Voting Station

Hope Cooke

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Royalty

The Resume

    (June 24, 1940- )
    Born in San Francisco, California
    Married Palden Thondup Namgyal (1963-80)
    Queen Consort of Sikkim (1965-75)
    Wrote the memoir 'Time Change' (1981)

Why she might be annoying:

    She and Namgyal delayed their wedding for a year because astrologers warned that 1962 was an inauspicious year. (They got divorced, he was overthrown, and the country they reigned over lost its independence. How much worse could things have gone if they had decided not to wait?)
    Her foreign birth increasingly became a point of contention in Sikkimese politics, prompting 'Newsweek; to dub her 'the Marie Antoinette of the Himalayas.'
    A bill to restore her American citizenship (which she had renounced upon marrying Namgyal) stalled in the House of Representatives; instead, an amended bill granted her permanent resident status (1976).
    In addition to divorcing Namgyal, she also divorced her second husband, Mike Wallace (a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, not the 60 Minutes correspondent).
    Descriptions of her marriage to Namgyal and reign over Sikkim frequently use a variation on the phrase 'a fairy tale gone wrong.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was raised by governesses after her mother died in a plane crash (1942).
    When she met Namgyal, she was sharing an apartment with actress Jane Alexander.
    Her and Namgyal's wedding was covered in 'National Geographic.'
    After returning to the United States and settling in New York City, she became an urban historian.
    She authored a guide to historic walks in New York City, wrote the column 'Undiscovered Manhattan' for the Daily News, and was a consultant for PBS' 'New York: A Documentary Film.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying