LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A young member of Bahrain's royal family who slipped out of her native country and eloped with an American Marine reportedly was back in her native country Saturday and considering a divorce.
The Los Angeles Times said 19-year-old Meriam Al-Khalifa flew back to Bahrain Thursday, possibly ending a fairytale romance that captured international headlines when the young woman was smuggled to the United States by posing as a Marine.
"This was a surprise to us all," Jason Johnson, 26, told the newspaper. "We had some general aches and pains in our marriage but nothing bad, nothing like some of our friends. She never complained. She never said anything."
The Times reported Meriam had told friends she and her husband had fought about money and that her family in Bahrain was concerned about her safety following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
The couple had been living in Las Vegas since Johnson's discharge from the Marine Corps last October. Johnson was demoted for forging a pass and he requested the discharge.
The pair met and fell in love in 1999 when Johnson was a member of the Marine security detachment in Bahrain. They conspired to spirit Meriam out of Bahrain by passing her off as a fellow Marine when Johnson was transferred back to the Camp Pendleton Marine base north of San Diego.
The elopement sparked a minor international incident when the Bahraini royal family demanded the young woman be sent back. Meriam was issued a resident alien green card after she protested she would face discrimination in her native land for associating with a non-Muslim.
Bahrain is used as a refueling stop for U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the Times said the U.S. government decided to issue the princess a green card rather than subject her to an asylum hearing that could have proven embarrassing to the Bahraini royal family.
The romance and the diplomatic furor it stirred provided material for a television movie about the couple that recently aired on NBC.
