Boos for Harry and Meghan, another embarrassment in a long list for the royal family

Heading towards St. Paul's Cathedral to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were greeted by both cheers and boos, journalists from Express and other media noted. A bit scandalous, to say the least, for a day that was supposed to be so cheerful.

The booing was a small stain on the celebration of Elizabeth's anniversary. What were the other moments that her family probably regrets from the past?

One of the family's most embarrassing events was repeated in 2020 with Channel 4 re-airing Diana's controversial interview on BBC's One Panorama in 1995. In the widely viewed but painfully open-hearted conversation, Diana talked about her failed marriage with Prince Charles.

It is rare that British royals go on live television and subject themselves to personal questions. After Diana in 1995, no one dared to do it. But then came Prince Andrew in November 2019.

(Image: BBC)

Asked on BBC about his alleged involvement in the trafficking scheme of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he gave a "train-wreck" of an interview in which he appeared unconvincing and unsympathetic. Instead of improving his image, he had ruined it.

The third son of Queen Elizabeth II has been linked to Epstein, the billionaire sex trafficker who took his own life while awaiting trial in prison in the summer of 2019. Since then, a victim of Epstein's trafficking circle has accused the prince of assaulting her up to three times.

(Image: New York Post)

It would never come to a court case between Andrew and his accuser, because they made an out-of-court settlement in 2022. According to the Daily Mail, the royal agreed to pay Roberts "£12 million" after she "claimed she was assaulted by Prince three times when she was 17." Although he denied the allegations, he agreed to the settlement in the US anyway.

The story of Andrew and the Epstein scheme may not be over yet. The sex trafficker's partner, Ghislaine Maxwell is a longtime friend of Andrew and currently awaiting her own trial. If she finds herself backed into a corner by the prosecution, she may reveal new details about the prince's involvement in the crime.

Due to the increasing uneasiness about Andrews' connections with the Epstein circle, the royal family has decided to remove him from the group of senior members of the royal family. He no longer holds the title 'His Royal Highness.'

Andrew was conspicuously absent during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee service in early June 2022. He announced that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and could not attend the celebrations. Media such as Newsweek or Metro argued, however, that the prince probably avoided the festivities to steer clear of the boos that his cousin Harry and PM Boris Johnson had gotten.

Going back in time, Andrew and his former wife Sarah Ferguson have always drawn overwhelmingly negative press. Married in 1986, they soon appeared to be estranged and allegedly even cheating on each other. They separated physically in 1992 and signed their divorce officially in 1996.

Sarah Ferguson's alleged infidelity is not her only public scandal. She's been criticized for her business dealings and also appeared on television in a questionable role. In 2010, 'News of the World' released a video of Ferguson accepting a briefcase with 32,000 euros as an advance payment in exchange for a meeting with Prince Andrew. The request for the meeting had been a setup by an undercover journalist, 'Hello' reported.

Ferguson's name has also appeared in the notorious Panama Papers in 2016, as one of the individuals and companies who avoided paying taxes in their own countries.

Sarah Ferguson's eccentric character was reportedly the reason for her being 'the least favorite in-law' of the Queen. Nowadays, however, Meghan Markle may have become a strong competitor for the position.

Ever since Meghan and Harry's departure from the royal family in January 2020, the couple have drawn public outrage on a regular basis. The BBC reported at the time that the royal family was "very disappointed" too.

In August 2020, a controversial biography revealed details about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's life in the palace and their decision to leave their official royal duties. The book, titled 'Finding Freedom,' did not please Queen Elizabeth II.

Once the public recovered from the couple's move to the US and the revelations about their motives, they hit it once again with explosive statements in an interview special with Oprah Winfrey. Among other things, the couple suggested that some people in the family had made racist remarks about their biracial son Archie.

Although their interview did not expand much on the relationship between brothers William and Harry, the book 'Finding Freedom' reveals some delicate details about their estrangement and the alleged enmity between Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle.

After Prince Harry left the British Royal House, many media outlets spoke of a distancing with his brother William. "Certainly, William and I are on different paths at the moment," Harry himself told the British network ITV. "I will always be here for him, just as I know he will be for me. But we don't see each other as much as we used to."

On the other side of the family, Meghan Markle's father has given her more than one headache. Thomas Markle appeared in various media to air his daughter's dirty laundry. He did not attend her wedding and bitterly criticized her and Harry's decision to leave the royal family. In the media, he would repeatedly say phrases like: "this is not the daughter I raised."

Photo: ITV ('Good Morning Britain')

In October of 2019, The Mail on Sunday published a private letter that Thomas Markle had received from his daughter. For the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, that was the last straw. They sued the newspaper.

"There comes a point when all that remains is to challenge this behavior because it destroys people and it destroys lives," Harry explained their decision. "It is simply bullying, something that frightens and silences people."

It was only a few months later that the couple suddenly announced they would leave for north America and not take on any more official duties for the royal family. A true bombshell.

These recent scandals only add to the long list of juicy stories the press has leaked about the royal family over time. Harry's younger years, for example, were marked by publications about his alleged party lifestyle. He also got into trouble for photos of him in a Nazi suit (in 'The Sun'), an Adam's costume (on TMZ), and in the company of lady friends the conservative family would not approve of.

His dad was no perfect offspring to Queen Elizabeth either. The relationship between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles has always been controversial. Their alleged rapprochement while he was still married to Diana of Wales and their continuing relationship after Charles's divorce, until they finally married on April 9, 2005, did not meet with the applause of all Brits.

During the marriage of Diana and Charles, tensions about his alleged infidelity were tangible. In Diana's 1995 interview with Martin Bashir, she broke her silence and recounted her journey of tears at Buckingham Palace. She also spoke of the love triangle that included her, Charles, and Camilla Parker Bowles: "There were three of us in that marriage. And that's a crowd."

Charles and Diana's marriage had seemed like a real fairy tale in the beginning. As we learned afterwards, nothing was further from the truth. In 1992, they unofficially separated and on August 28, 1996, they finally signed the divorce.

Only a year after the divorce, while prince Charles openly reunited with his Camilla, the life of the people's princess  - herself also in a new relationship - came to a brisk end. On August 31, 1997, her car crashed into the walls of a Parisian tunnel.

Along with Diana, her partner Dodi al Fayed and the driver of the vehicle, Henri Paul, died in the accident.

To this day, the dramatic death of Diana is surrounded by mystery. Conspiracy theories have circulated about a possible assassination attempt, a conspiracy in which Queen Elizabeth II herself could be involved, or even a possible pregnancy on the part of Diana.

The 1990s did not only see the rocky marriages of Charles and Andrew, but princess Anne was going through her own love crisis as well. In 1992, Anne initiated divorce proceedings against her husband, Captain Mark Phillips. The couple had already de facto separated in 1989.

According to some sources, Anne had then begun to correspond (affectionately) with another man: Commander Timothy Lawrence. It was no later than December 1992 that princess Anne married Commander Lawrence.

You may know the story of Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II's only sister, from the dramatic reconstruction of her life in 'The Crown.'  Margaret resigned in October 1955 to marry the love of her life, the divorced army captain Peter Townsend.

The union did not work out, though, and in 1960, Margaret married photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones instead. They lasted until 1978.

One of the earliest scandals in the twentieth century was that of Edward and his lover Wallis Simpson. On December 10, 1936, Edward renounced the throne and left it in the hands of his brother Albert. He made this decision out of love for the American Wallis Simpson, who had been divorced twice and was not to the liking of the majority of the British people.

After renouncing the throne, Edward went into exile in France and married his beloved Wallis Simpson there. His brother became King George VI and father of Elizabeth, the next Queen. If her uncle Edward hadn't fallen in love with someone other than his controversial lover, we wouldn't have Queen Elizabeth today.