Prince Frédéric von Anhalt’s birth name is Hans Robert Lichtenberg, and he was born in Wallhausen, Germany in 1943 to a police officer and his wife, according to the New York Post. In 1979, when he was 35, Marie Auguste von Anhalt made him an offer that he couldn’t refuse.

“I was adopted by the most well-known princess in Germany,” he told the Post. He got a title, but nothing else, and the princess got the equivalent of $700 a month to help with her many debts. “I needed a door-opener,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “It was a tool. This was a business decision — show business.” It seemed to work. After marrying Gabor in 1986 — his seventh marriage — the couple lived an opulent lifestyle, per The Hollywood Reporter. Gabor came from money. She was the daughter of a jewelry store magnate, and she and her sisters, Magda and Eva, all became stars.