Original subtitles

[Applause]

these frenzied scenes could be the

victory rally of a politician or perhaps

a grand birthday party for a Hollywood

film star

actually the man at the center of all

this attention is King Constantine of

Greece but Bruce has been a republic for

nearly 30 years these scenes of rampant

royalism and fervor are not in Athens

but in London where the King lives in

exile Constantine is the king who lost

his throne

[Music]

[Music]

a royal wedding reception Crown Prince

Pavlos the eldest son of King

Constantine of Greece is marrying

marie-chantal Miller daughter of one of

the world's richest men

it's our royal watchers paradise but

guests at this royal wedding are a hoons

who have a great good to prepare the

whole thing was quite difficult and but

it was a very enjoyable day I must say

and I enjoyed every moment of it was

great from whole family was there the

whole family is the cream of European

royalty many are known as the relatives

[Music]

as you know the Queen is the godmother

of our daughter and Prince charges to

Godfather my son and I've recalled his

son and so it's all very closed society

photographer Lord Litchfield pushes

protocol aside for practicality as

monarchs and heads of state are handed

into place straight to come

that's how

[Applause]

[Music]

after the wedding royal guests will head

back to the comfort of palaces all over

Europe but King Constantine will not be

travelling home to Greece or even going

home to a palace

with his wife Queen Anne Marie the

king's home for the past 30 years has

been here in a North London suburb this

is a famous drawing of my grandfather

where who was commanded chief of the

Greek armed forces in the Balkan wars of

1912-1913

he's just receiving a telegram and the

victory against Constantine is a man

whose ancestors fought battles and

liberated cities in his house it's hard

to forget the past

royal relics tell potent tales of Greek

history and hold painful memories of

housing's might have been that's my gun

for the King Constantine

and you can barely see that it's a last

look painting you can barely see he's

got a black band because his father had

been assassinated King George the first

of these King George the first as you

know was the brother of Queen Alexandra

and Empress Marie of Russia and that's

my grandfather's mother my

great-grandmother Queen Olga and this

bracelet is gone down through the

generations and was stolen from my wife

at Geneva Airport so it's a ruby and erm

and we're trying to persuade the

authorities now to try and find them

that's my mother

and these two are old King George the

first of these that was as a young man

just after he came through Greece from

Denmark and that's in in later life this

is the Queen when she came as Princess

Elizabeth Prince Philip they came to

this and this is taken at the cafe in

Cape Sounion that's my father

and that's Prince Phillip sister married

to my mother's brother Prince George of

Hannover and that's his two sons was

Carlo Heston and Prince Reina this sweet

little boy hears me

[Music]

this was painted by the Prince of Wales

it's the island of Crete then he painted

from the Britannia as they were passing

on his honeymoon and this is painted by

him not a fish and it's one of the

monasteries which i think is very

beautiful and you can see the evolution

of the painter 40 years ago things were

going to be very different thousands of

Greeks lined the streets as the young

handsome King a national hero for

winning an Olympic gold medal married a

beautiful princess from Denmark

the future must have seemed so Saturn

but this fairytale beginning was to go

wrong and it would lead to the end of

over a hundred years of Greek royalty so

how did a family with such impeccable

credentials such an illustrious ancestry

come to lose everything

[Music]

crown prince constantine was selected to

represent Greece in the Rome Olympics of

1960 here he is leading the team at the

opening ceremony his sport was sailing

his boyhood friend Costas remembers the

prince when they were still at school

together

he always wanted to do things for the

good of a team I was in charge of the

athletics and perhaps sometimes I needed

somebody to participate too who would

only get one point

come fifth for six he always wanted to

tell he was a real sportsman

[Music]

we hoped going to the Olympics that if

we were lucky and if we could be working

very well we might get a sixth place

this was our aim not to really humiliate

our country we never expected will the

movie nobleman

[Music]

wonderful I mean we felt fantastic and

the idea of getting up onto the podium

and having the mental program view and

seeing the great flag go up and listen

to Greek national anthem was I always to

say that that was the best feeling my

life other than getting engaged so I

mean that was a fantastic situation gold

medal or not King Constantine has not

been welcomed in Greece for half his

lifetime

unlike the boat in which he won gold

which is the pride of the Greek Yacht

Club in Piraeus cool this afternoon and

we were talking about it and we thought

that were actually putting the boat into

the water one day in having a girl but

she's lovely beautiful back at the club

for the first time since he was exiled

in 1967 it's an emotional time for

constant I'm 36 years to be able to say

- I said welcome to the club or which I

remember

and welcome to the club that I have

known of the Admiral

nearly half a century earlier the gold

medal-winning crown prince was greeted

by his father king pole on the tarmac at

athens air for Constantine was killed by

his country as a national hero they

estimated that because it was the first

medal in 50 years I think they were

estimating something about a million and

a half people who came into the states

and what sharing the two members of my

crew and myself to win a gold medal it's

an incredible thing and for the crown

prince at that time to win a gold medal

was an amazing thing and you can never

take that away from you you can take

almost anything away from a person but

you can never take his gold medal away

just about everything else was taken

away from him 26 kilometers north of

Athens is a ten thousand acre estate

called Tatoi

[Music]

at its center is this house which has

been unoccupied since December in 1967

it was once the family home to

generations of the kings and queens of

greece constantine was only 27 and on

the throne for less than three years

when the nightmare of every monarch came

true overthrow of the established order

by military force the queen was

expecting her eldest son and well we

heard about it about two o'clock at

night and I called my aide who lived in

the house up there and he came down not

knocked on this door lovely old door and

I just went to the telephone and tried

to find out what was going on and tried

to call the government and the

government had been arrested and tried

to call different commanders telephone

lines were being cut all the time

and then we heard that the tanks had

reached the gate so I sent my security

officers to go meet all the commanding

officer of the tank squadron doesn't

come up here to come speak to me but

they just arrested my security officer

so I realized that they had very

unfriendly intentions and I asked my

security to withdraw up till here

they're only about 20 men and we they

had on that bit there they had about I

think four submachine guns and a couple

revolvers that's about it were you

afraid you know your life no you don't

have time for that I mean you have to

you're so busy you have to be in a

terrible try and work out what's going

on and try to solve the problem and then

I were down to melody headquarters to

try and work out what to do next and how

to get my country out of this mess

this mess was a result of Greek politics

in the mid-1960s which were in turmoil

the cool came about a month before a

general election for a left-wing victory

was certain afraid of civil chaos and

their own loss of political power a

section of the army led by a brigadier

in two Colonels took the country by

force over 10,000 people were arrested

the former King Constantine has never

talked in detail about those dangerous

days and rarely gives interviews I was

invited to meet him at his home in North

London okay can you explain to us in the

most simple and straightforward terms

possible

what exactly happened in 1967 it's the

most ghastly feeling you can have to see

your country disintegrate in front of

your eyes within hours my whole aim that

day was to try and find a system whereby

we wouldn't end up killing each other

and in the Civil War we had just been

through all that in the 40s and I tried

to find a way to solve this problem

without getting any blood spilled not an

easy task the King's strategy surprised

many this formal photograph was taken

just after the coup when Constantine

still his official head of state swore

in the Colonel's as the new legitimate

government many people have wondered

that maybe you gave the new government

after the coup a sense of legitimacy by

recognizing them how would you answer

those critics well the legitimacy came

because I swore in the government that

day and the reason I swore that

government in that day is that I felt

that if I didn't do that

and then try to gain time after the

swearing-in we would go into as I said

before a possibility of civil strife

between the military units the prime

minister of the day who was arrested

also I managed to get him out of his

confinement and I forced the comes to

releasing because I wanted to talk

I'm gonna get his advice and he also

thought that maybe I should arrest all

these people so I said to her look how

did you expect me to arrest him I don't

have any units at my disposal am I gonna

I can't physically arrest them he said

what are you gonna do and I said well

what I thought I'd do is swear in a

government with a few military people as

possible more civilians as possible and

then try to gain time to organize a

counter-coup and go to democracy and he

said well I suspect that that's probably

the only sensible way of going about it

many people say that the king should

have used his rights actually to dismiss

the military regime not to put up with

it and if necessary actually draw his

pistol on officers who were creating a

revolutionary situation against the

established order military commanders

and political leaders were among those

arrested within hours of the Colonel's

coup

the king was alone what were the options

open to him it's very easy with

hindsight or even from the sidelines

to criticize somebody for what they did

or didn't do I feel that the King always

acted rightly but an extraordinarily

difficult situation you expected some

sacrifice from your King and the

sacrifice would have been necessarily to

expose his life or to expose to his

family to any danger but to stand up and

say no I do not accept this military

coup in fact he did the opposite

Constantin claims he did the opposite to

create a smokescreen to mask his real

intentions of a fight back against the

coup but exposed to the harsh glare of

international newsreels his behavior and

loop like collaboration cracking eggs at

Easter the king appeared to be on best

terms with the military hunter he says

his mindset was very different somebody

asked me one day when did I planned to

overthrow them and I said ten minutes

after I heard that they were making the

coup which was ten o'clock at two

o'clock in the morning from day one he

was thinking how can I extricate myself

from this situation how can I actually

save Greece from this fate the trouble

with making a coup is that you had to

have a devious mind and the generals are

senior generals of myself haven't a clue

how to do this so it was a really an

improvised situation he had one card in

his hand if he didn't Trump them he lost

it took me eight months to try and set

it all up and then in December before

Christmas on the 13th of December I

moved and tried to overthrow the cons he

didn't succeed so I had to leave the

country and then went into exile

I chose to leave for the simple reason

that if I did stay it would end up with

military units shooting at each other

the Brother killing brother father

killing son there was no purpose in that

if my efforts to overthrow the council

restore democracy were to be successful

then they had to be successful in the

first two hours you contract that sort

of thing on

if you could wind back the clock being a

and older and much wiser man is there

anything you would have done differently

I would have done most of their things

the same way but far better

in the small hours of a chilly Thursday

the 14th of December 1967 the Greek

royal family fled into exile the royal

plane landed in Rome with only 5 minutes

of fuel remaining the family took few

possessions with them

the few people knew the Queen was in the

early stages of pregnancy under intense

media scrutiny the king maintained his

characteristic silence in a strange

country cut off from all that was

familiar the royal refugees had a little

idea of what the future might hold an

old friend of the King remembers this

stressful time well I went to Rome tried

to find him and not knowing what to

expect and he opened the door it was

very moving I was very moved he was very

moved he thought that I was arrested but

I was not and it was a very difficult

moment of his life because it was the

night the day that the Queen had lost a

baby she was expecting when she left on

the 13th of December from Greece and she

lost her baby on the 16th we decided to

stay in Rome initially because that's

enough fuel that I had in my plane when

I left Greece I couldn't go any further

so we landed there and so I wanted

symbolically to show the Greek people

that while they were under dictatorship

we were they were not forgotten and we

would work for their freedom two weeks

after his failed fight back newsreel

cameras recorded this the royal family

apparently without a care in the world

enjoying Christmas at the Greek

ambassador's residence in Rome this show

of normality might have fitted with

royal protocol but it wasn't doing the

Kings image any favors

the next step you would have expected

from the king of Greece from a king with

any country was to condemn the status

quo existing in his country he never did

that while he was in exile while he was

abroad and that counts a lot that counts

a lot as time passed the Colonel's

hunter tightened its grip and became

increasingly brutal crushing any

opposition gruesome stories of torture

and oppression emerged there were

worldwide protests the king in exile

remains silent finally in July 1973 the

military regime declared that Greece was

now a republic and the king was formally

deposed once they abolish the monarchy I

had to find means of my for survival and

so I left Rome and the family went

initially to Denmark I came to London to

find a place to stay and then the whole

family joined me here and we've been

here since nineteen well the end of the

1974 early you mentioned there a means

for survival that's an intriguing point

I mean I have no idea what a person in

your situation that does for sustenance

what do you do to support yourself and

you and your family it's difficult it's

difficult but slowly slowly one has to

adapt and one has to find means of doing

that but initially it was quite a

problem but these things happened I know

you willing to tell me how you overcame

the problems well it's it's very private

that so but which we managed to survive

in 1974 the king and queen settled into

the Surrey village of trouble with their

three children

alexia pavlov's and Niklaus later that

same year the hunter collapsed naturally

the Greek royal family were optimistic

about a return to Greece but the new

democratic government ordered a

referendum on the future of the

Constitution and the monarchy claiming

it might cause civil unrest the new

Prime Minister said he would telephone

the King when he could return the call

never came and the King campaigned from

exile in England Greece voted two to one

for the abolition of the monarchy up

until you lost your place in Greek life

how did you feel your relationship was

with the public it was very much the

same as it is in England I mean in all

the big state functions and going let's

say on the national days there were huge

crowds industry it's identifying the

king over the crown but the seconds of

our life changed you know when the

dictator should happen and then I had to

leave the country then I was away from

the public for so long it was very

difficult for the for me and for them

because you can't equate with him and

since the referendum in 1974 he's

officially been ex king of Greece

although even today in the court

circular which is published in British

newspapers

he's always referred to as King

Constantine of the Hillians today the ex

king of the Hellenes keeps in touch from

England with events in Greece through

satellite television had technology like

this been available during the time of

the Colonel's coup and the referendum

Greek royal destiny may have been very

different

deposed in 1973 in living in exile ever

since the former king of Greece

Constantine has never formally renounced

his status as a mana one of the reasons

for this lies deep within the Greek

tradition in the Greek Orthodox

tradition the king is anointed actually

at his coronation so once a king who was

a king he will never until his dying day

lose his status as a king it is a

reigning king obviously at the present

time he is not a reigning king he's an

ex king that's his official status and I

think is a status which he himself

accepts do you think you are the last

king of Ares do you think that you will

indeed be the last king of Greece well

according to the constitution of my

country that is that is the case

according to you I don't no idea what's

happening in the future it's very hard

to say

the court of king constantine resides

here on the sixth floor of this london

building it's a far cry from life in a

palace the business of being an ex-king

has been conducted from these modest

offices since the late 1970s

Constantine still signs with the royal

signature the Kings office receives

around a hundred and fifty thousand

letters a year most address to his

majesty or King Constantine no surprise

then that he still thinks he's a king

always they wish to be very well with

his family and the most important wish

for them is to see him in Greece just

like members of most royal families the

King gets muntins

of gifts all these items come from

members of the public in Greece who come

to England and come and want to come and

see me and then they bring all these

different icons as a gift and they come

from clergymen or students or just

anybody and they always bring an icon

just for protection and blessings so I

keep them here as a collection the

soldiers if my memory serves me

correctly they were collected by Prince

Philip Colin I something it's at all God

the former king of Greece has redefined

his life whether he Shaffer in Queen

Elizabeth the second on a golf buggy at

his son's wedding reception or joining

Prince Philip and other royals on the

dance floor the former King Constantine

remains firmly at the center of the

royal merry-go-round

and was in this elite group he plays a

vital role in constant time as former

king of Greece is one of the most

important linchpins in European

aristocracy specifically because he was

freed by this exile and by the

referendum how is he used as a linchpin

well he's the Clapham Junction of

monarchy which means that his private

family occasions became natural

gathering pools for everyone to come

from Spain from Denmark from Britain and

it was a good occasion for inter

European royalty to me

[Music]

[Applause]

for instance on his 60th birthday he

invited a number of high-profile guests

including royalty who with whom their

family one of them - two people were

Prince Charles and Camilla Bowles and

that was the first time that the couple

Charles and Camilla was seen together in

public it was a happy occasion for me

and I just asked him if he would join I

mean you know it was my birthday and he

very sweetly hosted the the lunch and so

I asked if they would all be there you

know and but it served its purpose

because after that the Charles and

Camilla trained to sort of gather some

momentum and perhaps be tested in the

media and on the British public

it seems to me that talking to people

and reading things but before speaking

to you that you occupy a unique position

you're almost a sort of a diplomat if

you like for a European royalty are

behind the scenes mover and shaker I

mean how do you regard your role well

it's a funny way of putting it I don't

feel it that way I feel that they're all

my family and I was in in in a position

many years ago I'm not in that position

now but I still equate with them and I

can get on with them very well and it's

much more from my point of view looking

at them as a family with the knowledge

that they have a very important job to

do in the final analysis or what we all

try to do is service to the people

that's basically what monarch is all

about although he no longer has a throne

there is evidence that Constantine still

holds real influence in Greece and that

he can provoke the Greek government in

1993 the family went on a yachting

holiday around the Greek islands having

reportedly agreed to avoid populated

areas he sailed into this port in

southern Greece for fuel the Royal party

was shadowed by Greek naval destroyers

and buzzed by a Hercules aircraft he was

tracked all over the place until he was

finally obliged to sail away and not to

disturb their peace and longer their

nerve the Greek government's nerves

couldn't take and that may be why a year

later the Greek government seized the

Kings ten thousand acre estate at Tatoi

for the king returning to Tatoi the home

he was forced to abandon nearly 40 years

ago it's a sentimental journey Tatoi is

now a national park

this was my home this was where we this

was what I called home this is where we

lived

there's a lot of emotion in this old

place because it was originally bought

by my great-grandfather King George the

first who came to this country from

Denmark as a young man of aged about 17

and became the king of the Hellenes and

he reigned for 50 years it was not

bought by money that came to him as a

salary it was money that came from

Denmark

he bought it himself so he could have

his own private place since it was

bought in 1871 the estate of Tatoi has

passed down through several generations

of the Greek royal family since being in

exile Constantine has had to fight to

establish his right to his own land

house on the right was where all the

vineyards were

and that by the Stags used to love

coming in there all they said oh no what

the dump we're doing this for this is

just for the public don't know what it

is but all this was vineyards and I had

to put up huge fences because they used

to go and eat all the grapes and they

would roll like mad and that whole area

that's what you see down there that that

patch I don't if you can see it behind

that lovely tree that's when I had my

helipad needs to land my helicopter to

come home from my office to have lunch

with the the Queen in my little daughter

and then I would fly back again to work

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

royal possessions are a bit of a hot

potater who do they belong to they

belong to the throne

ergo to the state or do they belong to

the person which means private

possessions it's difficult to sort of

clarify for certain what belongs to whom

well maybe not that difficult the one

occupied throughout the 1970s and 80s

the king paid ownership tax on Tatoi so

as far as the Greek text authorities

were concerned it did seem to be his

house it's difficult to describe I mean

why do they do why did they take it away

it's oh it's very hard to describe

whether it's a spite or envy I have no

idea it's really very difficult to

understand there's no logic to it at all

and it was an estate that was bought by

the family this is where we lived this

was our home most of our family were

born here died here my son our son was

born here I'm trying to figure out which

room was it done he is not officially

pond and there was a pond is underneath

here and there's the swimming pool which

was a massive failure wasn't very good

and then further down behind the trees

is a small place where there was a

tennis court it's very thick all this

you see all these things my father used

to come out in the mornings every day of

his life and clear on the undergrowth so

you could see quite far away

he was asking to be allowed to go to his

home to use his property not the palace

it is a private residence

this was deliberately misconstrued by

the Greek socialist government as being

a threat as being an attempt to return

by the back door into Greece and no

amount of assurance by the king that

that was not his intention seemed to be

able to move them after ten years of

negotiation paying all taxes and

reaching agreement on the house a new

government you turned and seized Tatoi

in 1994 the royal family was stripped of

passports and had to apply for Greek

citizenship King Constantine's patience

finally snapped he went to the European

Court of Human Rights I consider it the

greatest insult in this world for a

Greek to be told that he's not a Greek

all that a Greek to be told that he has

to apply for Greek nationality

I was bonded I am Greek now Divac and

there are certain things that every

human being will not go further you

cannot push an individual further and

that's my limit

I was born in my country I served in the

Greek armed forces

I paid Greek taxes I won a gold medal

for this the first Gold level Greece's

era one in any spot in 15 years and I

became the head of state of Greece and I

think that anything beyond that is

totally nonsense

that's my father and that's my mother

and these leaves I brought them here in

the beginning of March because it was

the 40th anniversary of my father's

passing away and I had a memorial

service so we put the leaves here of my

family and my sister's family from Spain

and now they'll have to clear them all

away because they both looked rather sad

after long deliberation the European

Court ruled that the human rights of

King Constantine had been violated Tatoi

was his but he still didn't get the

house back because the ruling allowed

for compensation to be paid rather than

returning the king seized property in

this my grandfather King Constantine and

also my grandmother in Queen Sofia who

was the sister of has a villain

today as he walks around his family's

graveyard the king is just a visitor

it's as if the Greek government had

wished to wipe oil history from the

records since under air if you want to

over Greece's there whose specialist

father my grandmother is there who's the

sister of the Kaiser my Ganga is there

who was the son of the King of Denmark

Queen Sophia was also the granddaughter

of Queen Victoria so you see everybody

comes from two two sides Denmark King

Christian the ninth Britain Queen

Victoria and they all crisscross to ask

you if you get the book of all the

families it'll take you a long time to

work it alone so I think Prince Andrew's

over there

[Music]

in the spring of 2003 with all five of

their children the king and queen felt

able to visit Greece for the first time

in nearly 40 years

having won his case in the European

Court King Constantine clearly felt

relaxed about returning home with all

disputes resolved he was keen to test

the reaction of the Greek government

I think with the case finished in

November and we took the plane and went

back to reach in February which I think

took a lot of people by surprise but at

least we broke ties I was with him every

board in the States was nice to them

everybody was agreed everybody greeted

them all the media was after them they

weren't about 10 television cameras

following them so the government could

not react anymore they were apparently

relaxed meeting the people of northern

Greece some issues remained unresolved

one of these was that the funds the

government used to pay the king in

compensation for Tatoi had a political

sting in the tail upset me a lot was

that the compensation that they gave me

came from the budget that deals with

natural catastrophes like earthquakes

and and and floods and I thought that

was perhaps below the belt to take money

away from people who would need it

because of this sort of catastrophe we

have a request from a village in just

north about that it's there about four

four or five villages that were very

badly affected by earthquake and spurred

on by their sense of injustice the royal

family sought a way to get the money

back to the Greek disaster fund they

formed a foundation to fund the

rebuilding of shattered communities it's

named after the Queen the anna maria

foundation i would like to see and then

check for what which in which means

actually that the sooner we can go to

see it he's developed his life as best

he can but always having as the

touchstone what he can offer to greece

and the people of greece

he remains to all intents and purposes

their king in waiting if they need him

and there's no doubt that is one of the

veterans of the International Olympic

Committee the King helped get the

Olympic Games to Greece in 2004 yeah I

think he did everything he could I know

that during the bid he went to his

friends at the IOC and the IOC is a

strange group I'm an IOC member there's

only a hundred and twenty of us so it's

a very close for turnit II and so you

know you do have your friends and he

went to them I'm sure he went to 30 or

40 of them and said look at time for

athletes I think he worked very hard

though looking like an ordinary family

at shopping or on a sightseeing trip

even a casual stroll around Athens

become something of a royal walkabout

when you go back to Greece then do you

have any sort of protection do you have

Corden's well you know you just walk

down the street you just walk down suits

do people talk to you all the time they

are very honest about it because they'll

come up to you and they'll either cheer

you or kiss you or argue or tell you

that they voted against you in the

referendum with a big smile on their

face and you know you just tell well

that's just fine but I mean that's fine

you don't take that personal no no no

you can't take these things personally I

mean the decision of people was final

they took it and that I have to live

with that so what am I supposed to do I

can't cry every day these days the ex

king of Greece travels by tube today

he's showing his younger daughter

Theodora and her friend where he got

married in 1964 all the troops land up

and the character would came out through

here stop there and your mother went in

through here with her long waiting list

and they would call it the veil I mean

just before she won didn't she turn

around and wave

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it's all new to me anyway so it was in a

way quite strange what the movie action

was inside

falling down from up there and that's

what we tried to emulate for my both my

sons and my

and no rice in the church and outside

driving around the carriage people with

the horses I've never got a little bit

excited to start my tweets which it

wasn't - at least it was an open case I

thought what if anything happens I can

always jump he acts on me I will invite

you in the new opening if she finds a

nice husband we can have the wedding

here she will find a nice husband for

princess Theodora there is the

tantalizing prospect of a wedding in the

same Cathedral as her parents the former

king of Greece remains philosophical

about his chances of a return to the

throne it's difficult for we are not

politicians politicians strive for this

chair strive for this position of power

and they do everything they can to get

it the very few exceptions or

politicians who realize the time is up

and they have to leave I've had this

privilege this I've had this sense of

responsibility before it's not my aim to

try to get it back again for me the

predominant thing in my mind is that my

country should live in peace my country

should be happy and successful and my

job is to do whatever I can to help it

as a private citizen

constantine could never really be just a

private citizen in greece when three

generations of the monarchy turned up

for the first royal christening in

greece for 40 years it was a media scrum

the Brothers Grimm might have the king

returning to reclaim his throne but in

the real world of a modern group

democracy such a simple fairytale ending

is unlikely

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