Enlightened Facts About Hope Cooke, American-Born Royalty
Hope Cooke is a unique figure in American history—but hers was a fairy tale with a serious dark side.
1. She Was An American Princess
Hope Cooke is a unique figure in American history. A wealthy socialite from a young age, she attracted tabloid attention worldwide in the 1960s for her marriage to a Sikkimese prince. This ordained her with a royal title, a rarity among United States citizens. The wedding was a joyous occasion. But, a series of twisted events bookended it—events that she could not cover up, even with an opulent royal lifestyle.
2. Her Parents Were Of The Skies
Hope Cooke was born onJune 24, 1940 in San Francisco. Her father was John J Cooke, an Irishman and flight instructor, who met her mother,Hope Noyes, on the job. Cooke’s mother was an amateur pilot and daughter of a wealthy shipping magnate. Hope Cooke was named after her mother.
But this name was not a prophetic sign of things to come; rather, she faced early abandonment and tragedy.
3. Her Parents Exited Early
Neither of Cooke’s parents stuck around long. Her father unceremoniously abandoned his wife and child shortly after his daughter came along—but what happened to her mother was so much more disturbing. Hope Noyes tragically perished in a solo plane crash when her daughter was just two years old. Noyes allegedly took flight with a near-empty gas tank and Cooke would later sayin her autobiography that she believed her mother took her own life.
There were painful reasons for her uncertainty.
4. She Never Got Any Closure
Having been so young when Noyes perished, Cooke never learned of the fate of her mother’s remains. As she got older, no one in her family would tell her whether they recovered her mother's body and, if so, where it now rested.
This prevented Cooke from getting any closure over the loss of her mother, a feeling she would struggle with well into adulthood. And her new guardians did not help her loneliness.
