Nancy Valentine and Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan (Photo: X/Kumar Supriya Narayan); (right) Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
An American actress meets a Indian Maharaja and falls in love, it sounds like the story of a Romance novel. But this was the Maharaja’s true love story. Jagaddipendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur (1915-1970) and actress Nancy Valentin (1928–2017).
Jagaddipendra Narayan was the ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Cooch BeharHe was the son of Maharaja. Jitendra Narayan and Maharani Indira Devi from Cooch Behar.
Rumours about their romance began to spread in late September 1947, when newspapers began linking Nancy with Jagaddipendra Narayan. It was a time of great political turmoil in Indiaas the country had just gained independence from British colonial rule. In India, attempts were made to silence rumours by claiming that the Maharaja was in the United States (US) to conduct industrial research.
His mother wanted him to return because of the political situation in the country and did not approve of his relationship with Nancy. However, just one day before he was due to leave for India, a photo of Nancy and the Maharaja together at the El Morocco nightclub in New York appeared in the newspapers.
A few months after Jagaddipendra Narayan arrived in India, Nancy announced her engagement to someone else in the United States. Within a few weeks, she broke off the engagement and got engaged to an Iranian diplomat.
In January 1949, Nancy visited India to meet Jagaddipendra Narayan and returned to New York a few days later. She returned again in 1951 to visit the Maharaja, and claimed that she had married him in 1949 in Cooch Behar “by a travelling priest.” American gossip columnist Louella O. Parsons She wrote in a newspaper article: “Nancy Valentine has been secretly married to the Maharaja of Cooch Behar since 1949. Nancy told me about it yesterday, expressing her outrage that anyone should say the marriage would never take place and that it was all just publicity.”
Sharing more details from her interview with Nancy, she added, “We had a Brahmin ceremony and got married by a traveling Hindu priest. I was sworn to secrecy until we had a chance to inform the Maharaja’s family and our marriage was recognized by the Indian government.”
However, their marriage was never recognised by the Indian authorities. An article entitled “A hard blow for Nancyaccredited to APThe article, published in the Journal of the Indian Society …
Eventually, after suffering a nervous breakdown, she entered Paramahansa Yoganand’s Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles. In a series of interviews, she revealed how the media hounded her for her affair with Jagaddipendra Narayan. They reportedly had a baby that did not survive.
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