A woman from the US believes she could be the illegitimate great, great grand-daughter of Queen Victoria amid claims the monarch had a relationship with her most-trusted servant John Brown.
Angela Webb-Milinkovich, a health worker from Minnesota, thinks she has lineage stemming from the affair which is speculated have taken place following the death of Victoria’s husband Prince Albert.
Now new research by historian Dr Fern Riddell raises the possibility that John and the Queen secretly got married and even had a daughter together.
It has been alleged that while on paper Angela’s great grandmother Mary Ann was the only child of John’s brother Hugh and his wife Jessie, Victoria could actually have been her mother.
Ms Webb-Milinkovich, 47, said her ultimate goal is to gain recognition from King Charles about her family’s place in history.
And she is now planning to take a DNA test to try and prove her relationship to the British royals.
Ms Webb-Milinkovich told The Mirror: ‘My main goal is to have the story acknowledged.
‘I want their relationship to be recognised and for the royal family to stop saying it didn’t happen.’
Angela Webb-Milinkovich (pictured) thinks she has lineage stemming from the affair speculated to have taken place between Queen Victoria and John Brown
Queen Victoria’s close relationship with Scottish ghillie John Brown began in 1863
Ms Webb-Milinkovich, 47, said her ultimate goal is to gain recognition from King Charles about her family’s place in history
‘I want the vindication essentially for John Brown and just for my lineage, because they were not able to talk about it,’ she added.
‘It was something that just became that secret that we couldn’t really share, but we knew.’
Ms Webb-Milinkovich explained that her family has always believed they were descended from the royal line through baby Mary Ann.
However, she only realised the extent of the connection when she was contacted by Dr Riddell during the four years of research for her new book ‘Victoria’s Secret’.
The birth of Mary Ann, who is the supposed love child, was registered in 1865, soon after childless Jessie and Hugh emigrated to New Zealand.
Dr Riddell has claimed that Victoria could have easily concealed that she was pregnant and had the child sent away to the other side of the world to avoid a scandal.
Moreover, it has been documented that in 1874 Victoria arranged for the family to be brought back to Scotland, where they lived on the Balmoral estate.
Queen Victoria’s close relationship with her manservant John was widely documented in the 1997 movie Mrs Brown – starring Judi Dench and Billy Connolly.
It shows the monarch, widowed and scared, beginning to see the handsome Scots ghillie as her protector.
Brown wore a signet ring on his left little finger, as seen in a painting of him at Frogmore in 1883
Ms Webb-Milinkovich explained that her family has always believed they were descended from the royal line through baby Mary Ann
For the next 20 years, no one was closer to the Queen. John ran her daily errands and put his life on the line to save her from would-be assassins.
He spent hours alone with her every day and in her private house in the Highlands, he had the bedroom next to hers.
Then after Victoria’s death in 1901, on the orders of her eldest son, Edward VII, the Palace set about erasing John from the record.
Victoria’s journals were copied, edited, and the originals destroyed.
Those who have attempted to bring John and Victoria’s story to light have found themselves blocked, dismissed or ridiculed by powerful forces.
As recently as 1987, when the family of James Reid, Victoria’s doctor, set out to publish his diaries for the first time – revealing what he had witnessed of Victoria’s intimate relationship with John – Princess Margaret personally attempted to halt publication.
Writing for the Mail earlier this month, Dr Fern said: ‘Years of researching – and talking to the Brown family – have led me to conclude that Victoria and John did have an intimate relationship.
‘Not only that, but rumours that they secretly married and had a child that was spirited away to be brought up outside the Royal Family may indeed have some foundation.
‘Could it be that Mary Ann, whose birth was registered soon after Hugh and Jessie’s arrival in New Zealand in 1865, was actually Victoria and John’s child, sent to the furthest reach of the empire in secret?,’ she added.
A locket with Queen Victoria’s portrait and her hair, alongside a portrait of Prince Albert, are said to have been gifted to John Brown
‘After much detective work, I had tracked down Angela, one of Hugh and Jessie’s last surviving relatives, in the USA.
‘On our late-night Zoom call, she revealed to me the bombshell story that had been passed down her family.
‘If true, it would make Angela the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
‘It may seem outlandish, but I can’t discount the possibility – however remarkable – that Victoria had the capacity and ability to disguise a pregnancy in the mid-1860s, give birth, and then keep the baby a secret.
‘Without DNA evidence, of course, we’ll never know – and given the secrecy that surrounds this story, that is unlikely to be forthcoming from the Royal Family.’
