| Meriam Al Khalifa | |
|---|---|
| Screenshot of Al Khalifa on CBS Television | |
| Spouse | Jason Johnson (m. 1999; div. 2004) |
| House | Al Khalifa |
| Father | Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa |
| Born | 1980 Manama, Bahrain |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Sheikha Meriam Al Khalifa (born 1980) is a distant member of the Bahraini royal House of Al-Khalifa. She became famous after she met a US Marine and eloped with him to the United States. Her story was covered in the media – she was featured in highly popular TV shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, and a made for television movie was made about her.
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Al Khalifa is one of five daughters of Sheik Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, a relative of Bahrain's present king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.[1]
She became known in the US media in 1999 after she met Jason Johnson, a United States Marine and a Mormon, in a shopping mall in Bahrain and fell in love with him.[2] She escaped to the United States in November 1999 using forged documents and abandoned her life as a Bahraini royal, opting to marry Johnson[3] and live as a housewife in Nevada.
Al Khalifa faced charges of illegally entering the United States and deportation proceedings. The princess applied for political asylum, citing that she faced harm, which would have included death, for her marriage to a non-Muslim and her exit from the country. This action caused embarrassment to the royal family. Johnson and Al Khalifa said in an interview with CBS News that if she returned to Bahrain, she would be "lashed, executed, stoned, killed, shot".[4] Johnson later also told the press that there was constant tension with her family, and at one point the FBI told him they had intercepted a Syrian national who said he'd been paid $500,000 to assassinate her.[5] Al Khalifa was allowed to stay in the country in May 2001.[6]
In 2001, film and television producer Mary L. Aloe transitioned their story into a made-for-TV movie The Princess and the Marine,[7] telling the tale of their relationship. It stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar as LCpl. Jason Johnson and Marisol Nichols as Meriam. The IMDB plot summary of the movie says,
The movie was heavily promoted. Reportedly,
In May 2001, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service granted her Permanent Residency status, popularly known as the Green Card.[10]
In June 2001, she resumed communication with her family, according to her attorney.
Despite her earlier claims — she had asked for political asylum in the USA, saying that she faced death in her own country for marrying a non-Muslim, an assertion that she had repeated in public interviews — Meriam Al-Khalifa returned to Bahrain in September 2001, after the 9/11 attacks. According to the Los Angeles Times
The couple filed for divorce on November 17, 2004 (one day after their fifth wedding anniversary) in Las Vegas, Nevada, citing "incompatible in marriage" as the reason.[12] According to Jason Johnson, Meriam left him about one year earlier, and he claimed that she had plunged heavily into the Las Vegas night life, and had become estranged from him. She had been pressing him for divorce for some time – reportedly, the couple had been considering divorce in 2001.[11]