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 Markle, 36, follows the likes of Kate Middleton, who married
Harry's elder brother William in 2011, and another American
actress Grace Kelly who gave up her Hollywood career to become
wife of Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
Here are some recent marriages involving royals and commoners:
GRACE KELLY AND PRINCE RAINIER
Hollywood icon Grace Kelly, star of films such as "To Catch a
Thief" and "Dial M for Murder", retired from her acting career
to marry Rainier, the sovereign of the principality, on April
18, 1956 after the pair met at the Cannes Film Festival a year
earlier.
Kelly died in a car crash in 1982 and Rainier died in 2005.
PRINCESS TAKAKO SUGA AND HISANAGA SHIMAZU
Japan's Princess Takako Suga, the youngest daughter of Japanese
Emperor Hirohito, married financial analyst Hisanaga Shimazu in
Tokyo in 1960.
She gave up her imperial title and relinquished her status to be
a commoner, adopting her husband's name to become Takako Shimazu.
HOPE COOKE AND PALDEN THONDUP NAMGYAL
American socialite Hope Cooke married Palden Thondup Namgyal,
Crown Prince of Sikkim, on March 20, 1963. She went on a summer
trip to India and met him in 1959 in the lounge of the Windamere
Hotel in Darjeeling. He was a recent widower with two sons and a
daughter and was nearly twice Cooke’s age.
She renounced her American citizenship after the marriage and
Namgyal later ceased to be king after the region was absorbed as
a state of India in 1975.
SONJA HARALDSEN AND NORWAY'S CROWN PRINCE HARALD
Sonja Haraldsen dated then-Crown Prince Harald of Norway for
years before he told his father King Olav V he would never marry
anyone but her, putting the throne in jeopardy as Harald was the
sole heir.
They wed on Aug. 29, 1968, after King Olaf consulted the
government and allowed the engagement.
SILVIA RENATE SOMMERLATH AND SWEDEN'S CARL GUSTAF
Queen Silvia of Sweden was working as an educational host at the
1972 Olympics in Munich when she met the then-Crown Prince Carl
Gustaf. She married the now King on June 19, 1976.
RANIA Al-YASSIN AND JORDAN'S CROWN PRINCE ABDULLAH
Doctor's daughter Rania Al-Yassin, born in Kuwait to Palestinian
parents, met Jordan's Crown Prince Abdullah II at a dinner
party. She studied in Cairo, and worked for Citibank and Apple
in Jordan. The couple married in 1993 and Abdullah assumed the
throne in 1999.
MASENATE MOHATO SEEISO AND KING LETSIE OF LESOTHO
Masenate Mohato Seeiso was the first commoner to marry into the
Royal Family of Lesotho. She married King Letsie III in Maseru
on Feb. 18, 2000.
METTE-MARIT TJESSEM HOIBY AND NORWAY'S CROWN PRINCE HAAKON
Norwegian commoner and single mother, Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby,
married Crown Prince Haakon of Norway on Aug. 25, 2001. They had
met at a music festival in the late 1990s.
MAXIMA ZORREGUIETA AND DUTCH CROWN PRINCE WILLEM-ALEXANDER
Maxima Zorreguieta, a former investment banker from Argentina,
met Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander in April 1999 in
Seville, Spain, during the city's Spring Fair. Her father had
served as Argentina's Minister of Agriculture during the violent
regime of General Jorge Rafael Videla.
They married on Feb. 2, 2002, and became King and Queen of the
Netherlands in 2013 after Willem-Alexander's mother Queen
Beatrix abdicated. Maxima was the first Dutch queen consort
since 1890.
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MARY DONALDSON AND DENMARK'S PRINCE FREDERIK
Australian Mary Donaldson met Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark at
the Slip Inn during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. They married
in Copenhagen on May 14, 2014.
LETIZIA ORTIZ ROCASOLANO AND SPAIN'S PRINCE FELIPE
Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano was a divorced journalist and well-known
news anchor before marrying Spain's Prince Felipe on May 22, 2004.
She became Spain's first commoner queen in June, 2014, when her
husband was sworn in as king.
Ortiz, daughter of a journalist and a nurse and the granddaughter of
a taxi-driver, dated Felipe in secret before their engagement was
announced in November 2003. They met at a dinner organized by a
journalist friend.
DENMARK’S PRINCE JOACHIM AND MARIE AGATHE ODILE CAVALLIER
Prince Joachim, fourth-in-line to the Danish throne, met French-born
Marie Agathe Odile Cavallier at a private hunt in 2002. In 2005,
Joachim divorced his Hong Kong-born wife Alexandra, with whom he has
two sons, by mutual consent.
The prince proposed to Cavallier while they were on vacation in
Turkey, and the pair married in May 2008, at a tradition-steeped
ceremony in an ancient church in the tiny village of Moegeltoender.
Cavallier became known as Her Royal Highness Princess Marie.
TATIANA BLATNIK AND GREEK PRINCE NIKOLAOS
Tatiana Blatnik, born in Caracas, Venezuela, and raised in
Switzerland, was an event planner for Diane von Furstenberg before
marrying Prince Nikolaos, son of Greece's deposed King Constantine,
in 2010.
The couple married in a lavish wedding ceremony on the island of
Spetses.
OLYMPIAN CHARLENE WITTSTOCK AND MONACO’S PRINCE ALBERT
Charlene Lynette Wittstock was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in January
1978. She competed for South Africa at the 2000 Olympics before
marrying Prince Albert II of Monaco on July 1, 2011.
The couple began dating in 2006 and married in an opulent ceremony
in Monte Carlo attended by European royalty and the international
elite. Prince Albert is the son of Grace Kelly.
JETSUN PEMA AND KING JIGME KHESAR NAMGYEL WANGCHUCK
Bhutan's King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck married young commoner
Jetsun Pema in October 2011.
Jetsun Pema was just 21, when she married the 31-year-old Oxford
University-educated king. She is viewed as a style icon across much
of Asia and gave birth to their first son, the crown prince, in
February 2016.
SOFIA HELLQVIST AND SWEDISH PRINCE CARL PHILLIP
Sofia Hellqvist was a model and reality TV star before she became
Princess of Sweden when she married Prince Carl Phillip on June 13,
2015
KATE MIDDLETON AND PRINCE WILLIAM
Kate Middleton, whose father is a pilot and mother an air stewardess
who later set up a mail order business, met Britain's Prince William
while at St Andrews University in Scotland in 2001. They married on
April 29, 2011, with Kate becoming the first commoner in more than
350 years to wed a prince in such close proximity to the British
throne.
(Compiled by Emily G. Roe; editing by Stephen Addison)
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