The Princess and the Marine Where are they now

What's the perfect way to end a made-for-TV marriage? Well, if you're famed Jason Johnson, the ex-Marine who got hitched to Bahraini princess Meriam Al-Khalifa, you go on Divorce Court.

Johnson filed for divorce from Al-Khalifa in November, five years after their fairy-tale wedding inspired an NBC movie and numerous TV appearances. The split prompted the invitation from Divorce Court, which the couple had regularly watched together.

"I thought I could get some useful insight from the judge for my [next marriage]," says Johnson, who will appear solo on the show January 31. "[Al-Khalifa] doesn't know that I did the show. She probably won't see it."

"My reaction [was] why is he coming and without the wife? How am I going to do this?" says Judge Mablean Ephriam, who normally referees for the couples who come before her to spar. "He doesn't know where she is. She left. He had asked her for the divorce and she signed [a summary dissolution agreement]. He used the media to help him before, so he felt he owed it to the media to give an explanation. He knew the truth would come out eventually."

So what useful insight did Johnson get? "My advice is, it was all fairy tale and romance," Judge Mablean explains. "It sounded great and wonderful, but it's unrealistic to believe you could be married to someone when you didn't really know each other and had those big cultural differences. Plus, she was running away — I think she was just going through her teenage rebellion period. He met her at that time.

"The grass always looks greener on the other side," she sums up. "I say, look deep before you leap. I'm impressed by the way he has grown up and realized he made some mistakes."

The star-crossed marriage between a Bahraini princess and a former US marine that was feted on US television has come to an end in the desert gambling town of Las Vegas.

The Princess and the Marine Where are they now

The marriage between Bahraini princess, Meriam Al-Khalifa, and former US Marine Jason Johnson, pictured at the bride's immigration hearing in 2000, once feted on US television has come to an end in Las Vegas. [AFP]The fairy-tale story of Meriam Al-Khalifa, a member of the Gulf state of Bahrain's royal family, and US Marine Jason Johnson, who risked his career over their illicit love affair, became the subject of a television movie.

But five years on, the union is headed to the courts after the Bahraini bride filed for divorce in the town known for its quickie marriages and even quicker dissolutions, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

"It was what she wanted," Johnson told the paper of the couple's recent filing for divorce.

The pair met in 1999 when career military man Johnson was stationed in Bahrain. But his life changed when he met the beautiful teenage princess and the pair fell in love.

They could not have been more different. Their relationship could not have been more difficult. She was Muslim, he was Mormon. She was rich and privileged, he was a commoner.

Their union was forbidden by the royal family, so Johnson risked everything by working out a plan to spirit her out of the country.

Disguising Al-Khalifa in a flannel shirt and a baseball cap and forging her military identification papers, he spirited her out of her home country and brought her to America.

Johnson was demoted a rank and was eventually discharged from the marines for his antics and is barred from re-enlisting, he told the paper.

After a bitter immigration battle with US authorities, the couple married at the Candlelight Wedding Chapel on the famed and glitzy Las Vegas Strip when the bride was 19 and the groom 23.

But the temptations of 'Sin City,' constant tensions with Al-Khalifa's powerful family and rumours of an assassination plot proved to much for their star-crossed union, Johnson said.

"The royal family made me look really bad," he told the paper.

He claimed that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents told him they had intercepted a Syrian national who said he had been paid 500,000 dollars to assassinate Al-Khalifa.

Johnson worked as a valet parker, parking the cars of hotel and casino guests, while she was increasingly tempted by the nightlife of the gambling mecca, frequenting clubs late at night and ignoring her husband, he said.

LAS VEGAS - The five-year marriage is over between a former Marine and a young Bahraini royal whose story provided the basis for a made-for-television movie, The Princess and the Marine.

"It was what she wanted," Jason Johnson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal of the divorce he and Meriam Al-Khalifa filed for Nov. 17, the day after their fifth wedding anniversary. It calls them "incompatible."

Johnson, who had sneaked his beloved into the United States and was court-martialed over the relationship, cast the tale as a "Romeo and Juliet" love affair that disintegrated amid Las Vegas nightlife, opposition by his wife's family, and at least one death threat.

Al-Khalifa was not represented by a lawyer in the divorce filing. It is unknown whether she plans to stay in the United States.

The story started in January 1999 when Johnson was stationed in Bahrain, an island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Al-Khalifa is one of five daughters of Sheik Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, a distant relative of Bahrain's king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

They met at a mall and fell in love, though he was a Mormon and she was a Muslim, forbidden to marry a non-Muslim. Her family ordered an end to the romance. They continued to secretly exchange letters through a store employee at the mall.

Johnson spirited Al-Khalifa to the United States when his tour of duty ended in November 1999, using forged documents and a disguise.

Johnson was court-martialed for his role, demoted and discharged from the Marines. Al-Khalifa sought political asylum in the United States.

The couple married in Las Vegas on Nov. 16, 1999. He was 23 and she was 19. They rented an apartment in Las Vegas and lived off money from the movie. Johnson got a job as a parking valet on the Las Vegas Strip.

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He described constant tension with Al-Khalifa's family, and said the FBI once told him they'd intercepted a man who said he'd been paid $500,000 to assassinate her.

Johnson said Al-Khalifa plunged into Las Vegas nightlife, partying with her friends and ignoring him.

"Deep down inside, she knows that I loved her more than anything in the world," Johnson said. " ... I enjoyed every minute I spent with her."

What happened to the Bahraini princess that married the Marine?

Meriam was held for three days by customs and immigration officials. Eventually, she was granted asylum as she worried about the possibility of honor-related violence if she returned to her family. “She does not believe that she can go back and be safe at this time,” her lawyer, Jan Bejar said at an official hearing.

What happened to the Princess from the movie The Princess and the Marine?

Meriam is released after asking for asylum, saying she'd be disowned or even killed if she returned to Bahrain. Meriam and Jason marry in Las Vegas, and he is stripped of his insignia and rank to Private in the Marines.

Where is Meriam Al Khalifa married?

She and Johnson flew to the United States in November 1999 with Al Khalifa disguised as a female U.S. Marine and using fake military transfer documents, forged by Lance Corporal Johnson himself, and were married in a Las Vegas chapel on November 16, 1999, after which she settled into life as a military housewife, ...

Did Meriam Al Khalifa return to Bahrain?

Despite her earlier claims that she feared violence or death in her home country – an assertion that she had repeated in subsequent interviews – Al Khalifa returned to Bahrain in late 2001 to visit her family.