LISTEN: The Runaway Princesses hosted by Madeleine Baran
Read: The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
Watch: Blue Lights on Britbox

Fairy tales don’t always come true. With no rescuer in sight, sometimes a princess has to find her own way out of the tower. No one knew this better than Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, daughter of the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and one of the richest men in the world.

As a baby, she was taken from her mother and given to her childless aunt, who tucked Latifa away in her palace and seldom saw her. The girl she knew as her cousin, Shamsa, was actually her elder sister. At 10, Latifa was returned to her mother and the two girls became close, which is when the real trouble started.