A faulty memory

 Catherine Oxenberg, the elder daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and the late Howard Oxenberg, is writing a new blog:
http://catherineoxenberg.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/my-almost-royal-wedding/

One of her first posts is about attending the wedding ball in 1981.    It would have been impossible for Miss Oxenberg and her mother to have arrived at the Palace to attend the ball after the wedding.   There was no ball after the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales.  The newly married couple returned to Buckingham Palace for a wedding breakfast, and then left by carriage for Waterloo station for the train ride to Romsey.  The Prince and Princess of Wales spent their first night as man and wife at Broadlands. 

On the night of July 26, 1981,  Queen Elizabeth "held a glittering ball for 1,500 guests at which Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer danced into the morning hours," according to UPI's Robert Musel.   Before the ball, the Queen hosted a private dinner for 90 guests.   

The then 19-year-old Miss Oxenberg  and her mother were guests at the pre-wedding ball.  She also said she was 18 at the time, three months younger than Diana.  Diana celebrated her 20th birthday on July 1.  Catherine was born on September 22, 1961, which made her 19 at the time of the wedding.

In her blog entry, she discusses how she had been molested as a child "by a royal prince."   This is not the first time that Catherine discussed the abuse.  In 1993, in an interview with London's Daily Mail newspaper, she said "to deal with the trauma of being sexually abused, and the victim of incest, of being ritually abused in a chapel and raped by a priest."   She told the reporter  that the abuse began when she was several months old and lasted until she was 12.  One assumes she was referring to the sexual abuse by the relative, and not the rape by the priest.

 She said to the Mail's Lisa Seward, that  "one of the symptoms of having been sexually abused is an eating disorder which is triggered by your first sexual experience as happened with me becoming bulimic."   She added that her first sexual experience was at age 16.

In an interview to promote her reality show, I Married a Princess,  she said she was abused as toddler by a relative -- and not her parents.

Catherine is now married to actor Casper Van Dien.  Their wedding ceremony took place at Las Vegas on May 8, 1999, several months after working together on two TV movies.  They have two daughters, Maya (born September 20, 2001) and Celeste Alma (October 3, 2003).   Van Dien's two children by his first wife. Carrie Mitchum, also live with them.

Catherine decided she wanted to be an actress. She made her debut in 1982 playing Lady Diana Spencer in The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana.   Two years later, she joined ABC's Dynasty as Amanda Carrington, the second daughter of Blake Carrington and Alexis Colby.  She remained in the role for two yeasr.

On June 7, 1991, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, India Riven Oxenberg, but never named the father.  

Her first marriage to producer Robert Evans, then 68, took place on July 12, 1998, but was annulled twelve days later.  According to news reports,  Oxenberg had been taking care of Evans, who had recently suffered a mild stroke, and one thing led to another, and they decided to wed.   Producer David Michaels, who said he had been engaged to Catherine for four years, called the marriage "unfathomable event."
Catherine's father, Howard, told a reporter: "We've been using his tennis court for 15-20 years. If someone lets you use their tennis court for 15-20 years, you should marry them."