Queen Elizabeth’s cousin has become the first member of the royal family to come out as gay.
The 90-year-old’s relative Lord Ivar Mountbatten – the great-great-great-grandson of the late Queen Victoria – has revealed he’s found love again following his split from his ex-wife Penny, with whom he has three children, five years ago, but this time it’s with a man.
Speaking to the Daily Mail newspaper, he said: "Being a Mountbatten was never the problem, it was the generation into which I was born.
"When I was growing up, it was known as ‘the love that dare not speak its name’, but what’s amazing now is how far we have all come in terms of acceptance.
"’Coming out’ is such a funny phrase but it’s what I suppose I did in a rather roundabout way, emerging to a place I’m happy to be. I have struggled with my sexuality and in some ways I still do; it has been a real journey to reach this point."
Ivar has been dating his boyfriend James Coyle since last year when they met in the Swiss resort Verbier in March 2014 when his beau mistook him for a guide he had skied with earlier that day.
Ivar has known since he was a teenager that he was bisexual but he "didn’t want to go there because there would have been so much grief."
He explained: "I never thought I would get married because I didn’t want to be untruthful. Penny was aware before we got married. I told her I was bisexual, that my attraction went both ways. She was understanding and I will always be grateful to her. We had a lot of fun, we have three fabulous daughters and I don’t regret any stage of my life.
"Ultimately, Penny did not feel sufficiently loved and she wanted more from a husband than she could get from me. Given my sexuality, I was quite surprised she married me in the first place. It was brave. Perhaps she thought she could change me but in the end she realised she couldn’t."
Queen Elizabeth’s cousin is first member of royal family to come out as gay
