<P> She and Johnson flew to the United States in November 1999 with Al Khalifa disguised as a female U.S. Marine and using fake military transfer documents, forged by Lance Corporal Johnson himself, and were married in a Las Vegas chapel on November 16, 1999, after which she settled into life as a military housewife, living in base housing at Camp Pendleton . </P> <P> For his role in helping Al Khalifa flee Bahrain, Johnson was court - martialed for "forging military papers," but because of all the media attention the case was getting, Johnson's punishment only consisted of him being stripped of his "Lance Corporal" rank, being demoted to "Private," the lowest rank in the United States Marine Corps . He was honorably discharged two months later . </P> <P> Facing deportation from the United States, Al Khalifa applied for political asylum, citing that she faced harm, which, she claimed, could have included death, for her relationship and subsequent marriage to a non-Muslim, one who was not only a foreigner, but also an American, as well as for fleeing her native country illegally, without permission from her father or her government . In an interview with CBS News, Johnson and Al Khalifa said that if she returned to Bahrain, she would be "lashed, executed, stoned, killed, shot". Johnson also told the press that there was constant tension with her family, and the FBI told him that they had intercepted a Syrian national who claimed he had been paid $500,000 to assassinate her . Based on these fears, Al Khalifa was granted asylum in May 2001 . </P> <P> In 2001, a made - for - TV movie based on her relationship with Jason Johnson, their flight from Bahrain to the U.S., and their elopement, The Princess and the Marine, aired on NBC . It starred Mark - Paul Gosselaar as Johnson and Marisol Nichols as Meriam . The movie reportedly "caused one of the biggest bidding wars for packaged rights in the history of television movies," estimated at more than $500,000 . </P>

The princess and the marine where are they now