Angela Webb – Milinkovich, 47, from Minnesota, believes she and her sister are descended from the lovechild of Queen Victoria and her loyal servant John BrownNicola Methven TV Editor and Kelly Williams Assistant News Editor (Live)21:39, 01 Aug 2025She’s in the C4 doc Queen Victoria: Secret Marriage, Secret Child?A woman convinced she could be the illegitimate great, great granddaughter of Queen Victoria says her ultimate ambition is to secure acknowledgement from King Charles.Angela Webb-Milinkovich, hailing from Minnesota, believes she and her sibling possess ancestry tracing back to Victoria’s lengthy, passionate affair with her devoted servant John Brown.Fresh investigation by historian Dr Fern Riddell indicates that whilst officially Angela’s great grandmother Mary Ann was recorded as the sole offspring of John’s brother Hugh and his spouse Jessie, there exists compelling evidence suggesting the infant may actually have been born from his secret romance with the sovereign, during which they were clandestinely wed.Angela, 47, is now preparing to undergo DNA testingAngela, 47, is now preparing to undergo DNA testing as definitive confirmation of her regal bloodline.She insists she has no desire to profit financially from the revelation, seeking only to ensure her family’s historical significance receives proper acknowledgement, reports 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,” she explains.”If I’m going to reach for the top, it would have to be from King Charles,” she adds, when asked who she’d most like to hear from.”I mean, it’s a great story and it has his family involved, too. So he would be interested in it.”Or Prince William perhaps?Queen Victoria who was born in Kensington Palace (Image: Popperfoto/Getty Images)”That’d be great. That’s acceptable,” she laughs. Angela was raised with the belief that her family lineage traced back to the Royal bloodline through baby Mary Ann.She can’t pinpoint exactly when she first heard this tale, only that the family knew of a story involving “a big boat trip… and a baby given to the family.”During her four years of research for her new book Victoria’s Secret, Dr Riddell reached out to Angela, revealing she’d uncovered that childless couple Jessie and Hugh had sailed to New Zealand in 1865, officially registering Mary Ann’s birth there shortly afterwards – which could account for the maritime journey.Speaking on Channel 4’s accompanying documentary, Dr Riddell suggested that the widowed Victoria could have easily hidden a pregnancy during the 1860s, before having the infant – what would have been her tenth child – secretly transported to the opposite side of the globe to prevent scandal.Records show that in 1874, Victoria funded the family’s return voyage to Scotland, even providing them with a substantial residence on the Balmoral estate. Following John’s death, she also relocated Hugh’s family to be close to her at Windsor.John Brown was personal attendant to Queen Victoria(Image: Getty Images)Angela granted Dr Riddell access to a wealth of new evidence from the Brown family archive, which includes items and documents that have been in their possession for decades. Some of this material comes from a safety deposit box that Angela and her sister, who prefers to remain unnamed, opened about five years ago following their father’s death.”We didn’t know what we had, just that they were items from John Brown and Queen Victoria,” she reflects now. “It was always something in the back of our minds – we should probably get these looked at.”Despite longstanding family suspicions that they were related to Queen Victoria, Angela was still taken aback when Dr Fern reached out. “I believed my family was being truthful with it, but we could never prove it. Once she sent that message, I thought ‘What the heck? Is there actually validity to this?'”.Angela, who is employed as a mental health care worker, expressed that her aim is for the love affair, which was concealed both during and after Victoria’s lifetime, to be recognised as the truth. “It’s something that I’m very proud of,” she stated.”I want the vindication essentially for John Brown and just for my lineage, because they were not able to talk about it. It was something that just became that secret that we couldn’t really share, but we knew.”Victoria and John Brown(Image: Getty Images)If Dr Riddell’s account is accurate, and there’s substantial evidence backing it up, Victoria and John shared a passionate romance spanning nearly 20 years, right up until his passing in 1883.Beyond exchanging mutual declarations of love on his deathbed – “I told him no one loved him more than I did and he answered ‘nor you – than me'” – she had also created a plaster cast of his hand, precisely as she had done for Albert. When her own end came in 1901, she requested to be interred alongside a lock of hair and photograph of the man who had stood beside her for two decades following Albert’s demise in 1861.Letters that have survived show her addressing him as “my beloved” and “darling one”.Yet, at the insistence of her eldest son Bertie – poised to become Edward VII – the Palace began systematically wiping John from history. Victoria’s diaries were transcribed and altered, with the originals then destroyed.Bertie, who had frequently feuded with Brown, also commanded that the sculptures and personal tributes Victoria had erected in his honour be torn down. Angela’s grandfather passed away when she was in fifth grade, but she recalls his distress over how the Browns were completely erased from history.Letters that have survived have been unearthed”My understanding from my Mum was that he was just really upset and bitter about it,” she revealed. “He didn’t like to talk about it. Now, having both my parents and my aunt gone, we don’t have those resources any more. So the bulk of the story I have been learning from Fern, which is amazing, and I’m so grateful.”Angela remains hopeful that the royals will eventually be forced to acknowledge the legitimacy of the claims surrounding her ancestors, which are also featured in a Channel 4 documentary airing Thursday. “My gut says it’s going to have to get acknowledged at some point,” she argues.”Scandals are always very exciting so I’m sure there’ll be a lot of questions for them to answer. If they don’t say anything, that’s their choice. But I’d like them to acknowledge the truth of this love, to recognise that it wasn’t cool to cover up and destroy evidence of the relationship they shared. Let’s be real, Bertie was a bit of a d**k to the Browns.”That story deserves to be known, to have its own breath out there in the world. You don’t get that kind of romance every day. It’s what you’d hope for anybody, that you would find another chance at love. So I don’t see why we should look down on that. It’s like an opportunity presented itself and they embraced it, and I think that is beautiful.”Angela reveals she’s hoping to undergo a DNA test to confirm her lineage, but has been cautioned it may take considerable time due to the requirement for pristine source material when testing across the four-generation divide. “I’ll let the scientists do the science,” she says brightly.Angela Webb and Dr Fern Riddell look into the case”I’m a supporting character in this journey, and so I will follow wherever the story leads me. I’m totally open to it. So far it’s been so exciting, so cool. I’m just really stoked.”The tattooed American, who sports a nose-ring, maintains that she’s not merely attempting to profit from the royals’ fortune. “Money is the furthest thing from my goal in telling this family story. It has always been to get Queen Victoria and John Brown’s story the truth it deserves.”She claims she cannot fathom any other explanation for why her family would possess treasured keepsakes from Victoria and John, including a brooch and lock of hair. “Their relationship was authentic and genuine. They obviously had feelings for each other. It went well beyond a queen and man servant situation.”There was considerable speculation at the time about the pair, portrayed by Dame Judi Dench and Billy Connolly in the 1997 film Mrs Brown. In 1865, after Victoria requested John’s transfer to the Royal Household at Windsor, two of her daughters, Helena and Louise, openly referred to him as ‘Mamma’s lover’.Article continues belowAnd the following year a Swiss newspaper published a story claiming Victoria, then aged 46, had privately married John and become pregnant. Angela is content with any outcome regarding Mary Ann’s parentage, stating: “Either John Brown is my great, great uncle or he is my great, great grandpa. My family still played a key role in history with their friendship and closeness to Queen Victoria. I’m proud of their steadfastness in keeping the legacy of John Brown alive and their word to holding the secret close. It’s still a beautiful romance that deserves its moment of recognition in history.”With her mum hailing from Scotland, Angela cherishes her time in the UK and confesses she sometimes feels more British than American. “I’ve always felt a little disconnected in the sense that I feel more at home over there. Scotland is my happy place. I would move there if I could, for sure.” More
