Following the article on Royal stepmothers, examining the lives of women who married royal widowers, let’s look at the very single woman who marries a man whose first wife is very much alive.
It is never easy to take on a divorced dad. It gets even more complicated when the divorced dad comes with a living ex.
Besides monetary woes like alimony and child support obligations, the stressors piled onto the ordinary second wife include aggressive exes, defiant stepteenagers acting out at your wedding, angry adult children to whom you are the second coming of Anna Nicole Smith, and his relatives calling you by her name. The subject has spawned numerous books, films and websites such as The Second Wives Club, Childless Stepmoms and StepWives, all of which give a fuller, chillier picture of this difficult state of affairs.
The bestsellers listed above can tell you more about the Man on the Street divorced date. Add royal status and a court, and as you can see from the examples below, there are many different types of exes which can cast a shadow over the new life and loves of a divorced royal dad.
1. The Ex Who Will Not Disappear: Sarah Ferguson
Diana said her marriage was crowded. Imagine the herd trampling into your life if you become Prince Andrew’s second Duchess of York.
Heading the cast of characters is the Prince's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
Fergie is going nowhere. Time after time, in interviews across the world, Sarah stakes her claim to Prince Andrew. She has widely circulated the impression her marriage broke up due to pressure of life within palace walls, rather than the lack of affection which eroded and ultimately destroyed Charles and Diana's always fragile relationship.
In other words, she wants us all to believe Andrew still loves her.
Reinforcing this supposedly-ongoing emotional tie, Fergie refused to detach herself geographically. She still had rooms in his homes, even nowadays at The Royal Lodge, his inheritance from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
Remember those cringeworthy quotations about the world’s happiest divorced couple and their "away games"? (In North America we call that 'Too much information'!) Read the subtext of Fergie and the girls never being too far away from their father and if you look at it another way....well, Andrew is always within hailing distance of Fergie.
If this is not a hands-off message to his dates, what is???
If Fergie really wanted to move on with her life, she would emulate the gutsy Jerry Hall. After the actress/model split from Rolling Stones star Sir Mick Jaggar, their living arrangements changed very little.
