Like Prince Harry, Here Are Other Royals Who Are Living as Private Citizens Outside of Their Home Countries
In 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shocked the world when they stepped down as senior royals and moved to California. The couple cited their desire for privacy and financial independence as a motivation for leaving Harry’s home country of the United Kingdom.
However, Harry was not the first royal to move abroad, and he will likely not be the last. There have been many royals who left their home countries to live as private citizens elsewhere. Check out the following list of royals from around the world who chose to follow opportunities in faraway lands.
Princess Madeleine of Sweden
In 2013, Princess Madeleine of Sweden married British-American financier Chris O’Neill. O’Neill refused to take a title in order to continue living as a private citizen.
Madeleine and O’Neill have three children together, and the couple has been living in different cities due to O’Neill’s career. They lived in New York City for some time before moving to London. Since 2018, the family has been residing in Miami.
Madeleine has been adapting well to life in the U.S. She said (via Hello!), “I now feel that I have good friends, and especially I have gotten to know some really nice mothers from school. In the US, parents are incredibly present in the schools, so it was very easy to make new friends with the community. It’s a full-time job just being a parent of a student there!”
Princess Mako of Japan
In 2021, Princess Mako of Japan made headlines after she gave up her royal titles to marry a commoner, as dictated by Japan’s Imperial Household Law.
Mako and her husband, Kei Komuro, are college sweethearts who started dating in 2013. Komuro is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and a paralegal at a law firm in New York City. After getting married, Mako moved to NYC, where she is now living as a private citizen.
As reported by the BBC, Mako and Kei have been called “Japan’s Harry and Meghan.”
Princess Haya
Princess Haya was born a princess of Jordan, with her father being the late King Hussein. Her mother is his third wife, Queen Alia. In 2004, Haya joined the royal family of Dubai when she married Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
However, in 2019, Haya’s marriage made headlines after she fled to Germany and sought political asylum. She later settled in the U.K. and filed for sole custody of their two children.
Many people have tied Haya’s case to that of Sheikh Mohammed’s daughters Sheikha Shamsa and Sheikha Latifa. Shamsa and Latifa both tried to escape Dubai (in 2000 and 2018, respectively) only to be forcefully brought back to the emirate. According to The Guardian, a U.K. court ruled in 2020 that Mohammed not only orchestrated the abductions of Shamsa and Latifa, but he also subjected Haya to a “campaign of intimidation.”
In December 2021, Haya was granted full custody of her children. She currently lives in London as an envoy of the Jordanian embassy.
Prince Nikolai of Denmark
Prince Nikolai of Denmark is a college student at Copenhagen Business School. When he is not studying, he is also a model. He made his runway debut in 2018 at a Burberry show in London.
Nowadays, he is living in Paris as part of his study abroad program. Although it seems this move might only be temporary, Nikolai recently shared with Vogue Scandinavia a new interview that he appreciates the anonymity provided to him in France.
“It’s relaxing and soothing in a way. I can be even more myself,” he said, sharing that his classmates “don’t know and don’t care” about his royal status.
