S23E10: The Darmstadt Divorce | Ernest Louis and Princess Victoria Melita (Trashy Royals Crossover)

After Louis Battenberg's (later Louis Mountbatten) successful campaign to marry Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, the couple set about having babies. The first of these, Princess Alice, was born in 1885, and came into the world congenitally deaf. Given the era, no particular accommodations were made for her, and while her condition caused many to underestimate her, she compensated by learning to lip-read (in several languages) and spoke English, German, French, and, later, Greek. Her marriage to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark was happy only for a while, but the pair had five children. Alice occupied herself with charity work, and when hostilities broke out between Greece and Turkey, she served as a nurse at the front line, earning the deep affection of the Greek people. During the First World War, Greece exiled the royal family, and setting up in Paris, Alice and Andrew became estranged. He would ride out the rest of his life in the south of France with his mistress, while Alice's life became strange and complicated. She fell in unrequited love, though history has not retained the identity of her affection, and developed a religious fervor. She was hospitalized in sanitariums and treated with cutting edge techniques for schizophrenia, like hitting her abdomen with X-rays to destroy her ovaries. During her convalescence, which she wanted out of, her daughters married without her knowing and her youngest son, Prince Philip, gradually grew from a child to a man, with no real connection to his mother or father. Alice spent World War II in Athens, caring for the poor and hungry, and sheltering a Jewish family. When the Nazi occupiers came to search her home, she leaned into her deafness, pretending not to understand what they wanted until they were so bamboozled they left empty handed. She founded a religious order, but when Greece again abolished the monarchy, her son Philip, now married to Queen Elizabeth II, ensured her safe passage to Great Britain, where she lived out her days simply and humbly, as a quiet resident of Buckingham Palace. Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more? Join us at⁠ patreon.com/trashydivorces⁠! Want a personalized message for someone in your life?⁠ Check us out on Cameo⁠! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While royal houses are often insular and even incestuous (at least at the cousin-marrying level), new blood does manage to enter those gene pools from time to time. Meet the Mountbattens! The family's story begins in Russia, circa 1850, where the orphaned daughter of a Polish general named Julia von Hauke was serving in the household of Maria Alexandrovna, future wife of future Tsar Alexander II. Maria's brother, Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, fell hard for the common-born Julia, a romance that was seemingly halted by Emperor Nicholas I, who wanted Prince Alexander to marry his niece. Unable to shake off their love, the two eloped, which left Alexander persona non grata in the Russian court. Returning to his native Hesse, Prince Alexander's brother, Grand Duke Louis III of Hesse-Darmstadt, granted Julia the title of Countess of Battenberg, named for a town in the north of the duchy, and later, Princess of Battenberg. But Europe's royal houses have both a long memory and an enormous snobbery, meaning that when Alexander and Julia's sons, The Battenberg Boys, began pursuing the granddaughters of England's Queen Victoria for marriage a generation later, the courtships - successful and unsuccessful - were rife with intrigue and scandal. But it was the marriage of Louis Battenberg to Queen Vic's granddaughter Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine that would eventually transform the family from a tainted, common-born Battenberg lineage to the British Mountbattens, the house of Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. But that's a story for next week. Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more? Join us at⁠ patreon.com/trashydivorces⁠! Want a personalized message for someone in your life?⁠ Check us out on Cameo⁠! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 90s, Jerry Seinfeld was a king of the TV and of the broader culture. His hit show Seinfeld was four years into its run when Jerry spotted an attractive girl in Central Park. He approached, got her number, and only later learned that he, a 38 year old man, had just chatted up a 17-year-old named Shoshanna Lonstein. Did this stop Jerry Seinfeld from a four year romance with his much younger paramour? No, no it did not. Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more? Join us at patreon.com/trashydivorces! Want a personalized message for someone in your life? Check us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Once again, we're catching up on the haps within the Trashy Divorces Cinematic Universe, and maybe adding some new names into the mix as well. Brand new wedding news is the talk of the town for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. New York socialite Libbie Mugrabi, who left her divorce from art collector David Mugrabi with a cool $100 million, is having to offload a mansion that was part of that settlement. Her lawyer will soon own the property at above-market rates. Shakira is off the hook for Spanish tax problems from 2011, at least until the prosecution service appeals. James Fishback is a weirdo running a surprisingly strong campaign for Florida's governor. He may also have just gotten married. And finally, we catch up on Katie Price and the no-longer-missing Alleged Lee Andrews.   Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more? Join us at patreon.com/trashydivorces! Want a personalized message for someone in your life? Check us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this crossover week celebrating Marilyn Monroe, our investigation today brings us to the final days of Marilyn Monroe’s life, as well as many recollections about the night of her death and her legacy.   Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more? Join us at⁠ patreon.com/trashydivorces⁠! Want a personalized message for someone in your life?⁠ Check us out on Cameo⁠! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices