Cooke Hope

American wealthy socialite, the Maharani of Sikkim with her marriage to Prince Palden Thondup Namgyal. Her mom had died when she was two. She and her older sister were raised by wealthy grandparents and a succession of nannies. At the proper time, she came out as a debutante. Always interested in the East, she met the exotic Prince in Darjeeling one summer. He was a widower, 15 years old than she. After two dates, they married on 3/20/1963 to reign as the King and Queen of Sikkim in a palace; two kids, a son in 1964 and a daughter in 1968. She left with the kids in 1973; they divorced in 1980, two years before the Kings death. Cooke wrote her autobiography, "Time Changes," 1981. By 1993 she was working in New York City, leading walking tours of tourists. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less