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2 Other Queen Mothers 3 Exceptional cases 4 Footnote |
The following former queen consorts became queen mothers, though not all chose to use that style.
The title 'Queen Mother' has been widely used in monarchies. Among other Queen Mothers were:
Recent British Queen Mothers
Other Queen Mothers
Exceptional cases
In rare cases, the king of a nation may be divorced or a widower. If he remarries, and his second wife outlives him, but is not the mother of his successor, it is unclear what title this woman assumes, though Queen Dowager or Dowager Queen might be appropriate, under the circumstances.
Queen Noor of Jordan for example was King Hussein's fourth wife, and stepmother of current king Abdullah II. She is still referred to as Queen Noor, although rarely, and then inaccurately, as the "Queen Mother." If anything, she would be the Queen Dowager, although such a title has never been seriously floated.
1 Diana, Princess of Wales suggested to Andrew Morton, a journalist with whom she secretly worked on the book Diana, Her True Story, that when her son, Prince William of Wales became king, she would be known as King Mother. (Source: Andrew Morton, interviewed by Gay Byrne on the Late Late Show on RTÉ.) However no such title does or can exist. She would most likely have remained Diana, Princess of Wales, unless given a new courtesy title, perhaps Dowager Princess of Wales, had the Prince of Wales not married someone else and his new wife outlived him, in which case that would have been his second wife's widowed title and unavailable for use by Diana.Footnote