Kelly, Hayworth and other American women who married royalty

– Queen Noor –

Jordan’s Queen Noor married King Hussein in 1978, becoming the fourth and final wife of the leader of the Hashemite Kingdom.

Lisa Najeeb Halaby was born on August 23, 1951 in Washington to a prominent Christian Arab-American family.

Her father was the chief executive of the airline Pan American and also headed the Federal Aviation Administration.

A graduate of Princeton University, Halaby married King Hussein in June 1978, converting to his Muslim faith and becoming Queen Noor al-Hussein.

They had four children.

Since the king’s death in 1999, Queen Noor has been active in philanthropic activities and the nuclear non-proliferation movement.

– Hope Cooke –

New York socialite Hope Cooke married the crown prince of the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim in 1963 in a real-life story that has been compared to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The King and I.”

Cooke was born on June 24, 1940 in San Francisco.

Her mother, a pilot, died in a plane crash when Cooke was just two years old, and she was raised by her grandparents in New York.

She met Palden Thondup Namgyal, the widowed crown prince of Sikkim, during a 1959 trip to India as a college student.

They fell in love and married in 1963 and she became the Gyalmo, or queen consort, when her husband took the throne in 1965 and became Chogyal, or king.

Sikkim was annexed by India in 1973 and Cooke returned to the United States with their two children.

She divorced her husband in 1980 and he died two years later.

Cooke recounted her life in a 1981 autobiography, “Time Change.”