Victoria's secret child

QUEEN Victoria and John Brown were secretly married and had a love child, a new documentary claims.

- By Nicola Methyen

Historian Dr Fern Riddell believes she has found proof that the monarch and her manservant were deeply in love and that the Queen gave birth to her 10th child, a girl called Mary-Anne, whose father was John.

"I believe Victoria and John were madly in love, I believe I've found evidence that they got married and I really do believe there's a strong possibility they may have had a child together," she says.

Lawyer Rob Rinder, who appears in the documentary to cast his eye over her findings, says: "Big claims. If you're right, that changes our understanding of history." In her new book, Victoria's Secret, Riddell reveals she has located a direct descendent of Mary-Anne, Angela Webb, who lives in Minnesota, US.

John Brown was her grandfather's great uncle and she grew up hearing stories about her family coming from an illegitimate branch of British royaltybut never thinking it could be proved.