Hope Cooke

Hope Cooke (born 1941) was a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College who married the Crown Prince, later 12th Chogyal (King), of the then-independent Kingdom of Sikkim (today part of India) in the Himalayas on March 20, 1963.

In 1959, Sarah Lawrence freshman Cooke first met Palden Thondup Namgyal in Darjeeling, India. Though he was then twice her age, Cooke was attracted to him, and the Crown Prince saw marrying Cooke as an opportunity to modernize Sikkim.

Four years later, the Episcopalian Cooke married the Crown Prince in a Buddhist monastery. The Prince became Chogyal in 1965 but was deposed in 1973 and confined to his palace. Cooke left him soon afterward and became a single parent for her two children in Manhattan.

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