King Charles’ gay cousin Lord Ivar Mountbatten joins The Traitors US
The Traitors US airs episodes weekly. (Peacock)
The Traitors US has returned to our screens, with Alan Cumming hosting again and a number of celebrities playing faithfuls and traitors ā including British aristocrat Lord Ivar Mountbatten.
Mountbatten will be competing to win a cash prize of $250,000 (Ā£206,000) in the hit reality show.
The other contestants include Real Housewives of New York City star Dorinda Medley, Selling Sunset‘s Chrishell Stause, RuPaul’s Drag Race favourite Bob the Drag Queen, Big Brother‘s Danielle Reyes, The Bachelor‘s Wells Adams, Tom Sandoval, from Vanderpump Rules, and actor-producer Dylan Efron ā Zac’s brother.
In addition to being an aristocrat, Mountbatten is also a farmer, geologist and businessman.
Here’s everything you need to know about him.
What was Ivar Mountbatten’s relationship to the late queen?
Mountbatten is a member of the Royal Family. He was born to David Mountbatten, the 3rd marquis of Milford Haven, and his wife Janet, in 1963.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was Mountbatten’s first cousin once removed ā the first cousin of his father ā and is the second cousin of King Charles. Queen Victoria was Mountbatten’s great-great-great grandmother.
He is godfather to Lady Louise Windsor, the daughter of Prince Edward and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, who are godparents to Mountbatten’s children.
In an interview with Tatler magazine, Mountbatten spoke about growing up very close to the Royal Family and how they’ve grown apart slightly since then.
“The family has got very large. When we were younger, we went to royal events all the time. But now that everyone has had children, quite rightly everything has slimmed down,” he said.
However, he occasionally accompanies members of the Royal Family on overseas business trips and remains close to Prince Edward and his wife.
Has Mountbatten been married?
Lord Mountbatten married Penelope Thompson in 1994, in front of a star-studded guest list, including Princess Margaret and Prince Edward.
The couple have three daughters: Ella, Alexandra and Louise. They separated in 2010 and were divorced the following year. Mountbatten told the Daily Mail that “Penny did not feel sufficiently loved and wanted more from a husband than she could get from [him]”.
Is Lord Mountbatten gay?
Lord Mountbatten is the first out gay member of the extended British Royal Family.
He said he always knew he had a sexual interest in men and that his ex-wife knew knew this before their marriage.
“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,” he told the Mail while coming out in 2016.
Thompson confirmed this in an interview in 2018, saying she married him “with a completely open heart and an open mind about sexuality”.
But, as they got older, she began to get jealous about his attraction to men and started to feel “lonely and depressed”.
His sexuality was not a problem with his family or because of who he was but because of “the generation into which [he] was born”, he said, adding: “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 struggled with my sexuality and, in some ways, I still do. It has been a real journey to reach this point.”
In 2023, he said he was concerned about the reactions of his friends and family when he came out but that his “fears were, of course, unfounded”.
He went on to say: “Absolutely everyone was incredibly supportive and it soon became clear that in the scheme of things, your sexuality is of no significance to others.”
Has Lord Mountbatten remarried?
In 2016, Mountbatten revealed that he was in a relationship with airline cabin services director James Coyle, whom he met after mistaking him for his ski instructor at the upmarket Swiss resort of Verbier.
They married in 2018 in a private ceremony on Mountbatten’s Devon estate at Bridwell Park. His ex-wife walked him down the aisle at the suggestion of their children.
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