Catherine Oxenberg

Catherine Oxenberg (born September 22, 1961) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Amanda Carrington on the 1980s prime time soap opera Dynasty. Oxenberg is the daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and her first husband, Howard Oxenberg (1919–2010). She twice played Diana, Princess of Wales on screen, in The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (1982) and Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After (1992), and has appeared in many other films.

Early life and education

Oxenberg was born in New York City, and grew up in London. She is the eldest daughter of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia (born 1936), a member of the House of Karađorđević, and her first husband Howard Oxenberg (1919–2010), a Jewish^[1] self-made textile and clothing tycoon^[2] and close friend of the Kennedy family. Her sister is Christina Oxenberg. Princess Elizabeth is the only daughter of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (who served as regent for his cousin's eldest son King Peter II of Yugoslavia) and Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark.

Through her maternal grandmother, Catherine is a first cousin once removed of: Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy and Prince Michael of Kent. Oxenberg is a second cousin once removed of Queen Sofía of Spain and Charles III of the United Kingdom, making Catherine a third cousin of Felipe VI of Spain and William, Prince of Wales. She is also a third cousin once removed of Margrethe II of Denmark and Harald V of Norway; and a fourth cousin to Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and King Philippe of Belgium.^[3]

Oxenberg was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in Kensington, London, St. Paul's School, and Columbia University, though she did not finish college.^[4][5] She had initially enrolled at Harvard University as a member of the Class of 1985.^[6][7]

Ancestry

Through her maternal grandfather, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia of the House of Karađorđević, Catherine Oxenberg is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Karađorđe, who started the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1804. Her maternal grandmother, Princess Olga, was the daughter of Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia and Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, himself the son of another Romanov grand duchess, Queen Olga Konstantinovna of the Hellenes and her Danish-born husband King George of Greece, brother of Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom and the Empress Maria Fyodorovna.^[3]

Career

Oxenberg made her acting debut in the 1982 made-for-television film The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana, in which she played Diana, Princess of Wales. In 1984, Oxenberg joined the hit ABC prime time soap opera Dynasty—then at its height of popularity^[8]—in the role of Amanda Carrington. Oxenberg left Dynasty in 1986, following a salary dispute after the end of her second season, and the role was recast with Karen Cellini.^[9] Though Oxenberg's publicist insisted that the actress left Dynasty voluntarily, several media outlets reported that she was fired.^[10][11][12]

Oxenberg was the guest host on the May 10, 1986, episode of Saturday Night Live, making her the only descendant of a royal family to host the show. Oxenberg starred as Princess Elysa in the 1987 television film Roman Holiday. She also appeared in The Lair of the White Worm in 1988, and reprised the role of Diana, Princess of Wales in the TV film Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After in 1992. From 1993 to 1994, she starred in the short-lived series Acapulco H.E.A.T.^{[citation needed]}

Oxenberg was portrayed by Rachael Taylor in the 2005 telemovie Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized retelling of the behind-the-scenes goings-on during the production of Dynasty. In 2006, Oxenberg appeared in the TV special, Dynasty Reunion: Catfights & Caviar, in which she was reunited with her former Dynasty castmates to reminisce about the series.^[13][14]

In 2019, Catherine Oxenberg produced and narrated Escaping the NXIVM Cult: A Mother's Fight to Save Her Daughter in which Andrea Roth portrayed her.^[15]

Personal life

In June 1991, Oxenberg had a daughter, India Riven Oxenberg, whose father was later revealed to be the convicted drug smuggler William Weitz Shaffer.^[16] In December 1992, Oxenberg was living with her daughter in Coldwater Canyon, Los Angeles, California.

Oxenberg's first marriage was to the producer Robert Evans, in Beverly Hills, California, on July 12, 1998, but the marriage was annulled nine days later.^[17][18]

Oxenberg met the actor Casper Van Dien during the filming of the 1999 TV movie The Collectors, and they worked together again the same year in the Evangelical Christian thriller The Omega Code. On May 8, 1999, they were married at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Van Dien had a son and a daughter from a previous marriage. Van Dien and Oxenberg have two daughters. In 2005, the couple appeared in their own reality series, I Married a Princess, which aired on the Lifetime Television channel in the United States and on LIVINGtv in the United Kingdom. Van Dien filed for divorce from Oxenberg in 2015.^[19][20]

While Oxenberg and Van Dien were married, and before India joined NXIVM, Oxenberg and Van Dien were celebrity ambassadors for the non-profit organization Childhelp.^[21]

In June 2023, Oxenberg revealed her engagement to businessman Ellis Jones.^[22] They began dating shortly after Jones offered Oxenberg a place to stay following her losing her home in the 2018 California wildfires.^[23] The couple married on October 21, 2023.^[23]

NXIVM

Oxenberg acknowledged in November 2017 that she had had interactions with Keith Raniere and his NXIVM organization, bringing her daughter India into NXIVM in 2011 for what she thought would be "a self-help, business-oriented program."^[24] Oxenberg confirmed that her daughter became heavily involved in the cult and that she had initiated what proved to be a failed intervention for India.^[24]

In August 2018, Oxenberg revealed that India had left NXIVM in June, after the arrest of Raniere, and they were working on their relationship.^[25] In August 2018, Oxenberg's book Captive: A Mother's Crusade to Save Her Daughter from a Terrifying Cult co-written by former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff^[26] was published.^[27]

In 2020, Oxenberg was featured in The Vow, a documentary series for HBO, directed by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, which follows Oxenberg's attempts to rescue her daughter India.^[28] Oxenberg also appears in Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult a documentary series for Starz, directed by Cecilia Peck and Inbal B. Lessner, which features India speaking out about her experiences for the first time.^[29]

Filmography

Film

Television

Accolades

For playing Amanda Carrington, Oxenberg won two Soap Opera Digest Awards in 1985, for Outstanding Supporting Actress and Outstanding Female Newcomer.^[31]

References

1. ^ Mason, Christopher (1997). "Royals Rule". New York Christina Oxenberg: Dad's jewish, so I've always considered my sister Catherine and I to be authentic Jewish princesses.
2. ^ "Catherine Oxenberg, the real-life royal who also reigns on Dynasty". McCall's (Volume 113). 1986. p. 94. Retrieved 4 July 2025.
3. ^ David Lewis, William Addams Reitwiesner, Persons eligible to succeed to the British Throne as of 1 Jan 2011 Archived May 17, 2011 at the Wayback Machine at wargs.com, accessed January 17, 2019
4. ^ Orange Coast Magazine. Emmis Communications. Jun 1986.
5. ^ Mills, Nancy (December 13, 1992). "The Royal Unraveling". Los Angeles Times. Archived June 22, 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
6. ^ Paul Barrett (September 13, 1982). "Pictures of Catherine". Archived August 10, 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
7. ^ Team Coco (2020-05-30). Conan Addresses The Harvard Class Of 2000 | CONAN on TBS. Retrieved 2025-06-07. – via YouTube.
8. ^ 1984-1985 Ratings - ClassicTVhits.com Archived December 17, 2015 at the Wayback Machine Dynasty was the #1 American series during the 1984-1985 season.
9. ^ Eder, Shirley (August 19, 1986). "Dynasty To Do Without Its Princess". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, United States: Knight Ridder. Archived August 8, 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
10. ^ Swertlow, Frank (July 16, 1986). "Hollywood Freeway: CBS Gets Ready with New Focus on Bourke-White". Los Angeles Daily News. p. 1 Valley, L.A. Life. Retrieved October 8, 2018. – via infoweb.newsbank.com.
11. ^ "Dynasty Gives Actress The Heave-Ho". San Francisco Chronicle. July 16, 1986. p. 47. Retrieved October 8, 2018. – via infoweb.newsbank.com.
12. ^ "Dynasty Will Switch Amandas". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Associated Press. July 16, 1986. p. C10, Television. Retrieved October 8, 2018. – via NewsBank
13. ^ Stanley, Alessandra (May 2, 2006). "A Look Back at Dynasty and the Excess of the 1980s". The New York Times. Archived September 3, 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
14. ^ Keck, William (April 24, 2006). "Forsythe rules his Dynasty". USA Today. Archived November 7, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
15. ^ "Lifetime's Trailer For 'Escaping The NXIVM Cult' Shows Seduction And Anguish". Deadline. August 24, 2019. Archived October 10, 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
16. ^ Bruins, Hein (February 7, 2019). "Descendants of King Christian IX of Denmark". heinbruins.nl. Archived June 17, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
17. ^ Archerd, Army (July 1998). "Evans and Oxenberg saying 'I do'". Variety. Archived from the original on December 6, 2008. Retrieved September 9, 2008.
18. ^ Archerd, Army (July 1998). "Evans and Oxenberg untie knot". Variety. Archived February 4, 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved September 9, 2008.
19. ^ Blair, Kevin (September 28, 2015). "Starship Troopers Star Casper Van Dien Files For Divorce From Actress Wife Catherine Oxenberg". StarPulse. Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
20. ^ "Casper Van Dien: I'm Divorcing Catherine Oxenberg". TMZ. September 25, 2015. Archived November 26, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
21. ^ "Celebrity Ambassadors". ChildHelp.org. Archived from the original on May 10, 2008. Retrieved August 6, 2008.
22. ^ Walters, David (June 20, 2023). "Catherine Oxenberg on How Ketamine Helped Her Overcome NXIVM Trauma: 'A Miracle' (Exclusive)". People
23. ^ Saunders, Angel (October 27, 2023). "Oxenberg Marries Businessman Ellis Jones: 'I Feel So Blessed'". People
24. ^ Kelly, Megyn (November 2, 2017). "A Mother's Fight". No. 29. Megyn Kelly Today. Episode 29. NBC. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
25. ^ McNeil, Liz & Dodd, Johnny (August 7, 2018). "Catherine Oxenberg Says Her Daughter Who Has Left Nxivm Is 'Moving Forward'". People. Archived October 18, 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
26. ^ Oxenberg, Catherine (July 2, 2019). Captive. Gallery Books. ISBN 9781982100667. Archived October 20, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
27. ^ Oxenberg, Catherine & Stoynoff, Natasha (2018). Captive. Gallery Books. ISBN 9781982100650. Archived August 16, 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
28. ^ Dickson, EJ (August 21, 2020). "How HBO's The Vow Tells the Non-Sex-Cult Side of NXIVM". Rolling Stone. Archived October 1, 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
29. ^ Pederson, Erik (October 13, 2020). "Seduced: Inside The NXIVM Cult: Trailer & Premiere Date For Four-Part Starz Docuseries". Deadline Hollywood. Archived October 19, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
30. ^ Mick Martin, Marsha Porter, The Video Movie Guide 2002 (2001), p. 1132
31. ^ "The Soap Opera Digest Awards History". Soap Opera Digest. Archived from the original on April 15, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2018. – via Celebratingthesoaps.net.

External links

• Catherine Oxenberg's Watch Over Me profile - MyNetworkTV.com