24th May 1877

Lillie Langtry and the Prince of Wales begin their affair

Lillie Langtry first met King Edward VII at a dinner. He was still plain Bertie, then (Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales), and had specifically asked that she sit with him. They were both already married – he to Alexandra of Denmark and she to Edward Langtry – but that didn’t stop them becoming romantically involved.

Whether this was a problem for the prince’s wife is unclear, but she is said to have accepted Langtry, whom Bertie even introduced to his mother, Queen Victoria.

A woman of many men

The affair lasted for three years, but Langtry was seemingly involved with another man, Arthur Jones, for it is thought that he was the father of the daughter to which she gave birth in 1881.

Langtry later had affairs with the Earl of Shrewsbury and Prince Louis of Battenberg. She divorced Edward Langtry in 1897 and married Sir Hugo Gerald de Bathe two years later, although the two spent much of their time apart.