Lady Amanda Ellingworth

Who is Lady Amanda Ellingworth?

Lady Amanda Patricia Victoria Ellingworth is a daughter of Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, granddaughter of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and a distant relative of Queen Elizabeth II.

In early 1974, the earl began corresponding with his godson and great-nephew, Charles, Prince of Wales, offering advice on dating and the selection of a future consort: "In a case like yours, the man should sow his wild oats and have as many affairs as he can before settling down, but for a wife he should choose a suitable, attractive, and sweet-charactered girl before she has met anyone else she might fall for... It is disturbing for women to have experiences if they have to remain on a pedestal after marriage." Mountbatten had a unique qualification for tendering marital advice to the heir to the throne, having arranged the first documented meeting of Charles' parents at Dartmouth Royal Naval College on 22 July 1939. He recommended that the 25-year-old prince get done with his bachelor's experimentation, and mentioned his granddaughter as a prospective consort.

According to his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, "[I]n 1974, following his correspondence with Mountbatten on the subject, the Prince had tentatively raised the question of marriage to Amanda with her mother Patricia Brabourne. She was sympathetic, but counselled against raising the issue with her daughter, who had yet to celebrate her seventeenth birthday."