Unconventional marriages and secret love affairs in the House of Habsburg. In her new book, Hanne Egghardt entertainingly and in a reliably pleasant manner describes seven love stories that were anything but approved by the Habsburg family. Archduke Ferdinand Karl, brother of heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand, had to flee abroad with his bourgeois wife Bertha Czuber. Archduke Heinrich secretly married the singer Leopoldine Hofmann. Their end was dramatic: they both died on the same night. Archduchess Marie Christine and Isabella of Parma shared a lesbian love affair, documented by numerous spicy letters. Marie Louise, daughter of Franz I/II, had a passionate love affair with Count Neipperg while being the wife of Napoleon, with whom she secretly bore two children. Archduke Leopold Ferdinand shocked Emperor Franz Joseph by marrying two prostitutes.