Susan Cullen-Ward - Marriage To The Crown Prince of Albania

Marriage To The Crown Prince of Albania

Susan Cullen-Ward met Crown Prince Leka, the only child of King Zog of Albania, at a dinner party in Sydney. In 1975, they married in a civil ceremony in Biarritz, France. The couple were later married in a religious ceremony in Madrid.

Australian authorities refused to recognise her as a queen but, in a compromise when Andrew Peacock was foreign minister, issued a passport in the name of "Susan Cullen Ward, known as Queen Susan".

She lived a turbulent life after marrying Leka, as they moved from one country to another, having no permanent residence or fixed point of reference. In the first few years of their marriage, the couple lived in Spain before Leka was expelled from the country for illicit arms dealing. They later settled in Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe). After a falling out with the government of Robert Mugabe, the couple moved again, this time to South Africa where their son, Leka, was born in 1982. She also had a stillborn daughter while resident in Rhodesia.