Once upon a time there was an Ugly Prince.

His nose was long. His eyes were crooked. His face was horsy. The whole head seemed to be leaning to one side.

He was ungainly. He was unathletic. His voice was a croak and his laugh made you want to cover your ears.

The Prince was Ugly inside, too. His concerns were petty. His solutions were pedestrian. He argued in a pedantic way.

In all this he was no better than his subjects.

He did have one Great Gift. The Ugly Prince was capable of a great love. For love he would be constant, he would be sincere, he would be earnest and true.

This is a common gift. Most people have it. I have it, and you can too. Many in the family of the Ugly Prince had it. One uncle abdicated his throne for the Woman He Loved. Another ancestor wore black for 40 years, mourning her Prince Albert in a can.

But from the Queen on down, everyone in the kingdom wished for the Ugly Prince to fall in love with a Beautiful Princess. To take the edge off. To make him, if not Beautiful, at least less Ugly. To give them all someone to cheer, someone to admire, someone to look up to. To make them feel less Ugly in reflection.

Then one day, or was it a succession of days, of weeks, of months, one is never sure about these things, anyway to make a long story short. The Ugly Prince fell in love.

She was ugly too. She had the face of a horse. Her laugh was grating and nasal. Her concerns were petty. She had absolutely no fashion sense.

Worse, she was married. She had married for money, and to maintain a position in society. Women do that sometimes.

The Ugly Prince didn’t care. The woman’s husband didn’t seem to care, either. He had just one Wife to give to his country.

But his Mother the Queen cared deeply. She brought the Ugly Prince to her throne room and laid down the law.

My uncle married for love, she said. He left this very throne for the Woman He Loved. That is how my father became King.

And it killed him. He was naturally shy, loving, but he was a private man. To live in public killed him long before his time.

I watched it happen. I watched it happen with my own eyes.

So I learned to compartmentalize, and so shall you, my son. I learned to set my private life to one side, and to play the role the people gave me. I have loved my people and my people have loved me. Play your role well and the people will love you, too. You will be King.

So he played the role. The Ugly Prince loved his Mother the Queen. He also loved his Kingdom, and all the people in it.

The Ugly Prince set his love aside.

Still the people mocked his love.

A troupe of popular puppets had their ugliest, hook-nosed puppet fall in love with a puppet chicken. The chicken was given the name of the Prince’s love. Camilla and The Great Gonzo made everybody laugh.

But sometimes the puppeteers took pity. Gonzo would sing, in a cramped, crooked, hoarse croak, and his words would make everybody cry.

Then one day the Ugly Prince met a Beautiful Princess.

She was perfect, the daughter of minor nobility.

They were married. It was the Super Duper Fairy Tale Wedding of the Century.

Then the Ugly Prince and the Beautiful Princess had two beautiful babies, sons who would be Handsome Princes, beautiful heirs to their grandmother’s throne.

The Beautiful Princess was as lovely inside as she was outside. She cared about Big Things. She cared about children. She cared about the sick. She knew how to show her care, and how to lead her people. She took to the Royal Role as a fish does to water.

But she was not the Queen. And she was not the love of the Ugly Prince, either. He loved another. He could play the role, he could compartmentalize to beat the band, but in his heart there was an emptiness he could not hide.

Then the Beautiful Marriage came unstuck. The Ugly Prince had nothing in common with the Beautiful Princess. The people prayed she could overthrow him, that she could become Queen, or that her Handsome Princes might rule in his stead.

It was not to be. That’s not the way Kingdoms work. Kingdoms are inherited, or seized. Power is an Ugly business. It is not a Fairy Tale.

The Beautiful Princess finally left the Ugly Prince. She found a beautiful man from far away, one whose inheritance would be the loveliest store in all the Kingdom. There would be Happy Endings all around.

But life doesn’t work that way. The Beautiful Princess and her new love died. A car crash. They were racing away from photographers in the City of Light. It was awful.

There was a silver lining. The Beautiful Princess would never sicken or grow old. She would never, ever be Ugly. She had a Beautiful Funeral, the finest in all the history of the Kingdom, much finer than anything the Ugly Prince might hope for. Her causes would go on in her name and one day the Handsome Princes would come to power. The people would tell her story forever and ever.

The Ugly Prince was growing old now. Age made him even uglier. His knees were weak. His shoulders stooped. He had done all he could and his mother, the Queen, refused to die. She had been on the throne for 50 years. She was going for the record.

This was fine with him.

He no longer cared. The story was told. The Fairy Tale was over.

All he wanted was his Love. She was ugly, but at least now she was divorced. She was free to marry.

But you are not, the Queen told the Ugly Prince. When you are King you will be head of our Church, and you cannot marry a divorced woman.

The Ugly Prince hung his head. He loved his Mother and he loved his Kingdom.

But then he did a most amazing thing.

He defied his Mother the Queen. He said, your husband has never been more than Prince Consort. My father was never the King. But he is a good man, and he is your love. You have been married nearly 60 years, and you have been happy. I cannot have 60 years. Can I at least have what’s left?

The Ugly Prince also defied his people, and his sons, the Handsome Princes. Just as the Queen will not live forever, he said, neither will I. The Kingdom is safe. Let me have peace. Laugh all you want. Give me what’s left of my life.

So finally the Queen consented. It would be a civil ceremony. She would not be there. And the love of the Ugly Prince would never become Queen. She would be Princess of Cornwall. Her line would have no nobility.

But yes the Ugly Prince could finally marry his One True Love.

You may be ugly, or petty, or small. You may have faults inside and out. But all of us are capable of One True Love. That is life’s real Fairy Tale. No matter your station, your looks, or your beliefs.

The Fairy Tale is open to all of us.