The Thrilling Story of the British Princess of Jordan: How an Officer’s Daughter Born in Suffolk Fell in Love with a King

This week, when Princess Iman, daughter of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, married Venezuelan investment banker Jameel Alexander Thermiótis, all eyes were on the Jordanian royal family. The ceremony was elegant and romantic. Princess Iman was ushered down the aisle by her brother Crown Prince Husayn, while her younger brothers Princess Salma and Prince Hashem watched proudly from the front row. At the side of the crown prince Husayn was his fiancée Rajwa Al Saif, who will marry him this summer, becoming part of the Jordanian royal family.

But a lesser-known member of the royal family was also present: Princess Muna al-Husayn, mother of King Abdullah, born in Suffolk and paternal grandmother of the bride. Princess Muna, wearing an elegant meerschaum green jacket and blue skirt, had the honor of sitting in the center of the wedding party. In the official souvenir photo of the ceremony, Princess Muna is in the front row, right next to Prince Hashem.

But who is Princess Muna al-Husayn, the daughter of a British officer who became part of the Jordanian royal family?

Born on April 25, 1941, Princess Muna was originally named Toni Avril Gardiner. Her father, Walter Percy “Tony” Gardiner, had enlisted in the army as a carpenter reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel, while her mother, Doris Sutton, little is known. Toni spent part of her childhood abroad, including a period in Kuala Lumpur. It was thanks to her father’s international career in her army that she ended up meeting King Hussein of Jordan, who would become her husband.

When the two met, around 1960, King Hussein was just twenty-five but had already reigned for almost a decade. King Talal’s eldest son, Hussein was proclaimed King of Jordan in August 1952, succeeding to the throne just three months before his 17th birthday. His father, King Talal, had been forced by parliament to abdicate after less than 13 months, following his diagnosis of schizophrenia. A regency was established until Hussein turned 18, when he became king of Jordan. In 1955 he married his first wife, Sharifa Dina bint Abdul-Hamid, a third cousin of Egyptian descent. The following year, the two had a daughter, Princess Alia, and were divorced in 1957.

It is not clear how this young king, already divorced and father of a young daughter, got to know the then 19-year-old Toni Gardiner. In 2011, upon the death of Lieutenant Colonel Gardiner, the Daily Telegraph he said the girl had visited her father in Jordan at the time.

“At that time, Gardiner’s daughter Toni, 19 years old at the time, had traveled to Jordan to be with her parents, finding work at Jordan Radio and as a secretarial assistant on the set of the film Lawrence of Arabia», reads the article. “King Hussein, who had allowed the troops to work as extras, occasionally visited the set to see how things were going. The two met at a costume party, which the king had attended dressed as a pirate. Toni Gardiner remarked, “He makes you look rather scruffy, Your Majesty.” Later, King Hussein would write: “For the first time in my life, there was a girl who was interested in me as a human being and not as a king”.

King Hussein married his British princess in 1961 and Toni became Muna al-Husayn after the marriage. The following year, their son Abdullah, now King of Jordan, was born. The couple had three more children: Faisal, Aisha and Zayn. The marriage, however, was not destined to last and in December 1971 the divorce was definitively made official. “Princess Muna, from whom King Hussein divorced, retains custody of her four children and obtains the transfer of Humar Palace, located 25 kilometers west of Amman”, reads an article from the time of the New York Times. The article also reported that the two sons would “return to private school in Great Britain.” Indeed, Abdullah attended St Edmund’s School in Surrey, while King Hussein married a total of four times and fathered 11 children.

As the king’s eldest son, Abdullah became heir apparent to the Jordanian throne. However, concerned about continued political instability, King Hussein chose to designate an adult, younger brother, Prince Hassan, as successor instead of his son. Hassan then served as prince regent from 1965 to 1999, when King Hussein adjourned his will and named Abdullah his heir just weeks before he died of cancer.

Princess Muna has never remarried and continues to reside in Jordan, where she founded the Princess Muna Scholarship Fund for Nursing and the Princess Muna College of Nursing and Allied Health Professions. The British princess attended her son’s wedding to Queen Rania and continues to be present in the lives of her grandchildren, as evidenced by Princess Iman’s touching wedding photos.