval rating otherwise slightly dropped to its lowest ever at 89%, with the most likely reason, as theorised by Richard Hagan, a British historian, being the longstanding disaffection and opposition against the monarchy, an institution which has come to be regarded by some as "archaic" and "outdated", while others, particularly among the Black Lives Matter protesters criticised the British monarchy for its perceived historical ties to slavery and its apparent "whiteness", particularly in regards to the ethnic makeup of members of the British royal family, with the overwhelming majority of them being considered "white", with the notable exception of one of Alexandra's own cousins, namely Catalina Hernandez, an American model and actress of half-Hispanic ancestry.
Due to her largely feminine personality, coupled with her noticeably close relationship with her mother, Alexandra has come to be described by some media outlets as a "mummy's girl", a term she has largely come to embrace.
Beginning in June that same year, Alexandra would begin to undertake her first few series of state visits abroad as the reigning Queen of the British, with the first instance being her state visit to Japan, where she met the newly ascended Emperor Naruhito, whom had then succeeded his father, the elderly Emperor Akihito following his abdication just a couple of months prior. This was followed with a contentious state visit to Malaysia, where she met its also newly enthroned monarch, Abdullah of Pahang, amidst a number of protests held against her visit to the country, a majority of which were held by those of the Malay ethnic group, which constitutes the majority of the Malaysian population. Despite this, a follow-up state visit to Singapore was held later that September, followed by a series of successive state visits to a number of European countries in the following October. In the midst of this, following an official meeting with President Sergio Mattarella of Italy, she subsequently went on to meet Pope Francis of the Vatican City State, with the meeting having took place at the latter's preferred residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae (English: Saint Martha's House).
On October that year, controversy arose when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan openly claimed that the British government, which in response to a state visit made by Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro to Turkey that month, had supposedly cancelled their own planned state visit to the country, which had been reportedly agreed upon by both sides a few months prior. However, Prime Minister David Cameron otherwise denied the Turkish president's claim, alleging that "unforeseen circumstances" have led the British government to postpone the Queen's planned state visit to the country. Nonetheless, a state visit by the Queen herself to Greece on that same month was then cited by Erdoğan as "a clear case of British arrogance and disrespect of the Turkish nation."
On February 2018, in response to the death of Christopher Cattrall, brother of actress and the Queen's half-mother, Kim Cattrall, Alexandra publicly issued a personal statement mourning the loss of the actress's brother, whom she referred to in an Instagram posting as "my dear uncle whom will be undoubtedly missed very dearly."
Even so, despite the preoccupation with her academic studies, Alexandra, whom throughout the year of 2018, otherwise successfully achieved a number of feats herself throughout that particular year, beginning with a speech she gave on January 8th 2018 commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Fourteen Points speech made by President Woodrow Wilson in the aftermath of the First World War, in which she proclaimed, "For exactly a hundred years since the late President Wilson made it known to the whole world the necessity and importance of self-determination, the struggle in achieving such an idea has never ceased to end, and thus it is our collective duty to ensure that the effort itself succeeds in the end." Later that May, she was also said to have subtly criticised the US government's decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement, having emphasised the "importance of constructive dialogues over aggressive armed confrontations" in a speech she gave just a day after the decision was made. However, despite this perceived criticism of the US government, on November 30th that year, Alexandra, along with her father, the Duke of Hanover, later travelled to the United States, where they attended the state funeral of former President George H. W. Bush, in the presence of other global leaders, then-President Donald Trump and former US presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
That same December, she, along with other members of the Royal Family together observed the 100th annual Remembrance Day event, which commemorates the end of the First World War on November 11th 1918. In that same year, she also presided over the opening ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which was held in Queensland, Australia between 4 and 15 April 2018.
In the midst of this, a rumour briefly circulated by a number of media outlets popularly claimed that in the days following the North Korea-United States Singapore Summit involving North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un and then-President Donald Trump, a supposedly similar summit meeting between the North Korean leader and Queen Alexandra herself was already in the works, although this rumour was soon denied by both the British and North Korean governments. Even so, had it actually been realised, it would have been the very first official diplomatic summit involving a North Korean leader and a British head of state. Irrespective of this, on September 2018, a state visit by Alexandra herself to South Korea later took place, during which she met South Korean President Moon Jae-in and a select number of KPOP idols, while also touring the 250 kilometres long Korean Demilitarized Zone.
On May 11th 2019, Alexandra was eventually coronated as Queen of the British at the traditional site of Westminster Abbey. Her coronation, which is the second coronation in British history to ever involve a female sovereign after that of Queen Anne's in April 1702, also saw a major shift in both its overall tone and setting, with the discontinuing of the traditional act of homage from the ceremony, and perhaps most notably enough, the inclusion of other major religious faiths in the United Kingdom, namely Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and others. Meanwhile, a law was also narrowly passed just a few days later which altered her traditional Defender of the Faith moniker to a more contemporary and inclusive one, hence the current Defender of the Faiths moniker. In doing so, Prime Minister David Cameron argued that "while Her Majesty The Queen would continue to remain as the supreme governor of the Church of England, it is inevitable that in an always modernising and evolving Britain, Her Majesty should assume the nominal role of protector of all the religions British citizens are allowed to freely preach and practise." Moreover, in the days following her coronation, Alexandra herself publicly announced the continuation of a tradition first created by her grandfather, the late King Charles III, whom had then made it permissible for a British monarch to be taxed at roughly the same rate as those of the British upper-class income group.
Much like her predecessors', Alexandra's coronation also saw a large number of guests in attendance from multiple countries around the world, with royal guests including most of the European monarchs, along with those from the Middle East and Asia. Meanwhile, non-royal guests generally include the presidents of the United States, Brazil, France, India, and others. However, in the case of the United States, for reasons unknown, neither then-President Donald Trump nor then-United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was ever officially invited to represent the United States at the Queen's coronation, with Woody Johnson, the appointed ambassador at the time to the United Kingdom being chosen instead to represent the United States at the May 11th coronation, a decision that was later believed to have been a personal snub of the controversial US President by the Queen herself.
In addition to that, another tradition started by her grandfather that the young Queen chose to inherit is where for four days a week, namely Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, she would routinely reply to ten randomly selected letters written by members of the general public. Furthermore, since and even before her ascension to the throne, Alexandra has also held a large number of personal interviews herself, with the interviews either being held with various journalists and interviewers, be it those from the UK or even from abroad, leading to one BBC article describing her as "Britain's media-savvy queen", while critics, particularly The Daily Telegraph published an article critical of the Queen's perceived "openness", stating that "the British monarch is not your typically popular celebrity always ready for a hundred interviews, but is instead a loyal servant and the crowned head of the country", while also being particularly critical against the Queen's perceived break from the traditionally apolitical status of the British monarch, a move deemed to be "in violation against the constitutional monarchy system established in Britain a few centuries ago."
On the other hand, some have otherwise attributed her consistently high levels of popularity among the general public to both her apparent openness towards conducting interviews and her supposed media-friendly personality, with Emily Graham of The Guardian writing that "a simple, yet major factor that has been propelling her consistently high levels of popularity has most likely been her consistent attempts in humanising the British monarch as an entirely normal individual, thus continuing the long struggle from her much beloved late grandfather in modernising the British monarchy as a whole." In addition to that, her physical beauty has also been posited as one of the major factors behind her overwhelming popularity, particularly among the younger male demographic. However, Alexandra has since also been involved in a number of personal disputes herself, particularly with the paparazzi, whom she once described as being akin to "a pack of gruesome looking wolves whom are always out for blood." Meanwhile, her seemingly mixed attitude towards the press has often been compared to the likes of the late actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom like Alexandra, had a turbulent history with the press. Moreover, some have also highlighted the apparent state of conflict existing between the Queen and the British media, particularly with right-wing media outlets and newspapers in the country, a majority of which have been perceived to be largely critical of the Queen's reign and personal character.
Moreover, the overwhelming popularity of Alexandra's grandparents, namely the late King Charles III and the late Queen Lauren, coupled with the general popularity of Alexandra's mother, the American supermodel, Christy Turlington, is also said to be one of the major factors behind her overwhelming popularity as the British monarch.
On the day of her coronation, a YouGov poll recorded her approval rating at approximately 92% as the country's head of state. Meanwhile, in the days immediately following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, her approval rating rose to a slightly higher amount of 94%, although, in the midst of the George Floyd protests held across the United Kingdom, her approval rating otherwise slightly dropped to its lowest ever at 89%, with the most likely reason, as theorised by Richard Hagan, a British historian, being the longstanding disaffection and opposition against the monarchy, an institution which has come to be regarded by some as "archaic" and "outdated", while others, particularly among the Black Lives Matter protesters criticised the British monarchy for its perceived historical ties to slavery and its apparent "whiteness", particularly in regards to the ethnic makeup of members of the British royal family, with the overwhelming majority of them being considered "white", with the notable exception of one of Alexandra's own cousins, namely Catalina Hernandez, an American model and actress of half-Hispanic ancestry.
Due to her largely feminine personality, coupled with her noticeably close relationship with her mother, Alexandra has come to be described by some media outlets as a "mummy's girl", a term she has largely come to embrace.
Beginning in June that same year, Alexandra would begin to undertake her first few series of state visits abroad as the reigning Queen of the British, with the first instance being her state visit to Japan, where she met the newly ascended Emperor Naruhito, whom had then succeeded his father, the elderly Emperor Akihito following his abdication just a couple of months prior. This was followed with a contentious state visit to Malaysia, where she met its also newly enthroned monarch, Abdullah of Pahang, amidst a number of protests held against her visit to the country, a majority of which were held by those of the Malay ethnic group, which constitutes the majority of the Malaysian population. Despite this, a follow-up state visit to Singapore was held later that September, followed by a series of successive state visits to a number of European countries in the following October. In the midst of this, following an official meeting with President Sergio Mattarella of Italy, she subsequently went on to meet Pope Francis of the Vatican City State, with the meeting having took place at the latter's preferred residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae (English: Saint Martha's House).
On October that year, controversy arose when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan openly claimed that the British government, which in response to a state visit made by Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro to Turkey that month, had supposedly cancelled their own planned state visit to the country, which had been reportedly agreed upon by both sides a few months prior. However, Prime Minister David Cameron otherwise denied the Turkish president's claim, alleging that "unforeseen circumstances" have led the British government to postpone the Queen's planned state visit to the country. Nonetheless, a state visit by the Queen herself to Greece on that same month was then cited by Erdoğan as "a clear case of British arrogance and disrespect of the Turkish nation."
Since her ascension to the throne on October 2017, Alexandra has also held a number of state visits to the African continent, with the first being a state visit to South Africa on March 2018, just a month after current President Cyril Ramaphosa took office following the resignation of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma. Then, in June, she held a state visit to Tanzania, during which she received considerable attention from both the Tanzanian and international media for successfully climbing the famous Mount Kilimanjaro, which she did so in the midst of conducting her state visit to the African country itself. In an interview with the BBC, she later described the experience as "a rather challenging and difficult one, but nonetheless a rewarding one in the end." On the following July, she held a state visit to Madagascar, an island nation situated off the coast of East Africa. Considered by many to have largely been a success, Alexandra later said that a state visit to Madagascar, known for its extensive biodiversity, had been on her "bucket list for some time", while also stating that the 2005 animated adventure film, Madagascar, which depicts a group of animals from New York City whom find themselves stranded on real-life Madagascar, had been the main drive behind her desire to visit the island country.
Around a year later, she held a state visit to the North African state of Morocco, where she met its ruling monarch, King Mohammed VI and then-Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani. In the midst of this, she personally visited the Museum of Moroccan Judaism in the coastal city of Casablanca, a move that was perceived by most observers as an act of emphasising her own Jewish roots.
Meanwhile, she also notably held a controversial state visit to the Caribbean island nation of Cuba, where she met President Miguel Díaz-Canel. In the midst of this state visit, she also met and reportedly held a series of private dialogues with Raul Castro, the former Cuban president and the surviving younger brother of the late Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. In its aftermath, Alexandra, in her farewell address to the country, expressed her wish that the "unnecessary burden imposed upon the Cuban people would be lifted in good conscience by the United States government", a remark which drew some criticism from then-President Donald Trump (whom later infamously accused Alexandra of having "socialist tendencies"), while also drawing praise from humanitarian organisations and a number of world leaders. In a separate state visit to the Americas, she also visited her maternal grandmother's home country of El Salvador, meeting its then-newly elected president, Nayib Bukele, whose success in drastically reducing the country's homicide rate being a subject of praise by the Queen, whom in the ensuing state dinner, also expressed her wish that "all the positive initial signs of the President's administration would point to general prosperity and peace in the years that follow." Later on, despite reportedly maintaining high approval ratings among the Salvadoran public, Bukele has since come to be accused by critics for his perceived authoritarianism and for causing a democratic backsliding in the country.
In that same year, Alexandra also became the first British monarch to hold a state visit to Mexico, where she met President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whom has been in office since December 2018. While the state visit proceeded smoothly and largely without any serious incidents from start to end, both the Queen and the Mexican president were constantly supported by a huge number of armed security personnel, consisting of both Mexican and British officers and servicemen.
On top of that, following the confirmation of Finnish politician, Sanna Marin as the new Prime Minister of Finland that December, Alexandra herself even took to Twitter to personally congratulate Marin on her new premiership role, while also expressing her wish that "an undeniably historic and memorable meeting between the youngest monarch and the youngest prime minister in the world could take place in the near future." Soon afterwards, this meeting was promptly realised when on December 17th, exactly a week into Marin's tenure as prime minister, Alexandra herself then paid an official state visit to the country, which began with a Q&A session with the Finnish press at the Kesäranta alongside Marin, followed by a boat ride along the Finnish coast of the Gulf of Finland, before later attending an official state dinner that night at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, during which she met the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, whom in his toast speech that night praised the Queen as "a bright, young woman." Overall, throughout much of its four day long duration, the state visit itself received overwhelmingly positive media coverage from both the British and the Finnish press, with the leading Finnish news outlet, Helsingin Sanomat particularly praising the "undeniably wholesome and genuine friendship" between the two women, while the BBC referred to it as "the summit of the decade involving two promising and inspiring female leaders of the world."
Following the conclusion of the Queen's state visit to Finland, it was soon afterwards reciprocated in kind by the Finnish government, with Prime Minister Sanna Marin herself paying a state visit to the UK on the 25th on behalf of the President of Finland. In a tradition later repeated at Marin's very own state visit to the UK, the two countries notably held a symbolic exchange of the other's national animal, with a lion from England's Chester Zoo being gifted in exchange for receiving a brown bear from Finland's Ähtäri Zoo. On October 2020, in light of the controversy surrounding Marin's contentious photoshoot, which sparked debates over the prime's minister choice of apparel, which particularly consisted of a blazer and nothing else underneath, the British royal promptly took to supporting her close Finnish friend by doing so in a photoshoot for the Cosmopolitan magazine around that same time herself, a decision which subsequently earned her both praise from supporters, including Marin herself, as well as some criticism, particularly from right-wing media outlets and social conservatives in both countries, with The Daily Telegraph labelling the Queen's action as "a shameless act of unnecessary solidarity."
On September that year, Alexandra personally addressed the United Nations for the very first time as her country's head of state, in which she called for a "global, coordinated action to tackle both the pressing issues of global warming and extremism in all known forms." On the following October, in announcing the death of former Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom had detonated himself in the aftermath of the Barisha raid conducted by US special forces, she gave a televised address from Buckingham Palace, in which she praised "the joint American, Iraqi, and Kurdish effort in successfully removing a known tyrant and murderer", while also comparing al-Baghdadi's death to that of the infamous Al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden's roughly six years before at the hands of US Navy SEALs in a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Around that same time, she later paid an undisclosed visit to Camp Taji in Baghdad, Iraq, where she met both the Iraqi and Coalition forces, particularly those of the British Army currently involved in the British-led Operation Shader against Islamic State militants in the region.
In that same year, she also twice hosted then-US President Donald Trump in both his penultimate and final state visit to the country, with his first being done the year before. Both state visits, as a result of both the then-President's general unpopularity among the British public and the pre-existing feud between the two leaders, received a similar amount of heavy media coverage, compounded by mass protests and rallies held against the American leader's visit to the country. Meanwhile, the then-President's second state visit to the country itself would later become known for the various instances in which Trump reportedly broke royal protocols, including one where he appeared to have briefly and lightly touched the Queen's back during the customary state dinner. On the other hand, several media outlets at the time took to highlight a longstanding popular rumour which claimed that sometime in the 1990s, the Queen's father, whom was then the Prince of the Welsh, had reportedly punched the real estate mogul in the face at his New York residence, upon learning of the latter having supposedly made several "unwelcome advances" against his younger sister, namely the Princess Royal, whom at the time of the supposed incident was a frequent resident of New York. However, Trump himself subsequently denied the rumour, calling it a "load of rubbish and fake news" before proceeding to openly refer to the British royal as "a stuck-up English thug" in an appearance on Fox News.
Then, on a slightly more personal level, neither Alexandra nor Trump are said to have "warm feelings" for one another, with the former having first criticised the American president in an op-ed article published shortly after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Furthermore, the apparent decision to not have the American real estate mogul represent his own country as its president at Alexandra's May 2019 coronation was also perceived by many to have been a personal snub of the then-US President by Alexandra herself. On the other hand, Trump himself is otherwise said to have been largely muted in his criticism of the British monarch, with the most memorable instance being in January 2021, when in response to the entry ban imposed upon him by the British government for his perceived role in the 2021 United States Capitol attack, he proceeded to refer to both the Queen and British Prime Minister David Cameron as "total losers." Prior to this, he infamously accused the Queen of having "socialist tendencies", in response to a statement made by the latter calling for the lifting of American sanctions on the island nation of Cuba. Meanwhile, in an appearance on the conservative news/talk program, Fox & Friends, the American president, in responding to the controversy surrounding the Queen's decision to pose in a blazer with nothing underneath in support of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, remarked, "While I somewhat agree with most people saying that she shouldn't be doing such a thing as the queen of her country, I think she still looks beautiful and hot in it, you know? You rarely see people do that kind of thing nowadays." The remark was promptly criticised by most British MPs, with Nickie Alkien, the MP for Cities of London and Westminster stating that "a man with a rather infamous record on women should not have the right to make such a lewd statement regarding our very own Queen."
Due to the perceived similarity between herself and the American businesswoman and daughter of former President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, whom like the Queen, was also born to a father whom was previously a head of state and a mother with a modelling background, it has often been rumoured by media outlets that by chance, the two women have, at some point, established a cordial friendship. However, in an interview with CNN, Alexandra later explained that she "does not know her (Ivanka) that well", although she nonetheless conceded that during her brief period of studying abroad in the United States in 2014, she and Trump did indeed met one another on a number of occasions, though none have been described as "significant" by either Alexandra or Trump. In the meantime, Alexandra is otherwise said to be "rather familiar" and "somewhat friendly" with Trump's sister-in-law, the American supermodel, Karlie Kloss, by virtue of her indirect ties to the modelling world through her mother's fame.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, the Queen herself has largely refrained from conducting any further state visits abroad for the time being. However, on September 2020, she went on to conduct her first state visit abroad since the onset of the pandemic by holding a state visit to Israel, where she met then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then, she proceeded further east into neighbouring Jordan, where she met the kingdom's monarch, King Abdullah II of the ruling Hashemite dynasty. In the midst of this, she also met and held a private dialogue with the kingdom's Crown Prince Hussein, with whom she later expressed hopes of "further cooperation on the most important issues" once Hussein himself succeeded his father to the Jordanian throne in the near future.
On January 31st 2020, following the emergence of the COVID-19 virus in the United Kingdom, Alexandra privately moved to Highgrove House, located westward in Gloucestershire for safety measures. Consequently, all planned public engagements were promptly cancelled. On March 5th, following the first COVID-related death in the country, she promptly addressed the public through a televised broadcast from Highgrove House, in which she declared, "Eighty years ago, the British people have both calmly and vigilantly endured the gruelling troubles and deathly hardships of the Blitz. Today, it is time that we repeat the very same calmness and vigilance that have propelled us forward and past our misery before. Success is what we cherish and what we shall fight for together." On May 8th that same year, in commemorating the 75th VE Day anniversary, she once more addressed the nation, in which she spoke of the importance of "perseverance, vigilance, and rationality" in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. Just three days later, which coincided with the date of her 24th birthday (for which traditional celebrations were personally cancelled by her own decree), she carried out her first public engagement since the beginning of the pandemic by visiting a number of NHS facilities across Great Britain, before proceeding with a three day long tour around Hanover, during which she met with a number of Hanoverian government officials and medical experts. In the midst of this, she also met and held a brief dialogue with Prince Ernest August, the current pretender to the Hanoverian throne through his descent from Ernest Augustus, the fifth son of King George III and the only independent King of Hanover.
In the early days of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination program in the United Kingdom, Alexandra, along with the immediate members of the Royal Family, were reported to have been one of the first few people in the country to have taken the vaccine, namely the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed by a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company.
Amidst the 2020 George Floyd protests held across the country, Alexandra herself publicly commented on the surrounding protests, urging protesters to "prioritise health and safety for the struggle to continue", while also encouraging authorities to "exercise restraint whenever possible." In the following month, she also markedly introduced a notable reform of the British chivalric order system, whereby the chivalry order known as the Order of the British Empire was renamed to the Order of the British Excellence, thereby supposedly removing its "militaristic ring." On November 30th 2021, Barbados formally became a republic, with Alexandra being replaced as the country's head of state by the country's sitting governor-general, Sandra Mason, whom was subsequently elected as the country's first president, thereby abolishing the gubernatorial role in its entirety. Nonetheless, despite the transition to a republican form of government, Barbados has since continued to remain a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, alongside other republics such as India, Cyprus, and Singapore.
In the midst of this, a nationwide campaign of statue toppling followed, with the most prominent being that of the 17th-century English slave trader, Edward Colston, while statues of other historical figures, including former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill were otherwise subjected were subjected to some degree of vandalism, which was also the case for the statue of Alexandra's ancestor, the late King William V, located in front of Marlborough House, the late King's own birthplace. In response, authorities ultimately had the statue in question transferred to the nearby British Museum, where the statue is currently housed. Meanwhile, in Canada, security for the George and Sophia Memorial in the capital city of Ottawa was promptly reinforced, so as to prevent any malicious attempts directed against the building, which since its foundation in the early 20th-century, has served as the burial place for the late King George V and his consort, Queen Sophie.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, the Queen herself has largely refrained from conducting any further state visits abroad for the time being. However, on September 2020, she went on to conduct her first state visit abroad since the onset of the pandemic by holding a state visit to Israel, where she met then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then, she proceeded further east into neighbouring Jordan, where she met the kingdom's monarch, King Abdullah II of the ruling Hashemite dynasty. In the midst of this, she also met and held a private dialogue with the kingdom's Crown Prince Hussein, with whom she later expressed hopes of "further cooperation on the most important issues" once Hussein himself succeeded his father to the Jordanian throne in the near future.
On January 7th 2021, just a day after the attack on the United States Capitol by pro-Trump supporters, an announcement was made by the Queen whereby outgoing President Donald Trump would be "indefinitely barred from entering the United Kingdom, on the grounds of his associations to the 6th January incident which took place at the United States Capitol in Washington D.C on January 6th 2021. As per its opening statement, the Queen declared that "in light of recent events, both the Crown and the Government have found it inexcusable to further permit the entry of Mr. Donald J. Trump into the United Kingdom, for Mr Trump's recent behaviour has been perceived as a danger to both the national harmony and stability of the United Kingdom as a whole." Although this decision was soon afterwards met with sharp criticism by Trump and several Republican politicians, with the former President accusing the British government of having "succumbed to the devious and baseless leftist lies", it otherwise received a mostly positive reception from the British public. In particular, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London and whom is a fervent critic of the former president, even took to personally applauding the decision, although he nonetheless referred to it as "a decision long overdue that should have been taken much earlier against such a clearly dangerous and a rogue individual."
On June that same year, Alexandra herself went on to host sitting US President Joe Biden in a scaled-down ceremony at Buckingham Palace, after which she, along with her siblings attended that year's G7 summit held in Cornwall, England alongside Prime Minister David Cameron. Just a month later, she went on to address a joint session of the United States Congress, as part of her very first state visit to the United States. In the meantime, she also held private dialogue sessions with sitting President Joe Biden and members of the Biden administration, before going on a tour to a select number of historical sites across the country. Overall, while the aforementioned state visit began and later ended without any serious incidents, it was nonetheless marred by a series of protests and rallies held mostly by supporters of former President Donald Trump (of whom she is a personal and fervent critic), coupled with a notable incident where she was heckled in the midst of her address to Congress by the controversial congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a fervent ally of Donald Trump, whom particularly criticised the Queen for her past comments regarding the former American president.
Later that August, following the fall of Kabul to Taliban forces, the Queen went on to address returning British troops and the British ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow in a "special meeting session." She subsequently expressed a largely neutral-sounding statement bemoaning the fall of the Afghan capital to Taliban militants, but otherwise refrained from criticising the US government, whose handling of the retreat from the Afghan capital became a point of contention between itself and the British government under Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Secretary of State for Defence, Peter Aldous sharply criticised the American handling of the withdrawal from the country.
On October 15th 2021, David Amess, a British Conservative Party politician and MP for Southend West, was fatally stabbed at a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea. The perpetrator, Ali Harbi Ali, a twenty five year old man was arrested on the scene, before being subsequently charged with murder and preparing terrorist acts and afterwards, sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order. In the midst of this, the BBC reported that during the interrogation process, authorities were informed that just a year ago, Ali had reportedly intended to also assassinate the Queen himself, with the supposed motivation being the Queen's state visit to Israel that year, which according to Ali, "signified her personal approval of the atrocities of the Zionist regime, hence the need for her immediate removal."
Neither the Queen nor Buckingham Palace opted to comment on the aforementioned revelation, although, reports suggest that "additional security measures" have been taken to ensure the Queen and the Royal Family's security.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th 2022, Alexandra, whom in a televised address to the public, promptly expressed her "strong and stern condemnation of the Russian aggression towards another sovereign country", while otherwise stressing that "the last time a major European power decided to egregiously violate the independence of a fellow European state, the whole world paid the price for it, with deaths in the millions worldwide", with the statement itself being interpreted by many as a subtle reference to the infamous joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland, which subsequently sparked the Second World War. Then, on April 6th, a number of media outlets reported that the Queen herself was present in the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev, where she held a "lengthy and important" dialogue with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Buckingham Palace later corroborated the reports, declaring that "Her Majesty's visit to Ukraine signifies Britain's longstanding and unwavering commitment to the national integrity of the country, which currently hangs in the balance due to recent events." Nonetheless, just four days later, Prime Minister David Cameron himself followed suit with his own personal visit to the Ukrainian capital city, where he also met with the Ukrainian president.
Around a year later, she held a state visit to the North African state of Morocco, where she met its ruling monarch, King Mohammed VI and then-Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani. In the midst of this, she personally visited the Museum of Moroccan Judaism in the coastal city of Casablanca, a move that was perceived by most observers as an act of emphasising her own Jewish roots.
Meanwhile, she also notably held a controversial state visit to the Caribbean island nation of Cuba, where she met President Miguel Díaz-Canel. In the midst of this state visit, she also met and reportedly held a series of private dialogues with Raul Castro, the former Cuban president and the surviving younger brother of the late Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. In its aftermath, Alexandra, in her farewell address to the country, expressed her wish that the "unnecessary burden imposed upon the Cuban people would be lifted in good conscience by the United States government", a remark which drew some criticism from then-President Donald Trump (whom later infamously accused Alexandra of having "socialist tendencies"), while also drawing praise from humanitarian organisations and a number of world leaders. In a separate state visit to the Americas, she also visited her maternal grandmother's home country of El Salvador, meeting its then-newly elected president, Nayib Bukele, whose success in drastically reducing the country's homicide rate being a subject of praise by the Queen, whom in the ensuing state dinner, also expressed her wish that "all the positive initial signs of the President's administration would point to general prosperity and peace in the years that follow." Later on, despite reportedly maintaining high approval ratings among the Salvadoran public, Bukele has since come to be accused by critics for his perceived authoritarianism and for causing a democratic backsliding in the country.
In that same year, Alexandra also became the first British monarch to hold a state visit to Mexico, where she met President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whom has been in office since December 2018. While the state visit proceeded smoothly and largely without any serious incidents from start to end, both the Queen and the Mexican president were constantly supported by a huge number of armed security personnel, consisting of both Mexican and British officers and servicemen.
On top of that, following the confirmation of Finnish politician, Sanna Marin as the new Prime Minister of Finland that December, Alexandra herself even took to Twitter to personally congratulate Marin on her new premiership role, while also expressing her wish that "an undeniably historic and memorable meeting between the youngest monarch and the youngest prime minister in the world could take place in the near future." Soon afterwards, this meeting was promptly realised when on December 17th, exactly a week into Marin's tenure as prime minister, Alexandra herself then paid an official state visit to the country, which began with a Q&A session with the Finnish press at the Kesäranta alongside Marin, followed by a boat ride along the Finnish coast of the Gulf of Finland, before later attending an official state dinner that night at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, during which she met the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, whom in his toast speech that night praised the Queen as "a bright, young woman." Overall, throughout much of its four day long duration, the state visit itself received overwhelmingly positive media coverage from both the British and the Finnish press, with the leading Finnish news outlet, Helsingin Sanomat particularly praising the "undeniably wholesome and genuine friendship" between the two women, while the BBC referred to it as "the summit of the decade involving two promising and inspiring female leaders of the world."
Following the conclusion of the Queen's state visit to Finland, it was soon afterwards reciprocated in kind by the Finnish government, with Prime Minister Sanna Marin herself paying a state visit to the UK on the 25th on behalf of the President of Finland. In a tradition later repeated at Marin's very own state visit to the UK, the two countries notably held a symbolic exchange of the other's national animal, with a lion from England's Chester Zoo being gifted in exchange for receiving a brown bear from Finland's Ähtäri Zoo. On October 2020, in light of the controversy surrounding Marin's contentious photoshoot, which sparked debates over the prime's minister choice of apparel, which particularly consisted of a blazer and nothing else underneath, the British royal promptly took to supporting her close Finnish friend by doing so in a photoshoot for the Cosmopolitan magazine around that same time herself, a decision which subsequently earned her both praise from supporters, including Marin herself, as well as some criticism, particularly from right-wing media outlets and social conservatives in both countries, with The Daily Telegraph labelling the Queen's action as "a shameless act of unnecessary solidarity."
On September that year, Alexandra personally addressed the United Nations for the very first time as her country's head of state, in which she called for a "global, coordinated action to tackle both the pressing issues of global warming and extremism in all known forms." On the following October, in announcing the death of former Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom had detonated himself in the aftermath of the Barisha raid conducted by US special forces, she gave a televised address from Buckingham Palace, in which she praised "the joint American, Iraqi, and Kurdish effort in successfully removing a known tyrant and murderer", while also comparing al-Baghdadi's death to that of the infamous Al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden's roughly six years before at the hands of US Navy SEALs in a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Around that same time, she later paid an undisclosed visit to Camp Taji in Baghdad, Iraq, where she met both the Iraqi and Coalition forces, particularly those of the British Army currently involved in the British-led Operation Shader against Islamic State militants in the region.
In that same year, she also twice hosted then-US President Donald Trump in both his penultimate and final state visit to the country, with his first being done the year before. Both state visits, as a result of both the then-President's general unpopularity among the British public and the pre-existing feud between the two leaders, received a similar amount of heavy media coverage, compounded by mass protests and rallies held against the American leader's visit to the country. Meanwhile, the then-President's second state visit to the country itself would later become known for the various instances in which Trump reportedly broke royal protocols, including one where he appeared to have briefly and lightly touched the Queen's back during the customary state dinner. On the other hand, several media outlets at the time took to highlight a longstanding popular rumour which claimed that sometime in the 1990s, the Queen's father, whom was then the Prince of the Welsh, had reportedly punched the real estate mogul in the face at his New York residence, upon learning of the latter having supposedly made several "unwelcome advances" against his younger sister, namely the Princess Royal, whom at the time of the supposed incident was a frequent resident of New York. However, Trump himself subsequently denied the rumour, calling it a "load of rubbish and fake news" before proceeding to openly refer to the British royal as "a stuck-up English thug" in an appearance on Fox News.
Then, on a slightly more personal level, neither Alexandra nor Trump are said to have "warm feelings" for one another, with the former having first criticised the American president in an op-ed article published shortly after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Furthermore, the apparent decision to not have the American real estate mogul represent his own country as its president at Alexandra's May 2019 coronation was also perceived by many to have been a personal snub of the then-US President by Alexandra herself. On the other hand, Trump himself is otherwise said to have been largely muted in his criticism of the British monarch, with the most memorable instance being in January 2021, when in response to the entry ban imposed upon him by the British government for his perceived role in the 2021 United States Capitol attack, he proceeded to refer to both the Queen and British Prime Minister David Cameron as "total losers." Prior to this, he infamously accused the Queen of having "socialist tendencies", in response to a statement made by the latter calling for the lifting of American sanctions on the island nation of Cuba. Meanwhile, in an appearance on the conservative news/talk program, Fox & Friends, the American president, in responding to the controversy surrounding the Queen's decision to pose in a blazer with nothing underneath in support of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, remarked, "While I somewhat agree with most people saying that she shouldn't be doing such a thing as the queen of her country, I think she still looks beautiful and hot in it, you know? You rarely see people do that kind of thing nowadays." The remark was promptly criticised by most British MPs, with Nickie Alkien, the MP for Cities of London and Westminster stating that "a man with a rather infamous record on women should not have the right to make such a lewd statement regarding our very own Queen."
Due to the perceived similarity between herself and the American businesswoman and daughter of former President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, whom like the Queen, was also born to a father whom was previously a head of state and a mother with a modelling background, it has often been rumoured by media outlets that by chance, the two women have, at some point, established a cordial friendship. However, in an interview with CNN, Alexandra later explained that she "does not know her (Ivanka) that well", although she nonetheless conceded that during her brief period of studying abroad in the United States in 2014, she and Trump did indeed met one another on a number of occasions, though none have been described as "significant" by either Alexandra or Trump. In the meantime, Alexandra is otherwise said to be "rather familiar" and "somewhat friendly" with Trump's sister-in-law, the American supermodel, Karlie Kloss, by virtue of her indirect ties to the modelling world through her mother's fame.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, the Queen herself has largely refrained from conducting any further state visits abroad for the time being. However, on September 2020, she went on to conduct her first state visit abroad since the onset of the pandemic by holding a state visit to Israel, where she met then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then, she proceeded further east into neighbouring Jordan, where she met the kingdom's monarch, King Abdullah II of the ruling Hashemite dynasty. In the midst of this, she also met and held a private dialogue with the kingdom's Crown Prince Hussein, with whom she later expressed hopes of "further cooperation on the most important issues" once Hussein himself succeeded his father to the Jordanian throne in the near future.
On January 31st 2020, following the emergence of the COVID-19 virus in the United Kingdom, Alexandra privately moved to Highgrove House, located westward in Gloucestershire for safety measures. Consequently, all planned public engagements were promptly cancelled. On March 5th, following the first COVID-related death in the country, she promptly addressed the public through a televised broadcast from Highgrove House, in which she declared, "Eighty years ago, the British people have both calmly and vigilantly endured the gruelling troubles and deathly hardships of the Blitz. Today, it is time that we repeat the very same calmness and vigilance that have propelled us forward and past our misery before. Success is what we cherish and what we shall fight for together." On May 8th that same year, in commemorating the 75th VE Day anniversary, she once more addressed the nation, in which she spoke of the importance of "perseverance, vigilance, and rationality" in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. Just three days later, which coincided with the date of her 24th birthday (for which traditional celebrations were personally cancelled by her own decree), she carried out her first public engagement since the beginning of the pandemic by visiting a number of NHS facilities across Great Britain, before proceeding with a three day long tour around Hanover, during which she met with a number of Hanoverian government officials and medical experts. In the midst of this, she also met and held a brief dialogue with Prince Ernest August, the current pretender to the Hanoverian throne through his descent from Ernest Augustus, the fifth son of King George III and the only independent King of Hanover.
In the early days of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination program in the United Kingdom, Alexandra, along with the immediate members of the Royal Family, were reported to have been one of the first few people in the country to have taken the vaccine, namely the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed by a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company.
Amidst the 2020 George Floyd protests held across the country, Alexandra herself publicly commented on the surrounding protests, urging protesters to "prioritise health and safety for the struggle to continue", while also encouraging authorities to "exercise restraint whenever possible." In the following month, she also markedly introduced a notable reform of the British chivalric order system, whereby the chivalry order known as the Order of the British Empire was renamed to the Order of the British Excellence, thereby supposedly removing its "militaristic ring." On November 30th 2021, Barbados formally became a republic, with Alexandra being replaced as the country's head of state by the country's sitting governor-general, Sandra Mason, whom was subsequently elected as the country's first president, thereby abolishing the gubernatorial role in its entirety. Nonetheless, despite the transition to a republican form of government, Barbados has since continued to remain a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, alongside other republics such as India, Cyprus, and Singapore.
In the midst of this, a nationwide campaign of statue toppling followed, with the most prominent being that of the 17th-century English slave trader, Edward Colston, while statues of other historical figures, including former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill were otherwise subjected were subjected to some degree of vandalism, which was also the case for the statue of Alexandra's ancestor, the late King William V, located in front of Marlborough House, the late King's own birthplace. In response, authorities ultimately had the statue in question transferred to the nearby British Museum, where the statue is currently housed. Meanwhile, in Canada, security for the George and Sophia Memorial in the capital city of Ottawa was promptly reinforced, so as to prevent any malicious attempts directed against the building, which since its foundation in the early 20th-century, has served as the burial place for the late King George V and his consort, Queen Sophie.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, the Queen herself has largely refrained from conducting any further state visits abroad for the time being. However, on September 2020, she went on to conduct her first state visit abroad since the onset of the pandemic by holding a state visit to Israel, where she met then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then, she proceeded further east into neighbouring Jordan, where she met the kingdom's monarch, King Abdullah II of the ruling Hashemite dynasty. In the midst of this, she also met and held a private dialogue with the kingdom's Crown Prince Hussein, with whom she later expressed hopes of "further cooperation on the most important issues" once Hussein himself succeeded his father to the Jordanian throne in the near future.
On January 7th 2021, just a day after the attack on the United States Capitol by pro-Trump supporters, an announcement was made by the Queen whereby outgoing President Donald Trump would be "indefinitely barred from entering the United Kingdom, on the grounds of his associations to the 6th January incident which took place at the United States Capitol in Washington D.C on January 6th 2021. As per its opening statement, the Queen declared that "in light of recent events, both the Crown and the Government have found it inexcusable to further permit the entry of Mr. Donald J. Trump into the United Kingdom, for Mr Trump's recent behaviour has been perceived as a danger to both the national harmony and stability of the United Kingdom as a whole." Although this decision was soon afterwards met with sharp criticism by Trump and several Republican politicians, with the former President accusing the British government of having "succumbed to the devious and baseless leftist lies", it otherwise received a mostly positive reception from the British public. In particular, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London and whom is a fervent critic of the former president, even took to personally applauding the decision, although he nonetheless referred to it as "a decision long overdue that should have been taken much earlier against such a clearly dangerous and a rogue individual."
On June that same year, Alexandra herself went on to host sitting US President Joe Biden in a scaled-down ceremony at Buckingham Palace, after which she, along with her siblings attended that year's G7 summit held in Cornwall, England alongside Prime Minister David Cameron. Just a month later, she went on to address a joint session of the United States Congress, as part of her very first state visit to the United States. In the meantime, she also held private dialogue sessions with sitting President Joe Biden and members of the Biden administration, before going on a tour to a select number of historical sites across the country. Overall, while the aforementioned state visit began and later ended without any serious incidents, it was nonetheless marred by a series of protests and rallies held mostly by supporters of former President Donald Trump (of whom she is a personal and fervent critic), coupled with a notable incident where she was heckled in the midst of her address to Congress by the controversial congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a fervent ally of Donald Trump, whom particularly criticised the Queen for her past comments regarding the former American president.
Later that August, following the fall of Kabul to Taliban forces, the Queen went on to address returning British troops and the British ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow in a "special meeting session." She subsequently expressed a largely neutral-sounding statement bemoaning the fall of the Afghan capital to Taliban militants, but otherwise refrained from criticising the US government, whose handling of the retreat from the Afghan capital became a point of contention between itself and the British government under Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Secretary of State for Defence, Peter Aldous sharply criticised the American handling of the withdrawal from the country.
On October 15th 2021, David Amess, a British Conservative Party politician and MP for Southend West, was fatally stabbed at a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea. The perpetrator, Ali Harbi Ali, a twenty five year old man was arrested on the scene, before being subsequently charged with murder and preparing terrorist acts and afterwards, sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order. In the midst of this, the BBC reported that during the interrogation process, authorities were informed that just a year ago, Ali had reportedly intended to also assassinate the Queen himself, with the supposed motivation being the Queen's state visit to Israel that year, which according to Ali, "signified her personal approval of the atrocities of the Zionist regime, hence the need for her immediate removal."
Neither the Queen nor Buckingham Palace opted to comment on the aforementioned revelation, although, reports suggest that "additional security measures" have been taken to ensure the Queen and the Royal Family's security.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th 2022, Alexandra, whom in a televised address to the public, promptly expressed her "strong and stern condemnation of the Russian aggression towards another sovereign country", while otherwise stressing that "the last time a major European power decided to egregiously violate the independence of a fellow European state, the whole world paid the price for it, with deaths in the millions worldwide", with the statement itself being interpreted by many as a subtle reference to the infamous joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland, which subsequently sparked the Second World War. Then, on April 6th, a number of media outlets reported that the Queen herself was present in the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev, where she held a "lengthy and important" dialogue with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Buckingham Palace later corroborated the reports, declaring that "Her Majesty's visit to Ukraine signifies Britain's longstanding and unwavering commitment to the national integrity of the country, which currently hangs in the balance due to recent events." Nonetheless, just four days later, Prime Minister David Cameron himself followed suit with his own personal visit to the Ukrainian capital city, where he also met with the Ukrainian president.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
In the years prior to and after taking the throne, Alexandra has largely come to be known, among other things, for her considerable affinity towards travelling abroad. As a result, she has been reported on several occasions to have personally flown to a number of locations, a majority of which lies within the United Kingdom itself, with her common choice of aircraft being her late grandfather's de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane, which had been previously been flown by other members of the British royal family since it was first gifted to Alexandra's late grandfather back in the 1930s. On the other hand, for purposes of travelling by land, she otherwise drives her personally-owned McLaren 650S. However, at times, she could also be seen driving a Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupé, a Range Rover Velar, or even her late grandfather's vintage 1948 Triumph Roadster. Meanwhile, it is believed that she had once owned a second generation Bentley Flying Spur, which was reportedly gifted to her by the Crown Prince of Dubai, her then-romantic partner as a parting gift for her official visit to the United Arab Emirates. Nonetheless, the vehicle itself was later reportedly donated by Alexandra herself to a local charity organisation in Britain not long after her May 2019 coronation.
For several years to date, Alexandra has been popularly known for her frequently publicised health-centric lifestyle. For instance, beginning from 2015, Alexandra has since actively participated in the annual London Marathon event herself alongside her mother, Queen Christy, with whom the Queen would also frequently collaborate on various side projects involving physical health. On the other hand, as a rather frequent visitor of gyms and sports facilities across England, her particular choice of apparel, which typically consists of a sports bra and a pair of spandex pants has otherwise courted controversy, with Jacob Rees-Mogg, the MP for North East Somerset even briefly criticising the Queen on her particular choice of apparel, stating that "no self-respecting Queen would ever stoop to dressing herself up in such an unorthodox manner", while supporters of her otherwise argued that her particular choice of apparel for going to gyms and sports facilities in the country was "merely a choice made out of practicality, rather than a choice made out of the supposed need to seduce or entice members of the public. During a 2018 interview with British Vogue, Alexandra publicly disclosed herself as being a practitioner of yoga for the last few years, claiming that she had begun doing so during the years she was recovering from her near-fatal drug addiction issue. She subsequently said, "My mother came to me one day and suggested that as part of making myself better over time, I should do yoga. And just a few days afterwards, I could fairly say that I was hooked to it for a lifetime."
A self-described "superfan" of Hollywood movies from the 1990s to early 2000s, Alexandra has cited the 2001 comedy film, Legally Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon as her personal favourite, with its main character, Elle Woods, played by Witherspoon herself being referred to by the Queen as "one of my role models growing up." In an interview with British Vogue, she listed Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Tom Cruise, Lindsay Lohan, Cate Blanchett, and Chris Tucker as her favourite living actors and actresses, while in the case of ones whom are already deceased, she listed the likes of her own grandparents, the late King Charles III and actress, Lauren Bacall, along with Lucille Ball, Katharine Hepburn, and Sean Connery. On the other hand, she has named the two classical Hollywood actresses, Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn as her "primary fashion icons", with both women said to have been the primary influences behind her trademark pantsuit apparel, which she would reportedly wear on a daily basis while inside her home, and on a number of occasions while outside.
Despite rather lacking in any military experience, Alexandra, being a brown belt practitioner herself in karate, is otherwise recognised as being considerably versed in martial arts herself. For instance, during an interview on The Graham Norton Show, Alexandra also revealed that she is "somewhat trained" in kickboxing, a sport that the Queen herself said to have "enjoyed the most", and which she reportedly indulged in on an almost daily basis alongside her family members, particularly her siblings. In addition to that, she also personally enjoys a number of other activities, including tennis, swimming, and golfing, although this was later commented upon by herself as "rather mundane" and "boring". Meanwhile, in an interview on The Late Late Show with James Corden, she has personally attributed her family's notably physically active lifestyle to that of her late grandfather, whom was himself a successful tennis player in the past, and partially to that of the late actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom she recalled demanding for the young Alexandra to be raised in a similar fashion to that of her own, which reportedly includes a considerable amount of attention being allocated towards physical activities. Although unverified, it was then alleged by the Queen that Hepburn, whom in rationalising her preferred style of upbringing for the future British monarch, reportedly said, "If the great Queen Elizabeth could defeat an entire Spanish Armada, then this future Queen Alexandra would be the strongest Queen of England in all of history."
Sometime after her coronation on May 2019, Alexandra, whom while participating in an interview with the French-British magazine, Marie Claire, was asked by the interviewer on the idea of having a reality television show centered around the daily lives of the members of the British royal family. In response to the question, she said, "No, I strongly feel that no such thing would ever happen anytime soon or even in the near future, for I believe that as normal people ourselves, we all hold the right to not have our own private lives commercialised for the sake of entertainment, or perhaps even worse yet, for the sake of ridicule by the public.” Meanwhile, her father, the Duke of Hanover has otherwise attracted some controversy himself following a statement during a particular interview, in which he asserted that "the British royal family are not, and will never be commercialised slaves of the media industry like the Kardashians of America", a statement that prompted calls for a personal apology from the former British monarch on the grounds of the statement being perceived as "insensitive" and "racially charged.” Then, in a later interview with the BBC, the Duke himself eventually took to clarify his statement, claiming that "in making that said statement, I never did, or ever had any intention of offending any particular race, especially the African-Americans in the country, whose history of slavery and racism I'm fully aware of.” He further asserted that the statement itself was "purely metaphorical in nature", and was otherwise uttered in a reference to "the American media industry in general.”
As a polyglot, Alexandra is said to be fluent in a number of other different languages, in addition to her native English, which includes the French, German, Welsh, Spanish, and Hebrew. In an interview with The New York Times, she revealed that she had learned Hebrew from the Israeli politician, the late Shimon Peres, while in the case of the German and French languages, she was said to have otherwise learned it from the German supermodel, Claudia Schiffer, whom due to her proficiency in both the aforementioned languages, coupled with her own close friendship with Alexandra's mother, led her to be hired as an "unofficial tutor" for a young Alexandra for the two aforementioned languages. Meanwhile, she is said to have learned Spanish from her own mother, Christy Turlington, whom through her Salvadoran-born mother's descent, is half-Hispanic.
For several years to date, Alexandra has been popularly known for her frequently publicised health-centric lifestyle. For instance, beginning from 2015, Alexandra has since actively participated in the annual London Marathon event herself alongside her mother, Queen Christy, with whom the Queen would also frequently collaborate on various side projects involving physical health. On the other hand, as a rather frequent visitor of gyms and sports facilities across England, her particular choice of apparel, which typically consists of a sports bra and a pair of spandex pants has otherwise courted controversy, with Jacob Rees-Mogg, the MP for North East Somerset even briefly criticising the Queen on her particular choice of apparel, stating that "no self-respecting Queen would ever stoop to dressing herself up in such an unorthodox manner", while supporters of her otherwise argued that her particular choice of apparel for going to gyms and sports facilities in the country was "merely a choice made out of practicality, rather than a choice made out of the supposed need to seduce or entice members of the public. During a 2018 interview with British Vogue, Alexandra publicly disclosed herself as being a practitioner of yoga for the last few years, claiming that she had begun doing so during the years she was recovering from her near-fatal drug addiction issue. She subsequently said, "My mother came to me one day and suggested that as part of making myself better over time, I should do yoga. And just a few days afterwards, I could fairly say that I was hooked to it for a lifetime."
A self-described "superfan" of Hollywood movies from the 1990s to early 2000s, Alexandra has cited the 2001 comedy film, Legally Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon as her personal favourite, with its main character, Elle Woods, played by Witherspoon herself being referred to by the Queen as "one of my role models growing up." In an interview with British Vogue, she listed Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Tom Cruise, Lindsay Lohan, Cate Blanchett, and Chris Tucker as her favourite living actors and actresses, while in the case of ones whom are already deceased, she listed the likes of her own grandparents, the late King Charles III and actress, Lauren Bacall, along with Lucille Ball, Katharine Hepburn, and Sean Connery. On the other hand, she has named the two classical Hollywood actresses, Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn as her "primary fashion icons", with both women said to have been the primary influences behind her trademark pantsuit apparel, which she would reportedly wear on a daily basis while inside her home, and on a number of occasions while outside.
Despite rather lacking in any military experience, Alexandra, being a brown belt practitioner herself in karate, is otherwise recognised as being considerably versed in martial arts herself. For instance, during an interview on The Graham Norton Show, Alexandra also revealed that she is "somewhat trained" in kickboxing, a sport that the Queen herself said to have "enjoyed the most", and which she reportedly indulged in on an almost daily basis alongside her family members, particularly her siblings. In addition to that, she also personally enjoys a number of other activities, including tennis, swimming, and golfing, although this was later commented upon by herself as "rather mundane" and "boring". Meanwhile, in an interview on The Late Late Show with James Corden, she has personally attributed her family's notably physically active lifestyle to that of her late grandfather, whom was himself a successful tennis player in the past, and partially to that of the late actress, Katharine Hepburn, whom she recalled demanding for the young Alexandra to be raised in a similar fashion to that of her own, which reportedly includes a considerable amount of attention being allocated towards physical activities. Although unverified, it was then alleged by the Queen that Hepburn, whom in rationalising her preferred style of upbringing for the future British monarch, reportedly said, "If the great Queen Elizabeth could defeat an entire Spanish Armada, then this future Queen Alexandra would be the strongest Queen of England in all of history."
Sometime after her coronation on May 2019, Alexandra, whom while participating in an interview with the French-British magazine, Marie Claire, was asked by the interviewer on the idea of having a reality television show centered around the daily lives of the members of the British royal family. In response to the question, she said, "No, I strongly feel that no such thing would ever happen anytime soon or even in the near future, for I believe that as normal people ourselves, we all hold the right to not have our own private lives commercialised for the sake of entertainment, or perhaps even worse yet, for the sake of ridicule by the public.” Meanwhile, her father, the Duke of Hanover has otherwise attracted some controversy himself following a statement during a particular interview, in which he asserted that "the British royal family are not, and will never be commercialised slaves of the media industry like the Kardashians of America", a statement that prompted calls for a personal apology from the former British monarch on the grounds of the statement being perceived as "insensitive" and "racially charged.” Then, in a later interview with the BBC, the Duke himself eventually took to clarify his statement, claiming that "in making that said statement, I never did, or ever had any intention of offending any particular race, especially the African-Americans in the country, whose history of slavery and racism I'm fully aware of.” He further asserted that the statement itself was "purely metaphorical in nature", and was otherwise uttered in a reference to "the American media industry in general.”
As a polyglot, Alexandra is said to be fluent in a number of other different languages, in addition to her native English, which includes the French, German, Welsh, Spanish, and Hebrew. In an interview with The New York Times, she revealed that she had learned Hebrew from the Israeli politician, the late Shimon Peres, while in the case of the German and French languages, she was said to have otherwise learned it from the German supermodel, Claudia Schiffer, whom due to her proficiency in both the aforementioned languages, coupled with her own close friendship with Alexandra's mother, led her to be hired as an "unofficial tutor" for a young Alexandra for the two aforementioned languages. Meanwhile, she is said to have learned Spanish from her own mother, Christy Turlington, whom through her Salvadoran-born mother's descent, is half-Hispanic.
Similar to her immediate predecessors, Alexandra is also personally associated with a number of celebrities herself, with the most notable instance being that of her close and public friendship with English singer, Ellie Goulding, whom she had first met at one of the latter's concerts sometime in June 2017. Almost immediately, the two were said to have quickly struck up a close friendship afterwards, with Goulding herself even said to have sung at Alexandra's private birthday celebrations as well ever since. Later on, following the birth of Goulding's son in April 2021, Alexandra herself was publicly named as the godmother of the singer's child. In addition to that, both Alexandra and Goulding have together been passionate and strong advocates on the issue of mental health. During an interview with the BBC, Alexandra was quoted as having said, "When I and Ellie started to know each other better, among the things that we are quick to find common ground on is definitely what we have both respectively went through regarding mental health. While Ellie has her stage fright when it comes to being a singer herself, I have got my own share of mental issues myself, especially when my grandmother passed away in 2014 which almost led me to take my own life back then." The song, Against Everything, released in June 2019 to largely positive reviews, notably featured Alexandra herself singing alongside Goulding. In a later interview discussing the song, she described the song as "the grand culmination of our friendship so far", while referring to the song's lyrics as "a way of retelling a beautiful story of how our friendship came to be and survived to this very day.”
In addition to Goulding, as well as her half-mother and actress, Kim Cattrall, she is also said to be particularly close with the likes of American singer and actress, Nancy Sinatra, whose father was in turn a close friend of Alexandra's own grandfather, and fellow American actress, Katharine Houghton, whom is Alexandra's aunt by marriage, and also the niece of the late and legendary American actress, Katharine Hepburn, with whom Alexandra was personally acquainted for some time prior to the former's passing in June 2003. Furthermore, by virtue of marital ties, the two famous and long deceased American actresses, Hedy Lamarr and Rita Hayworth were themselves both the Queen's first cousin in law once removed and her great-great grand aunt respectively. Besides this, she is also said to be rather close with British supermodel, Kate Moss, whom at the time of Alexandra's birth, had been made one of the Queen's godmothers herself. Since then, the two have largely remained in close contact with one another, so much so that she was once described by a local media outlet as "the Kate Moss of the 2010s", in alluding to her controversial romantic history and lifestyle. In addition, she is also said to be close friends with the American model and actress, Kaia Gerber, whom Alexandra was first introduced to in her adolescent years by virtue of her mother's close friendship with Gerber's own mother, namely the American supermodel, Cindy Crawford. Since then, the two have largely been spotted hanging out together on various different occasions, leading to some media outlets comparing the two's own friendship to that of their mother's, both of whom were themselves established supermodels during the 1990s. Moreover, since 2020, Gerber herself has been in a relationship with Alexandra's younger brother, the Duke of Cleveland, with the two said to be living together at Buckingham Palace itself.
Meanwhile, by virtue of her association with the British supermodel, Kate Moss, Alexandra is also said to be close with the much younger Lottie Moss, a fellow model of British nationality and Kate's own half-sister. However, in stark contrast to her more publicised friendship with the American model, Kaia Gerber, the Queen herself has otherwise been largely muted and less open regarding her friendship with the younger Moss, with Edwin Thomson of The Independent claiming that Lottie Moss's overtly sexual nature, as evidenced by announcement revealing the model's intention on selling nude photos of herself on the infamous content subscription service, OnlyFans, was ultimately deemed to be great of a risk for the Queen's own personal image and popularity, hence the rarity of the two ever being spotted together in public. Even so, despite the perceived animosity between the two, Alexandra herself later came out in support of the younger Moss, whom in February 2022, was reported to have checked into an undisclosed rehab facility over the use of cocaine.
Since her mother was known as one of the "big five" supermodels throughout 1990s, Alexandra herself is thus said to be largely close with the rest of the "big five" supermodels, namely Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, and in particular, Naomi Campbell, whom along with fellow British supermodel, Kate Moss, are among the Queen's chosen godmothers. In addition to that, a young Alexandra is also said to be close with all five members of the celebrated British girl group, Spice Girls, which, in the year of Alexandra's birth, released their famous debut single, "Wannabe", which went on to win the group the Best British-Written Single and British Single of the Year awards the year afterwards. In an interview with The Independent, she cited Melanie Chisholm, better known as Sporty Spice during her time with the group, as one of her major inspirations for her health-centric lifestyle.
In addition to all that, Alexandra is also personally related to a number of European royals, which includes all three of the Scandinavian monarchs and the kings of Belgium and the Netherlands respectively.
Beginning from around 2014, Alexandra is also said to have befriended the infamous American actress and singer, Lindsay Lohan, whom at the time of her acquaintance with the British royal, was then reportedly living in England in order to escape the overwhelming media attention back in the United States. Then, according to Alexandra, after having accidentally come across the actress during a routine morning run in London, the two women, having shared a largely similar history of substance abuse and personal problems themselves, went on to quickly form a lasting friendship since then, although, reportedly at the insistence of both Lohan and Alexandra's own parents, the two's friendship was kept largely secret and discreet for fear of attracting media attention within the United Kingdom, thereby potentially jeopardising Lohan's own intention to remain rather unknown in the country as well as that of the British monarchy's reputation due to Lohan's own controversial public image.
Nevertheless, sometime in May 2019, while appearing as a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Alexandra publicly expressed that "despite the stark difference in what we both respectively went through ourselves in growing up, I feel that to a certain degree, both I and Lindsay could connect to each other based on how we both had to deal with our own set of issues that led us to do things that we normally wouldn't, and on how the media has since largely treated us both as individuals overall.” She further said, "Thankfully, my family did all they could to make sure that no photographers would ever get pictures of me when I was at my lowest, but when I decided to be in love with a Middle Eastern prince for instance, then you could clearly see how the media do just stresses me out sometimes with the sheer insanity of how they cover these particular moments in my life, for it is all just quite mind-boggling and incomprehensible when you really think about it.”
As a humanitarian herself, Alexandra has since been actively partnered alongside her own mother, Queen Christy, whom was said to have initially exposed her eldest daughter to humanitarianism at the mere age of nine through a visit to El Salvador. Soon afterwards, Alexandra herself, either independently or alongside her mother, has since sponsored or spearheaded various programs or initiatives aimed at improving general livelihoods in war-torn countries, with Alexandra's in particular being specifically emphasised towards "ensuring that regardless of the political nature of their countries of residence, a majority of people would be able to suffer less or even alleviate themselves completely from the conditions forced upon them by a multitude of factors present.” On November 12th 2017, following an earthquake with a 7.3 magnitude that occurred on the Iran-Iraq border, Alexandra then openly called for "both of Iran's allies and adversaries to throw away their petty global politics to ensure that basic human needs are met after such a catastrophic tragedy.” She later personally ventured to the affected area herself, earning much praise from both the Iraqi and Iranian governments, as well as from the public in both respective countries.
An active and outspoken member of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood organisation, she has also worked extensively with the United Nations's World Health Organisation agency since prior to her ascension to the throne.
In addition to Goulding, as well as her half-mother and actress, Kim Cattrall, she is also said to be particularly close with the likes of American singer and actress, Nancy Sinatra, whose father was in turn a close friend of Alexandra's own grandfather, and fellow American actress, Katharine Houghton, whom is Alexandra's aunt by marriage, and also the niece of the late and legendary American actress, Katharine Hepburn, with whom Alexandra was personally acquainted for some time prior to the former's passing in June 2003. Furthermore, by virtue of marital ties, the two famous and long deceased American actresses, Hedy Lamarr and Rita Hayworth were themselves both the Queen's first cousin in law once removed and her great-great grand aunt respectively. Besides this, she is also said to be rather close with British supermodel, Kate Moss, whom at the time of Alexandra's birth, had been made one of the Queen's godmothers herself. Since then, the two have largely remained in close contact with one another, so much so that she was once described by a local media outlet as "the Kate Moss of the 2010s", in alluding to her controversial romantic history and lifestyle. In addition, she is also said to be close friends with the American model and actress, Kaia Gerber, whom Alexandra was first introduced to in her adolescent years by virtue of her mother's close friendship with Gerber's own mother, namely the American supermodel, Cindy Crawford. Since then, the two have largely been spotted hanging out together on various different occasions, leading to some media outlets comparing the two's own friendship to that of their mother's, both of whom were themselves established supermodels during the 1990s. Moreover, since 2020, Gerber herself has been in a relationship with Alexandra's younger brother, the Duke of Cleveland, with the two said to be living together at Buckingham Palace itself.
Meanwhile, by virtue of her association with the British supermodel, Kate Moss, Alexandra is also said to be close with the much younger Lottie Moss, a fellow model of British nationality and Kate's own half-sister. However, in stark contrast to her more publicised friendship with the American model, Kaia Gerber, the Queen herself has otherwise been largely muted and less open regarding her friendship with the younger Moss, with Edwin Thomson of The Independent claiming that Lottie Moss's overtly sexual nature, as evidenced by announcement revealing the model's intention on selling nude photos of herself on the infamous content subscription service, OnlyFans, was ultimately deemed to be great of a risk for the Queen's own personal image and popularity, hence the rarity of the two ever being spotted together in public. Even so, despite the perceived animosity between the two, Alexandra herself later came out in support of the younger Moss, whom in February 2022, was reported to have checked into an undisclosed rehab facility over the use of cocaine.
Since her mother was known as one of the "big five" supermodels throughout 1990s, Alexandra herself is thus said to be largely close with the rest of the "big five" supermodels, namely Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, and in particular, Naomi Campbell, whom along with fellow British supermodel, Kate Moss, are among the Queen's chosen godmothers. In addition to that, a young Alexandra is also said to be close with all five members of the celebrated British girl group, Spice Girls, which, in the year of Alexandra's birth, released their famous debut single, "Wannabe", which went on to win the group the Best British-Written Single and British Single of the Year awards the year afterwards. In an interview with The Independent, she cited Melanie Chisholm, better known as Sporty Spice during her time with the group, as one of her major inspirations for her health-centric lifestyle.
In addition to all that, Alexandra is also personally related to a number of European royals, which includes all three of the Scandinavian monarchs and the kings of Belgium and the Netherlands respectively.
Beginning from around 2014, Alexandra is also said to have befriended the infamous American actress and singer, Lindsay Lohan, whom at the time of her acquaintance with the British royal, was then reportedly living in England in order to escape the overwhelming media attention back in the United States. Then, according to Alexandra, after having accidentally come across the actress during a routine morning run in London, the two women, having shared a largely similar history of substance abuse and personal problems themselves, went on to quickly form a lasting friendship since then, although, reportedly at the insistence of both Lohan and Alexandra's own parents, the two's friendship was kept largely secret and discreet for fear of attracting media attention within the United Kingdom, thereby potentially jeopardising Lohan's own intention to remain rather unknown in the country as well as that of the British monarchy's reputation due to Lohan's own controversial public image.
Nevertheless, sometime in May 2019, while appearing as a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Alexandra publicly expressed that "despite the stark difference in what we both respectively went through ourselves in growing up, I feel that to a certain degree, both I and Lindsay could connect to each other based on how we both had to deal with our own set of issues that led us to do things that we normally wouldn't, and on how the media has since largely treated us both as individuals overall.” She further said, "Thankfully, my family did all they could to make sure that no photographers would ever get pictures of me when I was at my lowest, but when I decided to be in love with a Middle Eastern prince for instance, then you could clearly see how the media do just stresses me out sometimes with the sheer insanity of how they cover these particular moments in my life, for it is all just quite mind-boggling and incomprehensible when you really think about it.”
As a humanitarian herself, Alexandra has since been actively partnered alongside her own mother, Queen Christy, whom was said to have initially exposed her eldest daughter to humanitarianism at the mere age of nine through a visit to El Salvador. Soon afterwards, Alexandra herself, either independently or alongside her mother, has since sponsored or spearheaded various programs or initiatives aimed at improving general livelihoods in war-torn countries, with Alexandra's in particular being specifically emphasised towards "ensuring that regardless of the political nature of their countries of residence, a majority of people would be able to suffer less or even alleviate themselves completely from the conditions forced upon them by a multitude of factors present.” On November 12th 2017, following an earthquake with a 7.3 magnitude that occurred on the Iran-Iraq border, Alexandra then openly called for "both of Iran's allies and adversaries to throw away their petty global politics to ensure that basic human needs are met after such a catastrophic tragedy.” She later personally ventured to the affected area herself, earning much praise from both the Iraqi and Iranian governments, as well as from the public in both respective countries.
An active and outspoken member of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood organisation, she has also worked extensively with the United Nations's World Health Organisation agency since prior to her ascension to the throne.
ROMANCES
While Alexandra has since been largely praised for her remarkable academic qualifications, as well as for her various public stances on multiple issues, the Queen herself is also somewhat known for her brief but nonetheless sensational romantic history involving the Crown Prince of Dubai, Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum. It was said that during the period of her rather brief relationship with the aforementioned crown prince, Alexandra was then the subject of a number of nicknames by various media outlets, with The Guardian having once dubbed her "the Jane Digby of the 21st century", while the popular American tabloid, TMZ, otherwise likened her to the famed American socialite, Paris Hilton, even going so far as to refer to her as "the English Paris Hilton" in an article covering the princess's brief relationship with the Crown Prince of Dubai.
On the other hand, prior to her infamous romantic relationship with the Crown Prince of Dubai, it was otherwise rumoured that the British royal had been in a much earlier romantic relationship beforehand, which had supposedly taken place sometime during her high school years. In one interview, Alexandra herself openly confirmed the said rumour, claiming that at around the age of sixteen, while she was a student at Broughton High School, her very first romantic interest proved to be that of a fellow schoolmate of hers, whom after about a week or so, was eventually deserted by Alexandra, whom was said to have done so herself upon finding out that the aforementioned schoolmate of hers had only dated her for the sake of a challenge. As a result, prior to her subsequent romance with the Crown Prince of Dubai just a year afterwards, it was said that the British royal herself opted to avoid any new romances with either of her fellow schoolmates in general, a decision that was likely due to her own personal desire to avoid what she personally described as "a tasteless and soulless romance.” On the other hand, in a separate interview, she otherwise described her past primary and secondary school years as "a complete rollercoaster", claiming that "as a royal teenager growing up among non-royal teenagers, some of them would simply befriend you for who you are yourself, while some might otherwise refuse to be friends with you for who you are as well, perhaps out of personal awkwardness in themselves.”
Around March 2013, Alexandra's first romantic relationship ultimately came about during her solo state visit to the United Arab Emirates, when upon arriving at the Dubai International Airport alongside her own entourage, she was first introduced to the Crown Prince of Dubai, Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, whom along with several armed security personnel had been tasked in overseeing the princess and her entourage's arrival. Almost immediately, rumours of an apparent romantic relationship between the two began surfacing when throughout the duration of her visit to the country, she was pictured on several occasions being physically close to the crown prince. As a result, the apparent nature of the two's friendship quickly attracted interest from various media outlets back home in England, with the Daily Mail being the first to speculate a romantic relationship between the two royals.
Then, not long after the conclusion of her visit to the United Arab Emirates, rumours of her being in a relationship with the Crown Prince of Dubai were further strengthened when it was revealed that as a parting gift, the British royal was gifted a luxurious second generation Bentley Flying Spur by the Crown Prince of Dubai himself. However, this revelation was immediately met with a mixed response from both the British public and media, with some praising the supposedly romantic and also unique nature of the relationship, since Alexandra herself was the first British royal to have ever been in a relationship with a Muslim royal of Middle Eastern ancestry, while others, particularly The Daily Telegraph otherwise reacted rather negatively to the aforementioned revelation, which it described as "a rather troubling revelation". Meanwhile, other media outlets whom were critical of the couple's apparent romantic relationship also noted the considerable fourteen years age gap between the two, with Hamdan being thirty one years of age at the time, while Alexandra herself was otherwise seventeen years of age. On the other hand, the couple themselves initially maintained a largely muted response towards the controversy surrounding their relationship. However, just a month later, it was reported by several media outlets that the two have officially broken up, although the reasons behind the couple's decision to terminate the relationship remained largely unknown, with most observers largely speculating that the considerable amount of controversy generated from the unusual nature of the couple's relationship had been the driving influence behind their aforementioned decision to prematurely end the relationship.
On May 15th 2019, Hamdan was married to his cousin, Sheikha Shaikha bint Saeed bin Thani Al Maktoum, to which Alexandra responded with a simple congratulatory post on the crown prince's Instagram post.
Around November 2018, Alexandra's romantic life was briefly met with renewed interest and speculation when the Daily Mail, a popular British newspaper claimed in an article of theirs that from around late 2014 to early 2015, the British royal was in a supposed romantic relationship with the young Australian millionaire, Bobby Misner, son of author and billionaire, Tom Misner. The claim had initially originated from a video published by the younger Misner titled Life of a billionaire's son, in which at one point, Misner claimed that he "once dated the Queen of England", and that the two were "the hottest couple in town", claims that were subsequently denied by Alexandra herself, whom otherwise asserted that she was "more busy trying to find my place in the world after my grandmother's passing than partying with some random rich kids on some yachts and islands.” In response, Misner himself later corrected his initial claim from the video, stating in a Daily Mail article that "I have never actually met the Queen myself at any given moment in my life", while also offering a brief apology for his initial claim in that same article.
In addition to Misner and the Crown Prince of Dubai, Alexandra has also been linked, albeit without much basis by media outlets to a couple of other famous personalities, with the most notable ones being Brooklyn Beckham, an English model, photographer, and son of former English footballer, David Beckham, and Jack Schlossberg, an American lawyer and grandson of the late John F. Kennedy. However, following Beckham's marriage to actress, Nicola Peltz in April 2022, he has since been discounted as a possible love interest of Alexandra's, while in the case of Schlossberg, a longstanding friendship between the latter's mother, Caroline Kennedy, and Alexandra's father, the former King William VI, has consistently been used as a justification for a supposed hidden relationship involving the two. Ultimately, should a marriage involving the two ever become a reality, it would notably be the second instance in which a British monarch is wedded to a Catholic spouse, and arguably the second instance as well in which a British monarch is wedded to a Jewish spouse, since Schlossberg is said to have observed Jewish traditions, holidays, and holy days despite his Catholic faith.
On the other hand, prior to her infamous romantic relationship with the Crown Prince of Dubai, it was otherwise rumoured that the British royal had been in a much earlier romantic relationship beforehand, which had supposedly taken place sometime during her high school years. In one interview, Alexandra herself openly confirmed the said rumour, claiming that at around the age of sixteen, while she was a student at Broughton High School, her very first romantic interest proved to be that of a fellow schoolmate of hers, whom after about a week or so, was eventually deserted by Alexandra, whom was said to have done so herself upon finding out that the aforementioned schoolmate of hers had only dated her for the sake of a challenge. As a result, prior to her subsequent romance with the Crown Prince of Dubai just a year afterwards, it was said that the British royal herself opted to avoid any new romances with either of her fellow schoolmates in general, a decision that was likely due to her own personal desire to avoid what she personally described as "a tasteless and soulless romance.” On the other hand, in a separate interview, she otherwise described her past primary and secondary school years as "a complete rollercoaster", claiming that "as a royal teenager growing up among non-royal teenagers, some of them would simply befriend you for who you are yourself, while some might otherwise refuse to be friends with you for who you are as well, perhaps out of personal awkwardness in themselves.”
Around March 2013, Alexandra's first romantic relationship ultimately came about during her solo state visit to the United Arab Emirates, when upon arriving at the Dubai International Airport alongside her own entourage, she was first introduced to the Crown Prince of Dubai, Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, whom along with several armed security personnel had been tasked in overseeing the princess and her entourage's arrival. Almost immediately, rumours of an apparent romantic relationship between the two began surfacing when throughout the duration of her visit to the country, she was pictured on several occasions being physically close to the crown prince. As a result, the apparent nature of the two's friendship quickly attracted interest from various media outlets back home in England, with the Daily Mail being the first to speculate a romantic relationship between the two royals.
Then, not long after the conclusion of her visit to the United Arab Emirates, rumours of her being in a relationship with the Crown Prince of Dubai were further strengthened when it was revealed that as a parting gift, the British royal was gifted a luxurious second generation Bentley Flying Spur by the Crown Prince of Dubai himself. However, this revelation was immediately met with a mixed response from both the British public and media, with some praising the supposedly romantic and also unique nature of the relationship, since Alexandra herself was the first British royal to have ever been in a relationship with a Muslim royal of Middle Eastern ancestry, while others, particularly The Daily Telegraph otherwise reacted rather negatively to the aforementioned revelation, which it described as "a rather troubling revelation". Meanwhile, other media outlets whom were critical of the couple's apparent romantic relationship also noted the considerable fourteen years age gap between the two, with Hamdan being thirty one years of age at the time, while Alexandra herself was otherwise seventeen years of age. On the other hand, the couple themselves initially maintained a largely muted response towards the controversy surrounding their relationship. However, just a month later, it was reported by several media outlets that the two have officially broken up, although the reasons behind the couple's decision to terminate the relationship remained largely unknown, with most observers largely speculating that the considerable amount of controversy generated from the unusual nature of the couple's relationship had been the driving influence behind their aforementioned decision to prematurely end the relationship.
On May 15th 2019, Hamdan was married to his cousin, Sheikha Shaikha bint Saeed bin Thani Al Maktoum, to which Alexandra responded with a simple congratulatory post on the crown prince's Instagram post.
Around November 2018, Alexandra's romantic life was briefly met with renewed interest and speculation when the Daily Mail, a popular British newspaper claimed in an article of theirs that from around late 2014 to early 2015, the British royal was in a supposed romantic relationship with the young Australian millionaire, Bobby Misner, son of author and billionaire, Tom Misner. The claim had initially originated from a video published by the younger Misner titled Life of a billionaire's son, in which at one point, Misner claimed that he "once dated the Queen of England", and that the two were "the hottest couple in town", claims that were subsequently denied by Alexandra herself, whom otherwise asserted that she was "more busy trying to find my place in the world after my grandmother's passing than partying with some random rich kids on some yachts and islands.” In response, Misner himself later corrected his initial claim from the video, stating in a Daily Mail article that "I have never actually met the Queen myself at any given moment in my life", while also offering a brief apology for his initial claim in that same article.
In addition to Misner and the Crown Prince of Dubai, Alexandra has also been linked, albeit without much basis by media outlets to a couple of other famous personalities, with the most notable ones being Brooklyn Beckham, an English model, photographer, and son of former English footballer, David Beckham, and Jack Schlossberg, an American lawyer and grandson of the late John F. Kennedy. However, following Beckham's marriage to actress, Nicola Peltz in April 2022, he has since been discounted as a possible love interest of Alexandra's, while in the case of Schlossberg, a longstanding friendship between the latter's mother, Caroline Kennedy, and Alexandra's father, the former King William VI, has consistently been used as a justification for a supposed hidden relationship involving the two. Ultimately, should a marriage involving the two ever become a reality, it would notably be the second instance in which a British monarch is wedded to a Catholic spouse, and arguably the second instance as well in which a British monarch is wedded to a Jewish spouse, since Schlossberg is said to have observed Jewish traditions, holidays, and holy days despite his Catholic faith.
MODELLING & INTERESTS
Ironically, despite herself being closely associated with the modelling industry, Alexandra has never wholly dabbled in the modelling industry, a decision she initially attributed to her own self-described "weird-looking" facial features. However, in an interview with 60 Minutes, she otherwise attributed her decision to not pursue a career in modelling to her own mother, the American supermodel, Christy Turlington, whom in a separate interview with Women's Wear Daily, had spoken of the modelling industry being "surrounded by predators", a claim Alexandra later reiterated in her aforementioned interview. In addition to that, she also claimed that in the weeks immediately following her May 2019 coronation, she was then reportedly offered by the editor of the popular American magazine, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue to possibly appear on the magazine's annual cover that year, alongside her aunt, the Princess Royal, whom is herself an established supermodel. However, this offer was ultimately rejected by Alexandra, whom subsequently asserted that while she was "absolutely thrilled" at the thought of posing for a magazine alongside her much famous aunt, the act of "posing in a swimsuit for a magazine mostly subscribed to by men" was otherwise described by her as being "not my cup of tea." Meanwhile, on another occasion, she further claimed that "a physically attractive woman should ideally be defined more than just her looks, and more by who she is as a person, or perhaps by what she has achieved so far as a human being other than simply winning the genetic lottery."
Despite this, in celebrating their mother's 50th birthday, Alexandra, along with her siblings were all photographed together with their mother on the cover of a British Vogue magazine. Then, around a week later, she went on to pose alongside British supermodel, Kate Moss on the cover of the lifestyle magazine, Women's Health. The photoshoot itself was later described by Alexandra as "one of the best photoshoots I had ever done", while also referring to Moss herself as "possibly one of the greatest living blonde-haired woman in existence." However, her most recent modelling photoshoot came about in September 2021, when in celebrating her close friend, Kaia Gerber's 20th birthday, she, along with Gerber and their mothers together posed in a group photoshoot for Vogue, which was met with an overall positive reception by critics, with The Guardian describing it as "one of the most undeniably iconic group photoshoots in history", while CNN praised the overall setting of the group photoshoot, stating that "the appearance of two of the 1990s' most iconic supermodels, complete with their respective daughters, both of whom are unique and iconic in their own way is all the more refreshing in such troubled times."
In regards to her own personal interests, Alexandra is considerably known for her keen and unwavering interest in books and poetry, in which some of her reading materials had been previously exhibited to the public. For instance, around the month of October 2017, she became a royal patron of several organisations and charities related to poetry and reading, such as the National Center for Reading and Wordsworth Trust. Meanwhile, since 2018, Alexandra has also been a brand ambassador for the automotive manufacturer, McLaren Automotive, having personally owned a McLaren vehicle herself, namely her British-made sports car, the McLaren 650S.
Furthermore, Alexandra is also notably outspoken on the issue of anti-Semitism as well. Having been born partly Jewish herself, she has since occasionally appeared at a number of Jewish synagogues across the United Kingdom, along with having personally made several speeches in which she wholly condemned anti-Semitism, while also declaring that "the Jewish people must otherwise not be led or encouraged to sink down to their opponents' level by fostering other equally abhorrent forms of hate, particularly Islamophobia itself." She has also at times openly or either subtly criticised former US President Donald Trump, whom Alexandra reportedly attributed to "the rise of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic bigotry in a country known for both its diversity, as well as for its liberty." Meanwhile, through the use of a controversial op-ed article in a The New York Times, published on August 16th 2017, just a few days following the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Alexandra herself took to personally denouncing the event as "a blatant and unmistakable evidence of the increasingly problematic rise of both white supremacism and anti-Semitism in the United States", while also particularly criticising then-President Trump, whose controversial "very fine people on both sides" remark made in light of the incident being decried by the British royal as "an incomprehensible act of legitimising anti-Semites, as well as sympathisers of the long gone Confederacy."
In that same op-ed article, she also wrote, "Even if almost sixty years have passed since then, I could fairly say that the current situation in the United States, particularly in Charlottesville, Virginia does seem to greatly remind me of the times when my much beloved late grandmother first came here to the United Kingdom, as a proud Jewish woman with an uphill task of battling the prevalent anti-Semitism back then along with my much respected late grandfather."
Despite this, in celebrating their mother's 50th birthday, Alexandra, along with her siblings were all photographed together with their mother on the cover of a British Vogue magazine. Then, around a week later, she went on to pose alongside British supermodel, Kate Moss on the cover of the lifestyle magazine, Women's Health. The photoshoot itself was later described by Alexandra as "one of the best photoshoots I had ever done", while also referring to Moss herself as "possibly one of the greatest living blonde-haired woman in existence." However, her most recent modelling photoshoot came about in September 2021, when in celebrating her close friend, Kaia Gerber's 20th birthday, she, along with Gerber and their mothers together posed in a group photoshoot for Vogue, which was met with an overall positive reception by critics, with The Guardian describing it as "one of the most undeniably iconic group photoshoots in history", while CNN praised the overall setting of the group photoshoot, stating that "the appearance of two of the 1990s' most iconic supermodels, complete with their respective daughters, both of whom are unique and iconic in their own way is all the more refreshing in such troubled times."
In regards to her own personal interests, Alexandra is considerably known for her keen and unwavering interest in books and poetry, in which some of her reading materials had been previously exhibited to the public. For instance, around the month of October 2017, she became a royal patron of several organisations and charities related to poetry and reading, such as the National Center for Reading and Wordsworth Trust. Meanwhile, since 2018, Alexandra has also been a brand ambassador for the automotive manufacturer, McLaren Automotive, having personally owned a McLaren vehicle herself, namely her British-made sports car, the McLaren 650S.
Furthermore, Alexandra is also notably outspoken on the issue of anti-Semitism as well. Having been born partly Jewish herself, she has since occasionally appeared at a number of Jewish synagogues across the United Kingdom, along with having personally made several speeches in which she wholly condemned anti-Semitism, while also declaring that "the Jewish people must otherwise not be led or encouraged to sink down to their opponents' level by fostering other equally abhorrent forms of hate, particularly Islamophobia itself." She has also at times openly or either subtly criticised former US President Donald Trump, whom Alexandra reportedly attributed to "the rise of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic bigotry in a country known for both its diversity, as well as for its liberty." Meanwhile, through the use of a controversial op-ed article in a The New York Times, published on August 16th 2017, just a few days following the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Alexandra herself took to personally denouncing the event as "a blatant and unmistakable evidence of the increasingly problematic rise of both white supremacism and anti-Semitism in the United States", while also particularly criticising then-President Trump, whose controversial "very fine people on both sides" remark made in light of the incident being decried by the British royal as "an incomprehensible act of legitimising anti-Semites, as well as sympathisers of the long gone Confederacy."
In that same op-ed article, she also wrote, "Even if almost sixty years have passed since then, I could fairly say that the current situation in the United States, particularly in Charlottesville, Virginia does seem to greatly remind me of the times when my much beloved late grandmother first came here to the United Kingdom, as a proud Jewish woman with an uphill task of battling the prevalent anti-Semitism back then along with my much respected late grandfather."
TRIVIA
- As the heiress to both the royal family's billion dollar shipping company, Southampton Line, and the English football club, Buckingham F.C., both of which are currently owned by her father, the Duke of Hanover, Alexandra is thereby expected to become the richest queen regnant in the world, with a projected net worth of up to $1.1 billion (£844 million).
- In an interview with the BBC, it was revealed by Alexandra's father, the Duke of Hanover that in 1996, in a ploy to minimise the immediate media attention resulting from Alexandra's birth that year, Buckingham Palace was ordered to announce that the newborn princess had instead been supposedly born in the United Kingdom, as opposed to in the United States, so as to draw attention away from Alexandra and her mother, both of whom were living in New York at the time.
- Despite not being legally required to own a passport of her own, Alexandra is largely rumoured to have in fact owned one herself, supposedly for the sole purpose of traveling to any country in the world incognito, with the supposed passport bearing the name of Elizabeth Morgan, an alias she assumed while furthering her studies in the United States in order to avoid the local media.
- In accordance with the Jewish matrilineal descent rule, she is thus considered to be the second British of Jewish descent of the United Kingdom after her father, King William VI, while also being the very first British queen regnant to be of Jewish descent herself.
- By January 15th 2025, Alexandra is expected to become the longest reigning British queen regnant in history, thereby surpassing Queen Anne of the House of Stuart, whom reigned as the first British monarch from May 1707 to August 1714 following the passing of the Acts of Union.
- In addition to personally owning a number of residences, which among others, includes the Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Sandringham House in Norfolk, England, Alexandra also personally owns a number of properties located abroad as well, which includes two properties in the United States, namely Wales House in Albany, New York, and the former residence of the late actress, Katharine Hepburn in Fenwick, Connecticut, followed by an estate located on the Greek island of Crete, another on the island of Malta, and lastly, an estate in Whangarei, New Zealand.
- After her father, she is the second British monarch to date to be born to a commoner mother and a father of royalty, and also the second to be born to a mother of an American nationality, also after her father.
CONTROVERSIES
Around March 2018, it was then reported that Sheikha Latifa, the daughter of Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, had been caught by UAE commandos in the Indian Ocean while attempting to flee from her home country. In response to this, a meeting between the princess and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson was subsequently arranged, although the outcome of the meeting itself, in which Robinson claimed that the princess was well within safety of her family's care, was heavily criticised by human rights groups, while others continued to seek for a full clarification regarding the princess's actual whereabouts and the latter's current physical and mental state as well. Then, around January 2019, Sky News, a prominent British news network published an article which spoke of an alleged private phone call session dated May 2018 involving both the Queen herself and Sheikha Latifa's father, Sheikh Mohammed, whom is also the incumbent Prime Minister of Dubai. The alleged phone call, through which Alexandra reportedly urged the Dubai Prime Minister to immediately clarify the situation, in light of the princess's forced return to the United Arab Emirates, immediately provoked both positive and negative responses from various commentators, while Buckingham Palace opted to remain generally silent on the overall issue itself, although Mary Williams of The Guardian newspaper otherwise wrote, "Irrespective of the veracity of this supposed phone call itself, it is imperative that the Queen, whom has had her own fair share of association and history with the Dubai royal family, should otherwise be involved to some degree in the whole situation itself, as she is arguably the most high-ranking intermediary with ties to both sides in the overall situation", while an article from The Daily Telegraph otherwise urged the Queen to "keep her hands out and clean of such a dirty and scandalous drama."
At the same time, a state visit by Alexandra to the UAE later that June, during which she met both the Emirati President, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the country's the Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed himself, a private, closed-door meeting between Alexandra and the Prime Minister was said to have then taken place, albeit with no apparent success, while a Buckingham Palace insider soon afterwards said, "It was a rather tense but civil meeting and the best we could assume is that there's going to be more of it to come afterwards." On December 3rd 2019, Alexandra issued an official statement concerning the situation, in which she expressed her wish that "Sheikha Latifa be treated as humanely as a family member would deserve from the other." Eventually, following a statement by the princess's cousin, Marcus Essabri that the Dubai princess is "happy and well", Alexandra herself took to publicly congratulating the efforts of the Free Latifa campaign, as well as other groups involved, for the "triumphant success in ensuring that a simple and basic human could never be denied his or her rights to freedom." At the same time, Alexandra has also expressed her own personal desire to meet Sheikha Latifa herself in private, although this desire itself has otherwise been reportedly put on hold due to supposed safety concerns.
That same year, Alexandra herself would once more become the center of another Dubai-related controversy, when following a divorce from the Dubai ruler himself, the Jordanian princess, Haya bint Hussein was reported to have left for the United Kingdom along with her two children under the supposed intent of seeking asylum, claiming domestic abuses inflicted by the Sheikh himself. In the following months, amidst proceedings initiated by the Sheikh seeking to have the princess's two children legally returned to Dubai, the sighting of both Alexandra and Princess Haya at the 2019 Royal Ascot quickly proved to be a source of controversy, with an article by The Sun claiming that the princess, whom currently lives nearby Kensington Palace has sought an official form of protection from the British royal family, a decision which was supposedly influenced by a previous long lasting friendship between the princess's father, the late King Hussein of Jordan with both the Queen's late grandfather and father respectively. On May 23rd the following year, the two were photographed together at Buckingham Palace apparently celebrating the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, with an accompanying caption which was seen by some as a subtle offer of reconciliation between both the princess and the Sheikh, although in retrospect, no apparent reply was ever put out by the latter himself, whom was later accused in October 2021 of an attempted hacking of Princess Haya's phone through the use of the Israeli Pegasus spyware by the United Kingdom's High Court.
At the same time, a state visit by Alexandra to the UAE later that June, during which she met both the Emirati President, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the country's the Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed himself, a private, closed-door meeting between Alexandra and the Prime Minister was said to have then taken place, albeit with no apparent success, while a Buckingham Palace insider soon afterwards said, "It was a rather tense but civil meeting and the best we could assume is that there's going to be more of it to come afterwards." On December 3rd 2019, Alexandra issued an official statement concerning the situation, in which she expressed her wish that "Sheikha Latifa be treated as humanely as a family member would deserve from the other." Eventually, following a statement by the princess's cousin, Marcus Essabri that the Dubai princess is "happy and well", Alexandra herself took to publicly congratulating the efforts of the Free Latifa campaign, as well as other groups involved, for the "triumphant success in ensuring that a simple and basic human could never be denied his or her rights to freedom." At the same time, Alexandra has also expressed her own personal desire to meet Sheikha Latifa herself in private, although this desire itself has otherwise been reportedly put on hold due to supposed safety concerns.
That same year, Alexandra herself would once more become the center of another Dubai-related controversy, when following a divorce from the Dubai ruler himself, the Jordanian princess, Haya bint Hussein was reported to have left for the United Kingdom along with her two children under the supposed intent of seeking asylum, claiming domestic abuses inflicted by the Sheikh himself. In the following months, amidst proceedings initiated by the Sheikh seeking to have the princess's two children legally returned to Dubai, the sighting of both Alexandra and Princess Haya at the 2019 Royal Ascot quickly proved to be a source of controversy, with an article by The Sun claiming that the princess, whom currently lives nearby Kensington Palace has sought an official form of protection from the British royal family, a decision which was supposedly influenced by a previous long lasting friendship between the princess's father, the late King Hussein of Jordan with both the Queen's late grandfather and father respectively. On May 23rd the following year, the two were photographed together at Buckingham Palace apparently celebrating the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, with an accompanying caption which was seen by some as a subtle offer of reconciliation between both the princess and the Sheikh, although in retrospect, no apparent reply was ever put out by the latter himself, whom was later accused in October 2021 of an attempted hacking of Princess Haya's phone through the use of the Israeli Pegasus spyware by the United Kingdom's High Court.
Around a month after her May 2019 coronation, the Queen had been scheduled to perform a state visit to the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia. However, when knowledge of the state visit became public just a few days prior to the commencement of the state visit itself, it promptly became a subject of considerable controversy within the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country, with polIticians belonging to the Islamist Malaysian Islamic Party demanding the government to cancel the planned state visit under the basis of "preserving Islam's dignity", as declared by the party's president, Abdul Hadi Awang. At the same time, rumours also began circulating that mass protests are expected to be held ahead of and throughout the entirety of the state visit, with the scale of the protests being supposedly nationwide. Meanwhile, a number of local British politicians, including the North East Somerset MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, also called for a termination of the planned state visit, claiming that "no responsible government would sacrifice or throw the Queen into a pack of hungry wolves."
Nevertheless, on June 12th, and at approximately 5:30 P.M local time, the state visit went ahead as planned, with the British entourage arriving first at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, before promptly proceeding to the National Palace, where she was received by Sultan Abdullah of Pahang, the reigning Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia. Meanwhile, as the customary state dinner was held at the royal palace that night, scores of protesters begin to form just outside of the gates of the royal residence, demanding an immediate end to the state visit, although they were soon dispersed by local authorities. Throughout the following days, Alexandra herself went ahead with a pre-scheduled visit to several prominent locations in Malaysia, which included the Malaysian National Museum in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, the Taman Negara, a national park in the state of Pahang, and the prominent 16th-century Portuguese fort of A Famosa, situated in the state of Malacca. In following security recommendations proposed by both the British MI6 agency and the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs, the Queen was reportedly given a maximum duration of approximately ten minutes to spend time in each designated location before moving on to another, while the Queen's security detail was promptly reinforced. In the midst of this, she also briefly met with the Johor Crown Prince, Tunku Ismail Idris, with whom she then held a closed doors meeting on the topic of football, which was later believed to have led to a friendly match between England's Buckingham F.C., the football club owned by Alexandra's own father and Malaysia's Johor Darul Ta'zim Football Club, which is otherwise led by Tunku Ismail himself currently serving as the club's president.
The planned match eventually took place on July 2nd at the Larkin Stadium in Johor, in which the English club comfortably defeated their Malaysian opponent with a score of 2-0 thanks to individual goals by strikers, Joshua Kimmich and Ivan Perišić respectively. Both Alexandra and Tunku Ismail personally attended the football match, with Alexandra herself in particular travelling to the state by way of the Johor-Singapore Causeway, in order to avoid any future complications, before later departing back home in the same manner. In the aftermath of the match, the two royals exchanged balls with one another, with both balls bearing either the Queen's or the Johor Crown Prince's respective signatures.
Moreover, many local media outlets noted the absence of a meeting between the Queen herself and then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, whose infamous track record of anti-Semitic statements reportedly being a point of contention for the British monarch, although, the situation was soon mended with the Malaysian government promptly choosing then-Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to meet the Queen herself in the absence of the Prime Minister, whom was otherwise declared to be "incapable of smoothly executing his appropriate set of duties for the time being." The meeting took place at the Perdana Putra building, which is itself the office complex of the Malaysian prime minister located in the administrative capital city of Putrajaya, after which both the Queen and the then-Deputy Prime Minister embarked on a cruise along Putrajaya Lake, an experienced that was reportedly filled with "mostly joy and laughter", so much so that Alexandra herself, whom in her farewell address before departing the country, described Putrajaya as a "wonderful and brilliant city."
Eventually, after approximately five days long, the state visit itself ultimately concluded without any incident, with the British entourage safely departing from the Penang International Airport back for the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the High Commissioner of Malaysia to the United Kingdom, Mohamad Sadik Kethergany, promptly issued an official statement of apology to the British government, in which he apologised on behalf of the Malaysian government for the "unwanted disturbances and tribulations surrounding the Queen's state visit to Malaysia from the 12th to 17th of June 2019", while Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, whom in responding to criticism surrounding his decision to allow the state visit to proceed, otherwise declared that "the Foreign Office has absolutely taken all necessary steps and measures in conjunction with Malaysian authorities as to ensure the complete safety of the Queen during Her Majesty's state visit to the country." Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC held just a few days after the state visit concluded, the then-Malaysian Prime Minister otherwise stressed that "regardless of the current state of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Malaysian Muslims will never be muted or silenced in their advocacy for the rights of Palestinians oppressed by the Zionist regime", while also claiming that "it is illogical to think that the presence of a Jewish Queen of England would not stir up the Malaysian society, whom have long been the opponents of Jewish world domination and international Zionism." The interview was largely criticised and negatively received in multiple countries, particularly in the United Kingdom, where a large number of rallies in London were held in response to the aforementioned interview, calling for sanctions to be imposed on the controversial Malaysian prime minister, while then-Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu also criticised Mahathir's remarks, calling it "vapidly anti-Semitic and overly dangerous in nature".
On the other hand, while his remarks were largely met with a positive response from the majority of the Malaysian public, it was otherwise met with some criticism by a few, including the veteran politician and MP for Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang, whom, in a speech to supporters, said, "While we would continue to support the Prime Minister as a key ally of the governing Pakatan Harapan coalition, we could not help but otherwise voice our concerns regarding the Prime Minister's recent statements, which we fear would jeopardise and potentially rob Malaysia of a key ally in the United Kingdom."
A leading British media outlet, The Guardian subsequently noted that "in an ironic twist of Mr. Mahathir's words in the interview, a majority of Brits have indeed been stirred up as a result of the controversial state visit, with the only difference being that they are not rallying against the Queen, but in support of Her Majesty instead." Later on, in an episode of her younger sister's podcast series, British Girls: Growing Up & Its Challenges, Alexandra herself described the controversial state visit as "the most difficult state visit I had to do as Queen", while otherwise asserting that she would "not hesitate to visit other Muslim countries around the globe as the United Kingdom's head of state." Evidently, she has since visited atleast two other Muslim countries, namely the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
A few days later, an article by The Guardian later spoke of a supposed rumour which claimed that the British government, whom in anticipation of the Queen's contentious state visit to Malaysia, had covertly flew an undisclosed number of special forces operatives, believed to have been from both the British SAS and the Hanoverian SRU units just a few days prior to the day of the state visit, with the operatives themselves being reportedly sent on a "search and destroy" mission, in conjunction with the Royal Malaysia Police's special forces unit, VAT 69 Commando and its elite tactical unit, otherwise known as UTK (English: Special Actions Unit), so as to prevent any potential terror attacks from ever being conducted against the British monarch while she is visiting the Southeast Asian country. In response to the article, the Secretary of State for Defence, Peter Aldous promptly confirmed the rumour's validity, while otherwise asserting that the covert operation was "unanimously approved by all the relevant parties in both the British and Malaysian governments." She also emphasised the fact that the Queen herself had safely returned back to the United Kingdom from her state visit to the country meant that "the whole operation had been a resounding and an overall success."
The following July, controversy arose once more when the Daily Mail reported on an alleged leak of a voice recording, purportedly that of the Queen's, in which she had supposedly referred to members of the Malaysian Islamist political party, PAS, and its president, Abdul Hadi Awang as "a cadre of Taliban terrorists", which soon provoked an overwhelmingly negative response and outcry from the top ranks of the Islamist political party and from the Malaysian government as well, with then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad calling on the Queen to "immediately apologise for her clearly Islamophobic remark", while British Prime Minister David Cameron otherwise expressed a slightly more cautious response, warning the public not to "trust anything that comes out of the Daily Mail wholeheartedly." Eventually, an investigation by an independent group of experts concluded that the voice recording was "most likely fabricated, perhaps for malicious reasons." Consequently, Alexandra herself soon filed a lawsuit against the British tabloid on the grounds of defamation, thereby sparking one of the most infamous trials in modern British history. Then, after a two weeks long legal battle, the UK Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favour of the British monarch, whom was then awarded £500 million in damages, the largest amount of settlement ever made in the history of successful lawsuits against the infamous British tabloid. Moreover, in an official statement released soon afterwards, the court also declared that "all media outlets in the United Kingdom shall cease or refrain from both publishing and circulating the aforementioned story any further, in light of the recent revelation concerning the story's authenticity."
In the weeks since, rumours begin to flout claiming that the longtime British tabloid was supposedly nearing a state of bankruptcy as a result of the hefty sum paid during the trial, although this was soon denied by the 4th Viscount Rothermere, the owner and shareholding controller of the Daily Mail and General Trust, a media company that includes the Daily Mail itself. Nonetheless, some media outlets have since referred to the incident as "the trial that shook the Daily Mail" while some have also referred to it as "the trial of the 21st century."
Nevertheless, on June 12th, and at approximately 5:30 P.M local time, the state visit went ahead as planned, with the British entourage arriving first at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, before promptly proceeding to the National Palace, where she was received by Sultan Abdullah of Pahang, the reigning Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia. Meanwhile, as the customary state dinner was held at the royal palace that night, scores of protesters begin to form just outside of the gates of the royal residence, demanding an immediate end to the state visit, although they were soon dispersed by local authorities. Throughout the following days, Alexandra herself went ahead with a pre-scheduled visit to several prominent locations in Malaysia, which included the Malaysian National Museum in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, the Taman Negara, a national park in the state of Pahang, and the prominent 16th-century Portuguese fort of A Famosa, situated in the state of Malacca. In following security recommendations proposed by both the British MI6 agency and the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs, the Queen was reportedly given a maximum duration of approximately ten minutes to spend time in each designated location before moving on to another, while the Queen's security detail was promptly reinforced. In the midst of this, she also briefly met with the Johor Crown Prince, Tunku Ismail Idris, with whom she then held a closed doors meeting on the topic of football, which was later believed to have led to a friendly match between England's Buckingham F.C., the football club owned by Alexandra's own father and Malaysia's Johor Darul Ta'zim Football Club, which is otherwise led by Tunku Ismail himself currently serving as the club's president.
The planned match eventually took place on July 2nd at the Larkin Stadium in Johor, in which the English club comfortably defeated their Malaysian opponent with a score of 2-0 thanks to individual goals by strikers, Joshua Kimmich and Ivan Perišić respectively. Both Alexandra and Tunku Ismail personally attended the football match, with Alexandra herself in particular travelling to the state by way of the Johor-Singapore Causeway, in order to avoid any future complications, before later departing back home in the same manner. In the aftermath of the match, the two royals exchanged balls with one another, with both balls bearing either the Queen's or the Johor Crown Prince's respective signatures.
Moreover, many local media outlets noted the absence of a meeting between the Queen herself and then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, whose infamous track record of anti-Semitic statements reportedly being a point of contention for the British monarch, although, the situation was soon mended with the Malaysian government promptly choosing then-Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to meet the Queen herself in the absence of the Prime Minister, whom was otherwise declared to be "incapable of smoothly executing his appropriate set of duties for the time being." The meeting took place at the Perdana Putra building, which is itself the office complex of the Malaysian prime minister located in the administrative capital city of Putrajaya, after which both the Queen and the then-Deputy Prime Minister embarked on a cruise along Putrajaya Lake, an experienced that was reportedly filled with "mostly joy and laughter", so much so that Alexandra herself, whom in her farewell address before departing the country, described Putrajaya as a "wonderful and brilliant city."
Eventually, after approximately five days long, the state visit itself ultimately concluded without any incident, with the British entourage safely departing from the Penang International Airport back for the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the High Commissioner of Malaysia to the United Kingdom, Mohamad Sadik Kethergany, promptly issued an official statement of apology to the British government, in which he apologised on behalf of the Malaysian government for the "unwanted disturbances and tribulations surrounding the Queen's state visit to Malaysia from the 12th to 17th of June 2019", while Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, whom in responding to criticism surrounding his decision to allow the state visit to proceed, otherwise declared that "the Foreign Office has absolutely taken all necessary steps and measures in conjunction with Malaysian authorities as to ensure the complete safety of the Queen during Her Majesty's state visit to the country." Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC held just a few days after the state visit concluded, the then-Malaysian Prime Minister otherwise stressed that "regardless of the current state of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Malaysian Muslims will never be muted or silenced in their advocacy for the rights of Palestinians oppressed by the Zionist regime", while also claiming that "it is illogical to think that the presence of a Jewish Queen of England would not stir up the Malaysian society, whom have long been the opponents of Jewish world domination and international Zionism." The interview was largely criticised and negatively received in multiple countries, particularly in the United Kingdom, where a large number of rallies in London were held in response to the aforementioned interview, calling for sanctions to be imposed on the controversial Malaysian prime minister, while then-Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu also criticised Mahathir's remarks, calling it "vapidly anti-Semitic and overly dangerous in nature".
On the other hand, while his remarks were largely met with a positive response from the majority of the Malaysian public, it was otherwise met with some criticism by a few, including the veteran politician and MP for Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang, whom, in a speech to supporters, said, "While we would continue to support the Prime Minister as a key ally of the governing Pakatan Harapan coalition, we could not help but otherwise voice our concerns regarding the Prime Minister's recent statements, which we fear would jeopardise and potentially rob Malaysia of a key ally in the United Kingdom."
A leading British media outlet, The Guardian subsequently noted that "in an ironic twist of Mr. Mahathir's words in the interview, a majority of Brits have indeed been stirred up as a result of the controversial state visit, with the only difference being that they are not rallying against the Queen, but in support of Her Majesty instead." Later on, in an episode of her younger sister's podcast series, British Girls: Growing Up & Its Challenges, Alexandra herself described the controversial state visit as "the most difficult state visit I had to do as Queen", while otherwise asserting that she would "not hesitate to visit other Muslim countries around the globe as the United Kingdom's head of state." Evidently, she has since visited atleast two other Muslim countries, namely the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
A few days later, an article by The Guardian later spoke of a supposed rumour which claimed that the British government, whom in anticipation of the Queen's contentious state visit to Malaysia, had covertly flew an undisclosed number of special forces operatives, believed to have been from both the British SAS and the Hanoverian SRU units just a few days prior to the day of the state visit, with the operatives themselves being reportedly sent on a "search and destroy" mission, in conjunction with the Royal Malaysia Police's special forces unit, VAT 69 Commando and its elite tactical unit, otherwise known as UTK (English: Special Actions Unit), so as to prevent any potential terror attacks from ever being conducted against the British monarch while she is visiting the Southeast Asian country. In response to the article, the Secretary of State for Defence, Peter Aldous promptly confirmed the rumour's validity, while otherwise asserting that the covert operation was "unanimously approved by all the relevant parties in both the British and Malaysian governments." She also emphasised the fact that the Queen herself had safely returned back to the United Kingdom from her state visit to the country meant that "the whole operation had been a resounding and an overall success."
The following July, controversy arose once more when the Daily Mail reported on an alleged leak of a voice recording, purportedly that of the Queen's, in which she had supposedly referred to members of the Malaysian Islamist political party, PAS, and its president, Abdul Hadi Awang as "a cadre of Taliban terrorists", which soon provoked an overwhelmingly negative response and outcry from the top ranks of the Islamist political party and from the Malaysian government as well, with then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad calling on the Queen to "immediately apologise for her clearly Islamophobic remark", while British Prime Minister David Cameron otherwise expressed a slightly more cautious response, warning the public not to "trust anything that comes out of the Daily Mail wholeheartedly." Eventually, an investigation by an independent group of experts concluded that the voice recording was "most likely fabricated, perhaps for malicious reasons." Consequently, Alexandra herself soon filed a lawsuit against the British tabloid on the grounds of defamation, thereby sparking one of the most infamous trials in modern British history. Then, after a two weeks long legal battle, the UK Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favour of the British monarch, whom was then awarded £500 million in damages, the largest amount of settlement ever made in the history of successful lawsuits against the infamous British tabloid. Moreover, in an official statement released soon afterwards, the court also declared that "all media outlets in the United Kingdom shall cease or refrain from both publishing and circulating the aforementioned story any further, in light of the recent revelation concerning the story's authenticity."
In the weeks since, rumours begin to flout claiming that the longtime British tabloid was supposedly nearing a state of bankruptcy as a result of the hefty sum paid during the trial, although this was soon denied by the 4th Viscount Rothermere, the owner and shareholding controller of the Daily Mail and General Trust, a media company that includes the Daily Mail itself. Nonetheless, some media outlets have since referred to the incident as "the trial that shook the Daily Mail" while some have also referred to it as "the trial of the 21st century."
TITLES & HONOURS
- 11 May 1996 - 15 January 1997: Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra of Wales
- 15 January 1997 - 11 May 1999: Her Royal Highness The Princess Alexandra
- 11 May 1999 - 2 June 1999: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall
- 2 June 1999 - 13 October 2017: Her Royal Highness The Princess of the Welsh
- 13 October 2017 - Present: Her Majesty The Queen of the British
National & Commonwealth Honours:
- Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter
- Recipient of the Royal Family Order of King Charles III
- Recipient of the Royal Family Order of King William VI
- Recipient of the Medal of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of King Charles III
- Sovereign of the Royal Guelphic Order
- Sovereign of the Order of St. George
- Sovereign of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle
- Sovereign of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick
- Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath
- Sovereign of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George
- Sovereign of the Most Gallant Order of British Excellence
- Sovereign of the Distinguished Service Order
- Sovereign of the Williamite Cross
- Sovereign of the Order of Canada
- Sovereign of the Order of Australia
- Sovereign of the Order of New Zealand
- Sovereign of the Order of Barbados
- Sovereign of the Order of St Lucia
- Sovereign of the Order of Solomon Islands
- Sovereign of the Order of Belize
- Sovereign of the Order of Antigua and Barbuda
- Sovereign of the Order of St Christopher and Nevis
- Sovereign of the Order of Grenada
- Sovereign of the Order of Tuvalu
- Sovereign of the Order of Puerto Rico
Foreign Honours:
- Knight - of the Order of the Golden Fleece
- Grand Cross With Collar - of the Order of St Olav
- Member - of the Royal Order of the Seraphim
- Commander Grand Cross - of the Royal Order of the Sword
- Knight - of the Order of the Elephant
- Grand Commander - of the Order of the Dannebrog
- Collar - of the Order of Zayed
- Grand Collar - of the Order of the Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, and of Valour, Loyalty and Merit
- Grand Cross - of the National Order of the Legion of Honour
- Grand Cross - of the National Order of Merit
- Companion in Gold - of the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo
- Collar of the Special Class - of the Order of Muhammad
- Grand Cross Special Class - of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Grand Cross - of the National Order of Madagascar
- Collar and Grand Order - of the Order of the Chrysanthemum
- Golden Medal - of Merit of Japanese Red Cross
- Golden Medal - of Honorary Member of Japanese Red Cross
- Dame - of the Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Republic
- Honorary Member - of the Order of the Crown of the Realm
- Honorary First Class - of the Order of Temasek
- Grand Cordon - of the Order of Leopold
- Knight Grand Cross - of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
- Grand Cross with Gold Star - of the Order of José Matías Delgado
- Commander Grand Cross - of the Order of the White Rose of Finland with Collar
- Collar - of the Order of the Aztec Eagle
- Grand Cordon - of the Order of the Star of Jordan
- Collar - of the Order of al-Hussein bin Ali
- Grand Cross - of the Order of the Redeemer
- Knight with the Collar - of the Order of Pope Pius IX