King Leopold is a character who appears in the ABC fantasy-drama series Once Upon a Time. He is a kind and generous king. Along with being Snow White's father, he is the maternal grandfather of Emma Swan and the maternal great-grandfather of Henry Mills and Hope, and one of Lucy's three paternal great-great-grandfathers.
Role in the series[]
Many years before the first curse, Cora Mills met Leopold as a prince, when she was pregnant with Zelena, by another man, and Leopold offered to help Cora who was being treated badly by her former lover. Cora and Leopold became close and fell in love, but princess Eva found out that Cora was pregnant with someone else's baby, much to Leopold's displeasure as Cora had lied to him. Cora was then forced by princess Eva to give up Zelena and would later give birth to a daughter named Regina when she married Prince Henry Mills.
Years later, Regina was introduced to Regina, Cora's daughter, who Leopold only married because Snow White needed a mother's care as his wife, Eva, had died when Snow White was young. He proposes to Regina and Cora accepts on her behalf. However unbeknownst to him, Regina is in love with the stable boy, Daniel, and tries to run off with him. Unfortunately, Cora, who was tipped off by Snow using her manipulation, rips Daniel's heart out and crushes it, killing him. Regina forcefully marries the King. She is unhappy with her marriage and uses her husband's new friend, the Genie, to murder him. When he dies from poisonous snakes, his wife takes over the throne and his daughter is left orphaned.
Many years later, after the first curse, but during the second one, Leopold was mentioned by both his daughter Snow/Mary Margaret, and her husband, Charming/David, who were expecting their second child. While the couple were discussing baby names, David debunked the idea of calling Emma's possible brother Leopold as David feared kids would make fun of him because of his name, to which Snow denied because her father had that name and was a king, to which David's comeback was that Leopold being a king was the reason no one made fun of him.
Trivia[]
- Despite originally planning on marrying Cora, she would ironically become King Leopold's mother-in-law as she forced her daughter Regina to marry Leopold.
- King Leopold was one of several deceased family members who did not appear in any of the underworld episodes in season five, suggesting he didn't have any unfinished business.
