Secrets of the Royal Palaces: Love and Marriage (Channel 5 Saturday 4 November 2023)

Secrets of the Royal Palaces: Love and Marriage airs Saturday 4 November 2023 on Channel 5.

What is this episode about

This week, we delve into the strange mystery of Squidgygate as the first clue to the hidden love and marriage stories hidden within the walls of palaces.

It is widely believed that in 1989, an amateur radio enthusiast secretly recorded Princess Diana’s phone conversations with her “friend” James Gilbey in Sandringham and then sold the recordings to The Sun. To further investigate the question of who secretly recorded Diana’s calls and why, we spoke with Ken Wharfe, one of her personal bodyguards.

We also share the secrets of happier palace relationships, illuminating the late Queen’s and Prince Phillip’s honeymoon at the long-forgotten Villa Guardamangia on Malta. Many people believe that the Queen’s happiest time in her life was when she had a skeleton staff of ‘just’ nineteen people to help her run the country.

The extraordinary story of Prince Albert’s erotic gift to Queen Victoria, a life-size marble statue of himself deemed too X-rated for public display at the palace due to the naked display – of feet – is revealed by historian Prof. Kate Williams.

Experts in art and design Dr. Nina Ramirez and Mark Hill explain how Victoria’s unconventional wedding dress influenced ceremonies all over the globe.

We travel to the middle of Wales in search of Charles and Camilla’s secret love nest, a modest rustic retreat that Dr. Jonathan Foyle called “the complete antithesis of what you would think that a king-in-waiting would be looking for.”

There’s still time to spill the beans on Harry and Meghan’s harrowing eviction from the royal palace and into the famed privacy of Frogmore Cottage. And now we come to the climax of our tale: the rediscovery of James I’s secret passage, built to give him privacy when he visited his official favourite and suspected lover, George Villiers.

Season 4 Episode 1

When can we see the episode

Secrets of the Royal Palaces: Love and Marriage airs Saturday 4 November 2023 at 8:30pm on Channel 5

Featured Image Credit: Channel 5