Latest news with #secretlovechild
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
American agrees she may be descended from Queen Victoria's secret love child
A care worker from the United States could be a descendant of Queen Victoria's secret love child, a historian has claimed. There has been speculation for more than 150 years that Victoria had an affair with John Brown, her Scottish manservant, as he comforted her after the death of her husband, Prince Albert. Yet historian Fern Riddell has gone a step further by raising the possibility they had a secret daughter in her new book Victoria's Secret and Channel 4 documentary Queen Victoria: Secret Marriage, Secret Child? In an extraordinary claim, she said that a mental health practitioner from Minnesota, named Angela Webb-Milinkovich, was possibly a descendant of the alleged love-child. Ms Webb-Milinkovich, who is willing to test the veracity of the claim with a DNA test, told The Times: 'I feel pretty confident that there's some legitimacy to it.' After the death of Albert in December 1861, Victoria grew close to Brown, the hard-drinking, bearded son of a Scottish crofter, praising him for his devotion and intelligence and awarding him the special title Queen's Highland Servant in 1865. Their closeness raised eyebrows in the establishment and rumours reached fever pitch the following year when a Swiss newspaper reported they had secretly married. Victoria herself later fuelled gossip by publishing a book of highland life after Brown's death in 1866, which she dedicated to him. She also asked to be buried, upon her death, with his picture. The relationship was brought to life in the 1997 film Mrs Brown, with Dame Judi Dench nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Victoria. Historians, including Lucy Worsley, have previously dismissed claims of an alleged affair between the pair, but Ms Riddell said she had discovered reams of evidence to suggest they were more than friends. This included photos of a cast of Brown's hand which was commissioned by Victoria in the days after he died in 1883 – something she had also done with Albert following his death. She also claimed to have unearthed a diary entry from Victoria which tells of how she and her 'beloved John' confessed their love for each other. But the revelation about their supposed love child only came after she contacted Brown's surviving relatives in Minnesota, who are supposedly descendants of his brother, Hugh. They informed her of a family story they 'told at dinner parties'. Ms Webb-Milinkovich said: 'The story that my family grew up with is that John Brown and Queen Victoria had a romantic relationship. They went on a long boat journey. After that, a child was produced and from that child came my family's lineage.' Hugh Brown and his wife, Jessie, had a daughter Mary Ann after moving to New Zealand. It has been suggested that Mary Ann is the supposed love child. Ms Riddell said it was a possibility worth exploring. 'Their relationship has been downplayed and sanitised,' she added. 'I hope we give John Brown back his place in history and his legacy, which is that he was Victoria's de facto royal consort for 20 years. 'We've eradicated who Victoria was as a woman in favour of seeing her just as queen. It really, really matters to me that we give her back her womanhood.'
The Sun
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Brian May breaks silence on Queen bandmate Freddie Mercury's ‘secret love child' after DNA test
BRIAN May has broken his silence on claims his Queen bandmate Freddie Mercury had a 'secret love child'. A bombshell new book titled Love, Freddie by biographer Lesley-Ann Jones will be released later this year and tells how Freddie had a daughter in 1976 following a fling with a close friend's wife. 4 4 Now 77-year-old Brian 's wife Anita Dobson has revealed his reaction to the shock news - and he doesn't believe it. Recalling the moment she heard the claims, Anita, 76, said: 'I went 'what?' I thought 'no'. And I said to Brian, 'Do you know about this?' And he said, 'Do you believe this?'' Speaking to the Mirror, Anita insisted that Freddie - who died in 1991 - was too famous for the news of a secret child to only be leaking now. She continued: 'There must be lots of people who have children that we don't know about. 'It's just because it's him. Because he's iconic. 'And the type of animal that he was, it seems inconceivable that he would have a child with someone we don't know about.' Before the iconic singer died of pneumonia caused by Aids in 1991, Freddie is said to have given his daughter 17 volumes of his personal journals. She kept them a secret for years, but recently handed them over to the author to form the basis of the book that'll be released later this year. The woman, who was born in 1976, says she always knew the legendary singer was her dad - despite being raised by a loving family. Freddie Mercury's family in bitter war with his ex who star 'left £37.5m' as they battle to get his belongings back She lives in Europe working as a medical professional with children of her own, making Freddie a post-humous granddad. 4
