Royals Who Married Commoners

Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was a Hollywood film star of epic proportions and then went on to become Princess consort of Monaco. The Oscar winning actress met her future husband at the Cannes Film Festival in April 1955. In April 1956, Kelly married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and became styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and was commonly referred to as Princess Grace. Kelly's famous wedding dress was designed by MGM's Academy Award-winning costumer Helen Rose. The couple had three children. On Sept. 13, 1982, while driving with her daughter Stéphanie to Monaco from their country home, Princess Grace suffered a stroke, which caused her to drive her car off the serpentine road down a mountainside. She died the following day at the Monaco Hospital.

On Aug. 31, 1970, Rania Al-Yassin was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents from Tulkarm. She attended school at New English School in Jabriya, Kuwait, then earned a degree in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo. Upon her graduation from university, Queen Rania returned to Jordan. She worked briefly in marketing, for Citibank, followed by a job with Apple Inc. in Amman. She met Jordanian King Abdullah bin Al-Hussein, who was a prince at that time, at a dinner party in January 1993. Two months later, they announced their engagement and on June 10, 1993, they were married. They have four children. Her husband ascended the thrown on Feb. 7 1999, after the death of his father. She was proclaimed Queen on March 22, 1999.

Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco is the Princess Consort of King Mohammed VI of Morocco and the first wife of a Moroccan ruler to have been publicly acknowledged and given a royal title. Salma was born in Fes to al-Haj Abdel Hamid Bennani, a school teacher from Fes. Her mother died when she was three years old. She met her husband during a private party in 1999. Salma married King Mohammed VI on Oct. 12, 2001 and was granted the personal title of Princess with the style of Her Royal Highness on her marriage. The couple has two children.

Queen Silvia was born in Heidelberg, Germany on Dec. 23, 1943. She is the daughter of late German businessman Walther Sommerlath and his Brazilian wife Alice. Silvia's father was president of the Brazilian subsidiary of the Swedish steel-parts manufacturer Uddeholm Tooling after World War II. During the 1972 Summer Olympics, Silvia Sommerlath met Crown Prince Carl Gustav of Sweden. After the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf on Sept. 15, 1973, Carl XVI Gustav was enthroned on September 19, 1973. The King and Silvia on June 19, 1976 in the Stockholm Cathedral in Sweden. It was the first marriage of a reigning Swedish monarch since 1797. If he had married Silvia during the reign of his grandfather, King Gustav VI Adolf, he would have lost his position as heir to the Swedish throne. This was due to the inflexibility of his grandfather, who believed that royalty must marry royalty. The King and Queen of Sweden have three children.

Empress Michiko was the first commoner to marry into the Japanese Imperial Family. The empress was born in 1934 in Tokyo, the eldest daughter of wealthy industrialist Hidesaburo Shōda, president and later honorary chairman of Nisshin Flour Milling, Inc., yet she was still a commoner. In August 1957, she met then-Crown Prince Akihito on a tennis court at Karuizawa. The media believed the powerful Imperial Household Agency would select a bride for Crown Prince Akihito from among the daughters of the former court nobility. However, the couple's engagement was approved in November 1958. They married on April 10, 1959 and have three children. Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko again bucked tradition by choosing to raise their children instead of entrusting them to the care of court chamberlains; the Crown Princess even breastfed. Upon the death of Emperor Hirohito on on Jan. 7, 1989, her husband became Japan's 125th Emperor and she became Empress Consort. The new Emperor and Empress were enthroned at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on November 12, 1990.
Her full title is Her Imperial Majesty The Empress of Japan.

The future queen of Norway, Sonja Harladsen, was born in 1937 in Oslo to the daughter of a wood merchant. She became involved with Crown Prince Harald of Norway after meeting him in 1959 at a party. After dating for nine years, she became engaged to then Crown Prince Harald in March 1968. Most of their relationship had been kept secret because of opposition to her non-royal status. The Crown Prince made it clear to his father, King Olav V, that he would remain unmarried for life unless he could marry her. Olav V consulted the government for advice and the result was that the couple married on August 29, 1968 in Oslo. At that point, Sonja acquired the style of Royal Highness and the title of Crown Princess of Norway. Following the death of King Olav V on January 17, 1991, Sonja became Norway's first queen consort in 53 years. The royal couple has one daughter and one son.

Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, met his future wife Maria Teresa Mestre during their studies at University of Geneva. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1956, Maria Teresa and her family moved to New York City during the Cuban revolution in 1959. Maria Teresa descended from Spanish bourgeoisie and nobility, however her family does not have titles. Despite tensions between Maria Teresa and her mother-in-law, the Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte, the couple wed in 1981.  The Duke and Duchess have five children and two grandchildren. In 2005, the couples' third son, Louis, made headlines when he and his commoner girlfriend Tessy Antony, whose father was a tiler, had a baby out of wedlock. Louis and Tessy married in the autumn of 2006. Upon their marriage, the prince gave up his succession rights and those of their son Gabriel, and any of the couple's future children. Although Prince Louis now retains his title of Prince of Luxembourg, his and Antony's sons were initially given the surname de Nassau with no titles.