8 Royals Who Lived Double Lives

When most people think of royalty, they picture crowns, palaces, and lives that are filled with luxury. However, along with their privileges, members of royal families, including royal children, are often expected to follow strict rules. From how they dress to whom they marry, every little detail is shaped by tradition and duty. During her 21st birthday speech, the late Queen Elizabeth II, then Princess Elizabeth, famously said, "[M]y whole life ... shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family." That said, not every royal has followed this path. Some royals have stepped away from the institution, while others have followed dreams that had little to do with their titles.

During their interview with Oprah Winfrey (via CBS News), Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spoke about making it "out to the other side." As Harry explained, "We did what we had to do." On the other hand, some royals have pursued interests outside royal duties. In an Instagram post, Princess Eugenie gave people a glimpse of her art series, captioning it, "I am a huge lover of art & a director at@hauserwirth – throughout 2025 I hope to share more of that part of my world with you." So, without further ado, here are eight royals who lived fascinating double lives.

For years, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands lived a life that very few people could have imagined for a Dutch royal. Long before he became king in 2013, he secretly worked as a commercial guest co-pilot, helping fly passenger planes for KLM Cityhopper. However, most travelers who boarded his flights didn't know that their co-pilot was the future king. In a 2017 interview with the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf (via The Guardian), he revealed that he had been flying for 21 years. He said he flew about twice a month and described his hobby as the perfect escape from royal duties. In the same interview, he said, "You can't take your problems from the ground into the skies. You can completely disengage and concentrate on something else. That, for me, is the most relaxing part of flying."

Even after becoming king, he continued pursuing his hobby. According to the Royal House of the Netherlands, the king holds a commercial pilot license and regularly flies as a co-pilot for KLM Cityhopper. Before that, he trained as a pilot with the Royal Netherlands Air Force and later moved to civil aviation. As E! News reported, King Willem-Alexander could walk through airports in his KLM uniform without getting recognized. That said, he admitted that his voice occasionally gave him away when he used the intercom to make announcements. King Willem-Alexander's hobby came to light as he prepared to fly the Boeing 737. "It also seemed nice to fly to other destinations one day, with more passengers and bigger distances," he said (via E! News). "That was the real motive for training on the 737."

Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, the youngest daughter of Hollywood icon Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III, has always lived life on her own terms. She was just 17 when her mother, Princess Grace, died in a car crash in 1982. Princess Stéphanie, who had been in the car, survived the crash. However, the accident had a huge impact on her life. During an interview with Point de Vue (via Hello!), she said, "After I got over my anger ... I said, 'Wait! Logically, you should have died too." She explained, "If I was kept alive it was for a reason. You have a place in this world. You have to find it.'"

That need for purpose led her down paths few royals have taken. In the early 2000s, Princess Stéphanie shocked Monaco when she joined a traveling circus after falling in love with married elephant trainer Franco Knie. According to Business Insider, she met Knie during Monaco's annual International Circus Festival and later moved into his trailer with her children. As Royalty magazine reported, Knie's mother had revealed to a Swiss newspaper, "My son said he was living separately from his wife and that they will soon get divorced because he has been having a relationship with Princess Stéphanie since last summer."

Even though the relationship ended in 2002, Princess Stéphanie has been vocal about her love for the circus. As she told People, "Circus is what real life should be like." She explained, "It's sincerity, feeling, emotions. All real." Today, Princess Stéphanie, who is arguably Monaco's most fascinating royal, continues to serve as president of the organizing committee for the Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival, which her father founded in 1974.

Katharine, Duchess of Kent, was arguably one of the most admired members of the British royal family. She joined the House of Windsor in 1961 when she married Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent. During one pregnancy, the duchess contracted German measles and medically terminated her baby. In her 40s, she went through another devastating loss when her son, Patrick, was stillborn. "It had the most devastating effect on me," she admitted to The Daily Telegraph (via The Telegraph). "It has made me extremely understanding of others who suffer a stillbirth." As the Mirror reported, she received treatment for nervous strain. "It was not a good period," she said, "but once I'd come out and returned to a state of normality, I quickly realized that it does happen to a lot of people. I have never had depression since."

Although she spent decades representing the crown at official events, the duchess converted to Catholicism and quietly stepped back from royal duties in the 1990s. Following that, she worked part-time as a music teacher at Wansbeck Primary School. She taught music for 13 years, and her students knew her as Mrs. Kent. In an interview with The Hull Daily Mail (via Classic FM), she revealed, "The parents didn't know, and the pupils didn't know. No one ever noticed ... it just seemed to work." As The Telegraph reported, she said, "It was very, very rewarding because even children from really tough backgrounds — the music did such wonderful things." She even shared that the late queen had encouraged her. As she told Woman & Home, "The Queen said: 'Yes, go and do it,' so I did."

Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark, the son of King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie, grew up outside Greece after the monarchy was abolished in 1974. The prince graduated from Brown University with a degree in international relations. Speaking about his university experience, he shared a fun incident with Business Insider, saying, "Outside my door, when I was a freshman it had my name, which was 'Nikolaos of Greece.'" He recalled, "My roommate was called Stanley. And when I came to my room one night, I saw that he scratched out his last name and he put, 'of New York.'"

After that, Prince Nikolaos joined Fox News as a production assistant. However, he used a pseudonym and kept his royal background a secret. As he told Business Insider, "When I first started working there nobody knew; I was under a pseudonym. Nobody knew, apart from the director of course. It was great, I was treated just like anybody else." While opening up about his time there, he said, "I learned a lot, it was one of my favorite jobs. The worst paid job I've ever had in my life, but a very rewarding one."

Prince Nikolaos worked at Fox News for around two years. "It was fascinating, and absolutely fantastic," he said. His cover was eventually blown when his colleagues recognized him from photographs of his brother's wedding in a newspaper. Looking back, Prince Nikolaos said, "I think everyone else appreciated that I was keeping it low key. When they found out, they had formed their opinion of me, good or bad, one way or the other, but it wasn't influenced by my background. Which is how it should be."

Sophie Winkleman has built a successful acting career even after marrying into the British royal family. She became Lady Frederick Windsor when she married Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, in 2009. She told Business Insider that she initially wanted to change her name to Windsor because it is "rather elegant." However, she chose to keep using her maiden name professionally because the industry knew her as Winkleman.

"People in my business in America didn't know anything about [my royal status]," she revealed, "because they'd just see 'Sophie Winkleman' on the sheet and I'd go and do the audition and then get the job or not." She went on to explain, "[T]hey didn't find anything out about me. They just knew me from my acting, which was quite important to me." Her career took her to the United States, where she gained recognition for playing Zoey on "Two and a Half Men." She later returned to Britain for projects like "This Is Going to Hurt."

In an interview for The Times in 2020, Winkleman praised the royal family for their support. She shared, "I've been incredibly welcomed with open arms by all of them. I haven't had a single negative experience" (via The Free Library). She also went on to say, "The queen's been wonderful, Prince Charles has been wonderful, Prince William's been heaven." Talking about her husband's family's support of her acting career, she said, "They'd never tell me off at all if I wanted to play some [racy] role. Everyone's looked after me. Oh God, please don't make me sound too gushing."

Prince Rostislav Romanov is a descendant of Russia's last imperial family. Born in 1985 in London, he is the great-great-nephew of Tsar Nicholas II. Even though he was raised in London, he has felt connected to both countries. As he told Russia Beyond the Headlines, "I feel both Russian and British, the best of both countries." When he was 13, the young prince visited St. Petersburg with his family for the state funeral of Nicholas II. "I just felt like I was home," he said.

Prince Rostislav also shared that painting helped him cope with his father's death, and his art teacher asked him to channel his feelings into his painting. "I still remember my first painting," he added. "It was not very good." Speaking about his experience of being a prince at Milton Abbey boarding school, he told Business Insider, "I ... remember being mercilessly teased about it." He shared, "My wife and friends still call me 'the artist formally known as prince.'"

He also opened up about how balancing life as both an artist and a prince hasn't always been easy. Reflecting on his two roles, he added, "I want, and hope, that my work is louder than my title." He reflected, "I did not choose to be a prince but I have chosen to be an artist — I realize now that for me these identities are not separate." He also spoke on where his priorities lie. Sharing what matters most to him, he said, "People may follow me because of my name and title, but I hope they stay for the art."

Thailand's late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, also known as Rama IX, was one of the most creative rulers of his time. Born in 1927 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and educated in Switzerland, he developed a lifelong love of jazz and invention that set him apart from traditional heads of state. He was a multi‑instrumentalist who played saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, and piano. He also composed 49 original jazz tunes. International jazz stars were drawn to Bangkok to jam with him, including Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton. As Deseret News reported, Hampton complimented King Bhumibol after a palace jam session, saying, "He is simply the coolest king in the land." A palace musician said that the king once said the "happiest moments in his life have come when he's playing music."

King Bhumibol was also interested in science and technology, which he used to help his people. During a 1955 visit to the drought‑hit Isan region of Thailand, he got the idea of artificial rain. He later recalled (via Royal Thai Consulate-General, Fukuoka), "The idea of artificial rain came to me since 1955 ... I have read from books that it is possible to make artificial rain." He then began Thailand's Royal Rainmaking Project and, in 2003, even won a European patent for an improved weather‑modification technique. As Pattaya Mail reported, the king also devised simple devices for rural needs. In 1993, he was granted a patent for his Chaipattana Aerator, a floating paddle‑wheel machine for aerating water. Thailand later honored him as the nation's "Father of Thai Invention" for these projects.

Prince Nazim 'Naz' Osmanoglu, a comedian and TikTok star, is a descendant of the Ottoman dynasty. However, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey's former royal family was exiled in 1924. As he told Business Insider, "What's the point of being a prince if you don't live in a castle? It's embarrassing! That's how I felt as a kid."

Osmanoglu was born and raised in the United Kingdom and began his comedy career while studying at Durham University. His routines often mix British humor with jokes about identity and history. "In a way, my stage name is not being a prince. I'm only known as a prince off stage." He explained, "I always thought it would get in the way. I thought introducing myself as 'Prince Nazim Ziyaeddin Nazim Osmanoglu' was a bit much, so I didn't do it."

In 2016, Osmanoglu performed in Istanbul, returning to the land his ancestors once ruled. Speaking to Hürriyet Daily News, he said, "I'm proud of my family's rich history but I'm a regular guy doing my thing." During an Istanbul show, he joked, "All I need to do is kill 16 other guys to become sultan of Turkey."