Vanity Fair has an interesting story about Allison Joy Langer aka the drug-and-alcohol-addled Rayanne Graff from ’90s cult TV series My So-Called Life, detailing her surprising rise from former child star to the upper reaches of British nobility. Langer, it seems, married up. Up, up, up. Although she had no idea who her future husband, Charlie Courtenay, was when they met at The Hard Rock Circle Bar in Las Vegas back in 2002. And she certainly had no idea that he was the son and heir of the Earl of Devon.
“He was wearing a kilt—on tour with London Scottish Rugby. We smiled at each other across the crowded room. . .I had no idea about the castle or titles or anything until he drove me up the driveway months into our relationship—which was good ‘cause I wouldn’t have known what to do with that information anyway.“
After the 2002 wedding, Langer was given the courtesy title of “Lady.” Then, when her father-in-law, the 18th Earl of Devon, passed away, her husband Charlie Courtenay succeeded to the Earldom, and she became a Countess—or as Vanity Fair puts it: “the real-life equivalent of Downton Abbey’s Maggie Smith character.”
So she is now the Countess of Devon. And hopefully, this means she makes that brat Claire Danes curtsy whenever they see each other. Although according to everyone who knows her, Countess Rayanne remains remarkably down to earth. Here she is in a 2009 interview talking about the whole title nobility thing:
The whole title thing…I am no expert,” she responded. “It means they have a verrrrrrry big and long family tree. It means more to some people and less to others. It definitely makes for interesting conversation, and an interesting story. Am I royalty now? No – I am not royalty…by marrying Charlie I can take the courtesy title of ‘Lady,’ and my children can take the title ‘Honorable.’ If Charlie becomes the Earl of Devon, my title would become the Countess of Devon and our kids would be Lords and Ladies. But we don’t use the titles in our daily lives, they are there and we respect the history that gave rise to them, but in our reality we’re just a normal family.
The article goes on to say that “the couple, along with their two children, will now be maintaining the Earl of Devon’s ancestral seat—the 600-year-old, 4,000-acre estate Powderham Castle, near Exeter. Shortly after her 2002 wedding, Langely spoke about the intimidating future task to People. “There’s a lot to learn,” she conceded before uttering the same statement you likely have on countless occasions: ‘What a job it is to run a castle.'”
Pics of Powderham castle below.
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