In 1961, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, a second cousin of Prince Charles who was forced to leave the country at the age of four, married American businessman Howard Oxenberg. They had two daughters, starting a new American branch of royal cousins. The couple divorced five years later, and though Elizabeth moved to Britain, her daughters made their names in America. One of those daughters, Catherine Oxenberg, became famous when she starred in the ’80s soap Dynasty, while the other, Christina, became a socialite and writer. In a new essay for Tatler, Christina draws on her royal-related experience in the U.S. to predict that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be even more successful now that they’ve moved to California.
“Possibly too much is expected by the Brits from England’s onetime most eligible bachelor and his actress wife,” she writes, according to the Daily Mail. “To be adored in America, all Harry and Meghan need to do is pick up a dog from a shelter. Americans are easy to please. What draws scorn in England will be applauded in the States.” She adds that Americans are also happy to have their own “real-life princess” and that the American press is more likely to be “positive rather than petulant.”
Over the last few years, Princess Elizabeth’s daughters have been in the news because of their connection to two high-profile stories. Catherine is a protagonist in The Vow, HBO’s new docuseries about the people who brought down NXIVM, because her oldest daughter, India, was once involved in the secret “sorority” of women who were closest to the group’s leader, Keith Raniere. Elizabeth appears in an episode of the show, as Catherine is preparing a final effort to confront her daughter.
Christina has told Town & Country about her cousin Prince Andrew and spoken to the Daily Mail about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, with the latter described by the Mail as her acquaintance. She told the tabloid that she informed the FBI about a 1997 conversation she had with Maxwell. “[I’ll] never forget it,” she said. “We were alone. She said many things. All creepy. Unorthodox. Strange. I could not believe whatever she was saying was real. Stuff like: ‘Jeffrey and I have everyone on videotape!’”
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