Victoria's Secret: The Private Passion of a Queen

by Fern Riddell

NOW A GROUNDBREAKING DOCUMENTARY


‘Now, at last, we know the truth about Queen Victoria and John Brown’ BENDOR GROSVENOR

‘Irresistible’ SATHNAM SANGHERA

‘So often I told him no one loved him more than I did ... and he answered, “nor you than me. No one loves you more”...’

From the moment John Brown arrived as a servant to Queen Victoria’s household, he became known across the land as her loyal companion, her fierce protector and her right-hand man – and the centre of scandalous rumours, whispered in secret. But what if there was more to their relationship than we know? Might Queen Victoria have had a second chance at love, in spite of everything her crown, country and family required from her?

In this provocative exploration of Victoria’s private passions, the acclaimed historian Fern Riddell re-examines everything we thought we knew about one of Britain’s most iconic women. A timeless romance and an extraordinary retelling of the emotional life of a queen, Victoria’s Secret is an unmissable account of a woman in love.

‘This meticulous unravelling of a 160-year-old mystery showcases Riddell at her bold and passionate best’ EMILY BRAND

‘Riveting, bold and deeply human … Riddell reveals the woman behind the crown in all her fascinating complexity’ ELINOR CLEGHORN

‘It’s tender, surprising and might just change how we see her’ ROBERT RINDER

‘Fascinating’ ANTONIA FRASER

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Victorian

415 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 31, 2025

Reviews

[Agnes Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

unbelievably interesting how so much history can just be erased. brilliantly written too, she managed to make a history book come to life

[Keely · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting argument and deep dive. And sadness at certain diaries being destroyed.

[Vanessa Innes-Wagstaff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now finished. Very interesting fresh research revealing more about the royal family and their relationships with the Brown family. Much more detail about the whole saga and the sexual relationships and passion in the lives of the children as well as the queen herself. Fascinating research, much more to this whole Brown family relationship that has met the eye so far. The Royal Archives are not the only source of information! Well worth the read! Very well done, brilliant and extremely interesting.

[3PCats · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tore through this in a day, so it was obviously well-written and engaging. I enjoyed the way the author humanised Queen Victoria and her (what we erroneously think of as modern-day) needs and desires. However, while the author has convinced me that Victoria and John Brown had a romantic relationship and were very likely “irregularly married” (a Scottish practice where vows were taken, minus a religious ceremony)—I am frustrated by the lack of information on the supposed child they had together. Only six pages were devoted to Mary Ann’s descendant who is currently making headlines across the world. This woman, an American citizen, is in possession of memorabilia given to John by Victoria, and says that stories were passed down in the family claiming that Mary Ann (Queen Victoria’s and John Brown’s love child) was given to Hugh Brown (John’s brother) and his wife to raise in New Zealand. Photographs of Mary Ann or ANY of her descendants? No. We’re not even told when Mary Ann died. This genetic link is highly unlikely to ever be proven one way or another as Mary Ann’s body would have to be exhumed and her mitochondrial DNA compared with either Prince Philip’s (from when he helped identify the Romanov remains) or from a direct female descendant of Victoria.

[Maurene · Rating 4 out of 5]

The further we move into the 21st century the more we see the real Queen Victoria....I am convinced.... She was tiny (under 5 foot) sexy very close with ordinary Scottish families, sharing meals with them
.... and more than likely married twice..
This book appears very detailed with many sources provided at the back of book.
By the last chapter I am 99% certain that Albert was not Victoria's one and only.....

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much. It's a very convincing argument, especially if you know Victoria's passionate character, and the somewhat myth of a 'very happy marriage' to Albert. I think Victoria needed to be passionately in love/besotted with someone at all times. The damage her childhood must have done to her makes the idea that she was very co-dependent very convincing.

The lack of John Brown's diaries and letters himself though, makes me wonder exactly what he truly felt about it all, and how much his heart was really in it. Obviously it was to a certain degree. But even as a casual reader, a bystander to the story from the future, I felt a large element of suffocation and smothering just reading the lengths Victoria went to shower love and affection on John. It sounded exhausting, not to mention, with what (lack of) freedom or implied expectations of long-lasting fidelity came with it?

In an effort to justify the theory of their relationship, I think Riddell misses out on an opportunity to interrogate the possibility that John Brown was not as deeply in love- consistently- through the years as perhaps Victoria was. Their relationship was a power imbalance from the start, and I wonder if that power switched sides between them many a time. There's a hint of toxicity about their relationship which I think gets swept over in the effort to prove that they were more than just friends and that romantic/physical love was involved. I think it must have been, and there's good evidence for that, but that can be true at the same time as actually considering the fact that this might not have been a healthy relationship for either of them, an aspect that would have been interesting and important to examine. Ie The comments Victoria's new lady-in-waiting made about Victoria being scared of John, and another time when Victoria asked John as she got into the carriage 'Where should we go?' and he says 'You can go to hell' at least imply that this was not a consistently fairytale romance of star-crossed lovers passionately surviving against all odds for two decades. I think there's more than meets the eye to even this revelatory tale, and would go further to explain Victoria's children's almost complete revulsion of him.

Even so, at the same time, it was satisfying to read how happy Brown made Victoria, and that she wasn't completely destroyed by her grief of Albert's death as the history books would have us believe. And fascinating to read how deep and how far that cover up has gone- to what end?!

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mind has been blown by this book.

I have read so many books on Queen Victoria over the years but never one quite like this. It has made me 100% question John Brown and his relationship with Queen Victoria. Fern shows just how little we understand Victoria as a woman, our view of “the widow of Windsor” this largely overweight, miserable and tyrannical matriarch is completely broken down and we see a passionate, loyal, romantic, sensual woman in her very early forties who just wants a connection with a man that’s more than just monarch to subject. Along with John’s utter devotion, it’s all laid bare for us to see. What shocked me the most I think was the fact that some of it is there in plain sight for all to see if only you take those blinkers off and see the real Victoria and John. Fern has in my opinion done just that - Taken the blinkers off and now shared with us what that looked like.
I totally thought I knew these two people, as much as you can from books but I really didn’t.


*******SPOILERS BELOW ******





I was skeptical when this first came out about the claims made within it but can say I have had my mind changed. I completely believe that they were in a loving intimate relationship - something I did not believe before. I thought they were very close but that it was just a very deep friendship. I don’t believe that now. I believe it was so much more than that. I am fairly confident that some form of marriage took place between them, whether or not it was a traditional marriage I doubt but am inclined to believe a form of Scottish marriage took place and they treat each other as husband and wife and were treated as such by his family too. As for the claims of a child between them I am not so sure. Fern makes for a pretty good argument that they did have a child but I am not totally convinced . But on the flip side it would not be a complete shock now if it came out they had a child together. Before reading this book I would have said 100% no. That’s not the case now.

This is incredibly detailed research and really well put together and very easy to follow. I am so pleased I read this and I adore this new look I now have of not just Queen Victoria but John Brown too. Thank you Fern.

[Alyson Munro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting, enjoyable book that re-evaluates the relationship between Victoria and John Brown on the basis of evidence kept by Brown’s family and other research.

I enjoyed the light it shone on Victoria’s personality and the challenges it presented for the politicians, courtiers and Royal Family (then and apparently more recently) who believed it was unpalatable and dangerous for the established order in an environment of social unrest to have a monarch who flouted convention.
I found it made me feel more sympathetic to the Queen, she was an interesting and passionate person (although probably not a Mum of the Year candidate) and irritated that so much of Victoria’s diaries and correspondence was destroyed after her death.

Dr Riddell is obviously convinced that Victoria and Brown were married in some form, I hope the present royal establishment is brave enough to move into the modern era and make all their material accessible to historians.

[Jo Cleobury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative, sadly it got a wee bit repetitive.

[Philippa Cahill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this about Victoria and John Brown. Very comprehensive detail and I was surprised at how little I knew, despite seeing Mrs Brown when it first came out. Lent to me by a friend who noted it was a bit 'breathy' and I agree, and the central question, 'but why would she do this unless she was his wife?' seemed to come up time and again. Felt it lost its way a bit when it came to the 'big reveal', and would have enjoyed just as much without the big discovery. Actually enjoyed the bits about her various offspring just as much, if not more than the central Victoria/John narrative, super interesting and very relatable responses to their bereaved parent embarking on a grand passion...