RIYADH, Dec 1: The romance between a young Bahraini royal, Meriam Al Khalifa, and a former US marine, which culminated in marriage, has finally come to an end. The marriage lasted for five years.

"It was what she wanted," Jason Johnson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal of the divorce filed on Nov. 17, a day after their fifth wedding anniversary, AP reported.

The story started in January 1999 when Johnson was stationed in Bahrain, an island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Meriam is one of five daughters of Sheikh Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, a distant relative of Bahrain's king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

They met at a mall and fell in love, though he was a Mormon and she was a Muslim, forbidden to marry a non-Muslim. Her family ordered an end to the romance. They continued to secretly exchange letters through a store employee at the mall.

Johnson spirited Meriam to the United States when his tour of duty ended in November 1999, using forged documents and a disguise. Johnson, who sneaked Meriam into the United States, was court-martialed, demoted and discharged from the Marines because of the affair.

The couple married in Las Vegas on Nov. 16, 1999. He was 23 and she was 19. The affair provided the basis for a television movie, The Princess and the Marine. Meriam was not represented by a lawyer in the divorce filing.

It is unknown whether she plans to stay in the United States. Johnson mentioned constant tension with Meriam's family, and said the FBI once told him they'd intercepted a man who said he'd been paid $500,000 to assassinate her.