This is what would happen if a royal family member wanted to get divorced
4 January 2019, 13:33 | Updated: 4 January 2019, 13:42
The royal family have a turbulent history with divorce but here's what would happen if some of the royals did actually want to end their marriages.
Divorce and the royal family have a peculiar history.
Many think the royals invented divorce after greedy King Henry VIII decided he want to conveniently get rid of a couple of his wives.
After being denied a divorce by the Pope, he created the Church of England to allow an annulment for his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Read more: Meghan Markle has already broken these royal traditions
So that's how things went down in Tudor England, but how would it work for modern day royalty?
Marrying a divorced person has only been allowed in the past 20 years if you're royal
At the beginning of the last century, Meghan Markle would never have been allowed to marry Prince Harry for one reason; she's a divorcee.
The only way a member of the royal family could have wed someone who had been married previously is if they were widowed.
If you've watched The Crown you'll probably know that the Queen's uncle Edward was meant to be King before he fell for divorced American (de-ja vu anyone?) Wallis Simpson. He chose love over duty and abdicated the throne leaving the Queen's father, King George VI, to rule.
What would happen if the royal family member wanted a divorce?
The first high profile royal divorce in recent history was that of the Queen's sister Princess Margaret from photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1978 showing that it is permitted.
What happens if a royal wants to remarry after a divorce?
Prince Charles and Princess Diana famously divorced in the 1990s owing many of their marriage problems to Charles' relationship with his now wife, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall.
Although the church allowed the divorce, when Camilla and Charles wanted to marry each other they were forbidden from doing so in a church because their relationship contributed to the failure of their previous marriage.
Instead they married in a civil ceremony and were blessed in a church afterwards.
Because Meghan Markle's relationship with Prince Harry wasn't a contributing factor in her divorce from previous husband Trevor Engleson, she was allowed to marry again in a church.
Thankfully the royal family have been moving with the times when it comes to divorce and marriage!
