The first time was in December 2005, after Tareq Salahi and the cumbersomely named U.S. Virginia Is For Lovers/Jamestown 2007 America’s 400th Anniversary Polo Team traveled to England to take on Prince Charles and Prince Harry in polo at the Cirencester Polo Club on July 30. The accompanying press release detailed a certain amount of elbow-rubbing with royalty.

The couple appeared again in our October 2007 issue, twice—once in a batch of photos of the Loudoun County Economic Development’s VIP reception (just Michaele, but we’re guessing Tareq was around there somewhere). We also highlighted the inaugural America’s Cup of Polo event at Leesburg's Morven Park, a Salahi project to raise funds for their Journey for the Cure foundation*. Had things gone the couple’s way, Morven Park would likely have been the first and only time HRH Queen Elizabeth and the ’80s rock band Journey would have been in the same venue at the same time (the Queen, alas, was unable to attend). (But she was invited.)

In digging through our archives, we did find another photo of Michaele at Morven Park, posing with some TV royalty: John Walsh, of America’s Most Wanted fame, along with his daughter, Meghan, on Michaele’s other side.

Those were distinctly better days. Or were they? On today’s Today show, the couple described themselves as “devastated,” the events as “devastating.” To which we can only say … really? All righty, then. We’ll just have to wait and see.

*UPDATE: Interesting details in today's Washington Post. We knew we weren't alone (yep, we were were among those who had similar experiences with the Cup), but ... just ... wow.