Prince Louis was Lexi’s twin brother. He was tall and handsome with big eyes and a muscular build. He was the firstborn twin and male, which put him above Lexi in the line of succession for the British throne. Louis’s death in an avalanche while skiing with Kris and Frederick is therefore the novel’s inciting incident, leading Lexi to become heir apparent.

On the outside, Louis embodied the royal ideal. He was young, attractive, athletic, and charismatic. However, like Lexi, Louis had a secret: He was in love with Kris, his best friend. Louis hid the truth from everyone for years, even Lexi. Though Lexi responded positively to learning that Louis had love in his life, Louis’s role as a prince prevented him and Kris from making their relationship public. The conservative monarchy couldn’t accept a LGBTQIA+ king, so Louis began a fake relationship with Amira to avoid suspicion about his orientation; like Lexi’s, Louis’s story thus illustrates the pressures of royal status, including The Burden of Legacy and Public Expectation.

Lexi and Louis’s relationship faltered both because Lexi disapproved of his fake relationship and because of their disagreements over their parents’ relationship. Before Isla’s death, Louis parroted Frederick’s sentiments about Isla’s “party girl” lifestyle after the divorce, claiming that paparazzi following Isla was “part of the territory” (302). His attitude illustrated his growing connection to the crown and its conservative principles. Louis also blamed Lexi for his inability to come out. When Lexi asked him about his adrenaline-inducing hobbies and decision to marry Amira, Louis reminded her, “You left. You left me to carry this whole thing on my shoulders. You want me to come out and tell everyone the truth. But even if I wanted to do that, I couldn’t. And you know why? Because you left me” (259). Louis’s words reveal that he felt the need to carry the burden of the Villiers legacy alone while also contextualizing the effect his death has on Lexi. She feels an obligation to his memory not only out of love but also out of guilt, as Louis sought relief from his role as heir in activities that would ultimately kill him.

Amira Shankar is Lexi’s former best friend and Louis’s wife. She is the daughter of Madhav and Vikki Shankar and the younger sister of Kris. Amira met Lexi at Astley, and they quickly became friends. Lexi, Amira, Louis, and Kris were a solid friend group before Lexi’s disapproval of Louis and Amira’s fake relationship caused strain between them.

Amira committed to the fake relationship with Louis to obtain greater social status, as Vikki conditioned Amira from a young age to seek a wealthy, titled husband. Amira’s marriage to Louis made her the future queen, but her royal future dissipates with Louis’s death. Amira becomes a royal widow, part of the royal family but also outside it. Racism and classism exacerbate this dynamic, as the royal family weaponizes the media against Amira, which is what Lexi predicted would happen when Amira and Louis began “dating”: “[F]or Amira, the trading of secrets and the distortion of family squabbles always became a question of loyalty. Like the disastrous shooting weekend, the whispers about Amira rose to a steady drumbeat of one claim: she is not one of us, she will never be one of us” (97). The royal family pushes Amira away because of her Indian heritage and her family’s new money status and uses the press to legitimize their refusal to accept her. As the novel progresses, Amira learns to let go of her desire to fit into a family that casts her out, spending Christmas with her own family and leaving her engagement ring, a symbol of the monarchy, behind.

Queen Eleanor is the reigning monarch of Britain and head of the Villiers family. She became queen after her uncle’s accidental death when she was a child, followed by her father’s unexpected death while she was on her honeymoon tour. Eleanor embodies the role of queen, and Lexi notes that her personality seems bifurcated: She is both a doting grandmother and a stoic monarch, but “the only time her two halves intersect[] [is] in her command of every room she enter[s], whether it [is] parliament or the dining room for family brunch” (32).

This domineering hand becomes increasingly evident as the novel unfurls. Eleanor is the one who insists that Lexi return and schemes to find an aide to make Lexi stay. Eleanor also knows Lexi’s secret but lets her bury it within herself anyway, as secrets serve as the bedrock of the Villiers legacy. When Lexi remarks that Richard will be the end of the monarchy, Eleanor says, “He won’t. People are reluctant to give up their traditions. He’ll be the one who stayed, and you’ll be the one who left. You’ll be shocked by how they cling to him […] I just know them better than they know themselves” (378). Eleanor claims to understand her subjects, but she also infantilizes them, thinking the people of Britain too stuck in their ways to reject a cruel, self-serving monarch. Relatedly, Eleanor has absolute faith in the monarchy as an institution; she sees it as something bigger than the individual wearing the crown. For Eleanor, it is about tradition and stability. Lexi wants to change the monarchy, but Eleanor makes that nearly impossible.

Prince Richard is the antagonist of The Heir Apparent. He is the second son of Queen Eleanor, Frederick’s younger brother, and Lexi’s uncle. When Lexi sees him again after years apart, she remembers, “[O]nce, on a hunt, he had pushed my face into damp heather and hissed at me to be bloody quiet when I accidentally sneezed and disturbed the grouse” (56). This anecdote illustrates the depth of Richard’s cruelty; he’s willing to physically harm a young person for the simple act of sneezing during a hunt. Richard treats the adult Lexi similarly. At the funeral, for example, he says, “My poor little niece, what a tragedy. Gosh, you look more like Isla every day, don’t you? Though better fed than your poor old mum, I suppose” (56). Richard here gives Lexi false sympathy before both insulting her appearance and making light of Isla’s disordered eating.

Richard is a mostly one-dimensional, static character; his motives are straightforward—he wants power for himself—and he stays selfish, unkind, and conniving from the novel’s beginning to its end. However, Lexi develops some empathy for Richard when she realizes that they possess similarities as second siblings. Lexi thinks, “Richard and I both knew that the crown didn’t always float benevolently into your open palms. Sometimes, you had to wrench it away from the gods and plant it on your own head” (347). Lexi tried to wrench the crown toward herself before deciding that it’s not worth sacrificing her morals. Richard has no such qualms, so Lexi decides to wrench the crown away from him herself.