The biggest scandals of the British royal family

Directly after his father died in 1936, Edward VIII took the throne. Less than a year later, he renounced it.

That's because he had fallen hard for Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who'd already been divorced once and was working through her second. His proposal of marriage caused social and political uproar, since the Church of England technically forbade Edward from marrying someone who'd been divorced. Eventually, Edward was forced to abdicate.

"I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King [...] without the help and support of the woman I love," he said in a radio address to the nation in December 1936.

Edward and Simpson married in 1937 and stayed together until Edward's death in 1972. (And she wasn't the only commoner who married into royalty.)

Captain Peter Townsend was a Royal Air Force officer who served as an equerry — essentially an attendant to the royal family. He spent a great deal of time with Margaret, and before long, the two fell in love. The only problem was that he was married.

Things got even more scandalous in 1953 when Townsend divorced his wife and proposed to Margaret, but the rules of the Church of England forbade such a marriage. (After all, Margaret's uncle Edward VIII had to relinquish the throne in order to marry a divorcee.)

The relationship came to a heartbreaking close in 1955 when they called off the engagement. There was simply no way for Captain Townsend and Princess Margaret to have a happy ending.

Not long after calling things off with Townsend, Margaret married photographer Anthony Armstrong Jones. It was the first royal wedding to ever be televised.

A few years later, their union became a source of "growing public ridicule," The New York Times reported. They fought in public, Margaret took long vacations without her husband, and rumors swirled around her close friendship with a man 17 years her junior.

In 1976, the couple announced their separation, and two years later, they were officially divorced. Margaret became the first royal to divorce since Henry VIII, who reigned way back in the 1500s.

In 1992 — while then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana were still married — media outlets published the transcript of a conversation between Diana and an alleged lover named James Gilbey. In the conversation, Gilbey told Diana that he loved her and called her by the pet name "Squidgy" 53 times. That's how the scandal earned the memorable moniker "Squidgygate."

Later, in an interview, Diana confirmed that the conversation was real, but denied that it was adulterous in nature.

Not long after Diana's leaked phone call, Charles, Queen Elizabeth's oldest son, had one of his own.

An Australian magazine published the transcript of a call between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles — a longtime married friend. The transcript all but confirmed what many rumors had postulated: That Charles and Camilla were romantically involved.

In one of the more confounding parts of the conversation, the couple joked about Charles turning into a tampon in order to "live inside" Camilla's trousers.

Later that year, Charles and Diana announced their separation.

In 1995, Diana sat down for a tell-all solo interview with journalist Martin Bashir to talk about the immense pressures of public life and her struggles with self-harm, postpartum depression, and bulimia. She also revealed that she knew about Charles' affair with Camilla. ("There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," she famously quipped.) And Diana even admitted that she'd been unfaithful to Charles, saying that she had been "in love" with James Hewitt, her riding instructor.

The BBC interview itself has since come under scrutiny. An article in the Sunday Times in 2020 alleged that Bashir manipulated Diana into doing the interview by showing her brother, Charles Spencer, fake bank statements that purported to show the media had been paying royal associates for information about her. A 2021 inquiry concluded that Bashir acted in a "deceitful" way, and the BBC and Bashir apologized.

A few weeks after the interview, the Queen herself urged her son and daughter-in-law to divorce, and the following year, they made it official. Charles and Camilla, on the other hand, wed in 2005 and are still together.

Princess Anne, the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, married Olympic equestrian Mark Phillips in 1973. The couple spent large swaths of time apart and didn't appear to be happy — People magazine described the marriage as a "joyless sham."

Then, in spring 1989, a British newspaper obtained stolen copies of letters written to Anne by one of her equerries, a British naval officer named Timothy Laurence. Though the content of the letters wasn't made public, tabloids described them as "extremely intimate" and "too hot to handle."

In 1992, Anne announced that she was divorcing Phillips, and that she planned to marry Laurence. The two have been together ever since.

Sarah Ferguson (popularly known as "Fergie") married Queen Elizabeth's son, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, in 1986.

Six years later, scandal erupted: Paparazzi photographers captured Fergie vacationing with an American financial advisor named John Bryan. In one photo — an image quickly plastered on the front page of The Sun — Bryan appeared to be licking Fergie's foot.

Things didn't go very well after that. Fergie and Andrew separated in 1992, the same year as Charles and Diana, and divorced in 1996.

Fergie's marital drama didn't end after the divorce. In 2010, a News of the World journalist posed as a businessman and said he got Fergie to accept a £500,00 (about $633,000) bribe in exchange for access to her ex-husband, The Guardian reported.

A video recording of their meeting was released to the media, and Fergie later apologized, saying she'd made a "serious lapse in judgment," Reuters reported.

After admitting to his father that he'd tried marijuana, a 17-year-old Prince Harry spent a day at the Featherstone Lodge rehabilitation center in London, The Telegraph reported.

A statement from the royal family said Harry had agreed to visit the clinic "to learn about the possible consequences of starting to take cannabis."

In January 2005, British paper The Sun published a front-page photo of Harry wearing a Nazi armband, apparently at a costume party.

The prince, who was 20 at the time, quickly released a statement of apology that read: "Prince Harry has apologised for any offence or embarrassment he has caused. He realises it was a poor choice of costume."

The British tabloid published the naked photos of the prince in 2012, which were taken by another party-goer during a game of strip billiards in his hotel suite.

According to an anonymous source who was in attendance, the prince's security team appeared to be aware that people were taking photos.

"No one asked for our phones or anything about us when we arrived at the party," the source told The Sun. "It was obvious people were taking pictures."

At the time the pictures were taken, Prince William and Kate Middleton were staying in a private holiday home owned by the Queen's nephew, Viscount Linley.

After the couple won a lawsuit against the company, Closer was ordered to pay $118,000 in damages to William and Kate in 2017.

Thomas Markle's no-show at the royal wedding was thought to be due to his poor health, as he suffered a heart attack just days before Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot in Windsor back in May 2018.

However, in the year that followed, Thomas and the duchess appeared to have a strained relationship, with Thomas even speaking out against his daughter in several interviews with British tabloids.

Andrew served as the UK's trade envoy from 2001 through 2011, when he stepped down due to mounting criticism over some of his personal relationships, the BBC reported. Namely, he was close friends with American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This would not be the end of the matter, however.

Virginia Giuffre, pictured with Andrew above, accused Epstein of forcing her to have sex with the prince when she was just 17 years old in 2001.

The allegations from a 2015 defamation case resurfaced in the media as the case became unsealed. Andrew denied the claims, and a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace "emphatically denied" the allegations in an August 2019 statement provided to Business Insider.

Four days after a catastrophic interview with "BBC Newsnight" where he spoke about his friendship with Epstein, Andrew announced he would step down from his royal duties.

Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Giuffre died by suicide in 2025.

Markle sued the publication over the misuse of private information, infringement of copyright, and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018 after it published excerpts from the letter earlier this year. She won the lawsuit in 2021.

"I share this victory with each of you — because we all deserve justice and truth, and we all deserve better," Markle said in a statement.

A judge later rejected the publisher's application for permission to appeal but said it can take the application to the Court of Appeals. The publisher, Associated Newspapers, said it would.

The announcement said they "intend to step back as 'senior' members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen." They also wrote that they would split their time between North America and the UK.

The royal communications office followed up with a statement of their own.

"Discussions with The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are at an early stage," the Queen's statement read. "We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through."

The couple carried out their last official royal engagement at the annual Commonwealth Day service in London in March 2020. They later bought a home in California.

The two-hour primetime special was full of stunning revelations.

Markle told Winfrey that Kate Middleton made her cry the week of her wedding over a flower girl dress and not the other way around, as had been reported in tabloids. She also said members of the royal family had "concerns and conversations" about how dark Archie's skin would be before he was born, and The Firm told them that Archie wouldn't receive a title or security, breaking from protocol.

She also opened up about having suicidal thoughts amid constant tabloid criticism and racism, and said a senior member of the royal institution wouldn't let her seek help.

Harry revealed that his family cut him off financially in the first quarter of 2020, and that Charles stopped taking his phone calls before they announced they were stepping back from the royal family. He also said that it hurts that the royal family never acknowledged tabloids' racist treatment of Markle, and that none of the royal family members have reached out to apologize for the reasons he felt he had to leave.

Following the interview, Buckingham Palace released a statement on behalf of the Queen.

"The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan," the statement read.

"The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. Whilst some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.

"Harry, Meghan, and Archie will always be much loved family members."

The Times of London reported that Markle bullied two senior staff members during her time with the royal family.

Buckingham Palace released a statement days before Markle and Harry's tell-all interview, saying that they were "very concerned" about the allegations, and that their HR team was investigating the claims.

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex denied the claims to The Times, saying that the allegations were intended to undermine Prince Harry and Markle's interview with Oprah, calling it a "calculated smear campaign."

While the palace launched an investigation into allegations that Markle bullied royal staff, no such investigations were publicly made by the palace when Andrew faced scrutiny over his involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Royal biographers accused the palace of having double standards.

In August 2021, Virginia Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Andrew, accusing him of sexual assault.

She alleged that Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew in his New York mansion, in London, and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands in 2001 when she was 17.

The day after US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said the duke's motion to dismiss Giuffre's lawsuit was "denied in all respects," Buckingham Palace released a statement announcing that Andrew would no longer hold his royal patronages and military titles.

"With The Queen's approval and agreement, The Duke of York's military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to The Queen," a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said in a statement sent to Business Insider in 2022. "The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen."

In 2022, Andrew and Giuffre reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount.

Andrew was arrested at his home in Sandringham, Norfolk, on February 19 and was released from police custody several hours later. An investigation is ongoing.

The Justice Department's Epstein files revealed additional communications between Andrew and Epstein when the former prince was a UK trade envoy. Police conducted searches of his Sandringham home and at his former home in Windsor, Berkshire.

"I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office," Charles said in a statement. "What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities."

The king's statement continued: "In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation. Let me state clearly: the law must take its course. As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter. Meanwhile, my family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all."