Zsuzsi gartner biography of williams wife

She could have married into the Royal Family, but instead she lives a modest existence on a mountain-top in Colorado, many thousands of miles from the world and the intrigues of the House of Windsor which caused her downfall. Otherwise, Hungarian-born Zsuzsi Starkloff could have been Duchess of Gloucester, with a sprawling estate in Northamptonshire and a grace-and-favour apartment in Kensington Palace.

Prince William could have anything he wanted in life except for Zsuzui Starkloff, a divorcee and foreigner. Instead, the unseen forces of the Establishment and a fatal plane crash put paid to a love which, though it remained largely secret, shook the royal court to its core. Today, surrounded by mementos and photographs of her ill-starred affair, year-old Mrs Starkloff has broken her decades-long silence to talk to the Mail about the love of her life.

In August, , her lover, the spectacularly handsome Prince William of Gloucester, died instantly, aged just 30, when his Piper Arrow light aircraft stalled on a tight turn in an air race and crashed to the ground. Clever, cool, athletic and muscular, William was a hero-figure to the young Prince Charles, who modelled himself on his older cousin and, ten years later, named his first-born after him.

The prince could have anything he wanted in life, but not her. Prince William of Gloucester - relaxes on his 21st birthday at his home at York House. The rules surrounding royalty back in the s were very different. On the plus side, Prince William took his royal position extremely seriously. For him, the idea of being caught with his trousers down, a la Prince Harry, would be repugnant.

Zsuzui Starkloff would have been popular as a result of her cool good looks and natural honesty.

For the past two decades, Gartner has spent her creative energies gleefully flouting the accepted rules about what constitutes well-made fiction.

They wanted an end to the affair. Quite how unreasonable this presumption was can be seen by comparing the two men. And whereas Edward VIII put his woman before duty, William, as we shall see, tried and tried to put duty before the woman.