' Princess Michael of Kent' (née Baroness Marie-Christine Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz,
15 January 1945), is a member of the
British Royal Family. She is married to
Prince Michael of Kent, who is a grandson of
King George V.
Princess Michael is an
author, and has published several books on the royal families of Europe. She also undertakes lecture tours, and supports her husband in his public work. The Kents do not officially carry out royal duties, although they have on occasion represented
Queen Elizabeth II at functions abroad.
Early life
Princess Michael of Kent was born on
15 January 1945, in
Carlsbad (now
Karlovy Vary in the
Czech Republic), the only daughter of Baron Günther Hubertus von
Reibnitz (of German descent), and his
Hungarian wife, Maria Anna Carolina Franziska Walpurga Bernadette Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár, Countess Szapár. After her parents' divorce, her father, a
Nazi party member who was later wrongly accused of having been a member of the
SS, moved to
Maforga, Mozambique. Marie-Christine, her mother, and her brother, Baron Friedrich (Fred) von Reibnitz (now living in
Canberra), moved to
Australia, where her mother ran a beauty salon. Friedrich became a senior Australian Government
official.
In
Sydney, Princess Michael attended
Rose Bay Convent, a private Roman Catholic girls' school, run by nuns of the
Sacred Heart (Sacré Coeur) order. She is approximately six feet (1.83 metres) tall.
Through her mother, the Princess is a great
14-granddaughter of
Diane de Poitiers, mistress of
Henry II of France, and a great
12-granddaughter of
Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France (his wife).
Marriage
Her first husband was the English banker
Thomas Troubridge, the son of Sir Peter Troubridge, 6th Baronet. They met during a boar hunt in Germany. They were married on
14 September 1971, at Chelsea Old Church,
London. The couple separated in 1973, were divorced in 1977, and the marriage was formally annulled by the
Roman Catholic Church in May 1978 for undisclosed reasons.
Two months after the annulment, on
30 June 1978, in a civil ceremony in
Vienna, Austria, she married
Prince Michael of Kent, the son of
Prince George, Duke of Kent (1902-1942) and
Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (1906-1968). Prince Michael is a first cousin of the current British monarch, Elizabeth II. Upon marriage, she assumed the style and title of 'HRH Princess Michael of Kent'. After receiving the Pope's permission, the couple later married in a Roman Catholic ceremony on
29 June 1983, at the Archbishop House, London.
Since the
Act of Settlement 1701 prohibits anyone who has married a Roman Catholic from succeeding to the throne, Prince Michael of Kent (at the time, 15th in the line of succession) lost his succession right upon his marriage to Marie-Christine. However, their children retain their rights of succession because they are in communion with the Anglican Church.
TRH Prince and Princess Michael of Kent have two children:
★
Lord Frederick Windsor, born
6 April 1979
★
Lady Gabriella Windsor, born
23 April 1981
Career
Royal duties
As the second son of King George V's fourth son, Prince Michael of Kent was never expected to undertake royal and official duties. Prince Michael has never received a
parliamentary annuity or an allowance from the Privy Purse. Even so, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent represented The Queen at the independence celebrations in
Belize and at the Coronation of
King Mswati III of Swaziland. Prince Michael also supports a large number of different charities and organisations, and Princess Michael supports him in this work. The couple have the use of a
grace and favour apartment at
Kensington Palace.
Author
The princess is the author of three books, ''Crowned in a Far Country: Eight Royal Brides'' (Weidenfeld), and ''Cupid and the King - Five Royal Paramours'' (Harper Collins) and in 2004 released ''The Serpent and The Moon'', a true sizzling story of love and betrayal in a royal family. She also writes a society column for www.bestselections.com, an on-line shopping website.
★
Crowned in a Far Country: Portraits of eight royal brides, , Princess, Michael of Kent, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986, ISBN 0-297-79010-2
★
Cupid and the King, , Princess, Michael of Kent, Harper Collins, 1991, ISBN 0-002-23911-6
★
The Serpent and The Moon: two rivals for the love of a Renaissance king, , Princess, Michael of Kent, Simon and Schuster, 2004, ISBN 0-743-25104-0
Before her marriage to Prince Michael, she was an interior decorator.
Media coverage
Princess Michael of Kent has received considerable media attention in the years since her marriage to Prince Michael, much of it critical, although she does get sympathetic coverage in celebrity mags and the glossies. It has been alleged that she does not get along well with other members of the Royal Family, including the Queen. Rumour has it that they see her as having ideas and delusions above her station, hence the media have attached to her the derogatory nickname "Princess Pushy". As an example of her sense of self-importance by way of justification for the moniker, it is claimed that she once declared to an American fashion magazine that she had more royal blood in her veins than any person to marry into the royal family since Prince Philip. She also has said she was probably the first tall person to marry into the clan. (The Queen reportedly has referred to her as "Our Val," a reference to the warrior-like
Valkyries, and - sarcastically - as "a bit too grand for" the rest of the royal family.)
[1]. She is the only Royal cat-lover, owning pedigree Siamese. It is alleged that having complained about a cat being mauled by a Corgi, she was promptly and unsympathetically put in her place.
With the arrival of younger royals such as
Diana, Princess of Wales and
Sarah, Duchess of York, the princess' public profile was lowered. However, in
May 2004 she was in the news when a group of black diners in a
New York restaurant alleged that the Princess had told them to "get back to the colonies" when complaining about their noise - an accusation she denied but that made headlines around the world. She said that she had merely told one of her fellow dinner guests that ''she'' would be glad to go back to the colonies in order to escape her noisy neighbours. She later described her accusers as a "group of
rappers"
[2].
In September 2005, she appeared in the news again, after the ''
News of the World'' reporter
Mazher Mahmood apparently gained her confidence and claimed that she made a number of intemperate remarks, including calling
Diana, Princess of Wales "bitter" and "nasty"
[3].
In
November 2005,
Channel 4 pulled, during production, a bio-film about the Princess, being produced by
Tris Payne's independent production company, 'Liverpool Street'.
Channel 4 cited "editorial reasons" as the Princess had insisted on final editorial control
[4].
In April, 2006, she was photographed in Venice with Mikhail Kravchenko. She kept close company with the Russian millionaire tycoon, 21 years her junior, holding hands, kissing and taking a gondola ride with him. In the
Daily Mail, sources close to the Princess said that they were "discussing doing some business together."
Her latest newsmaking statement came in October 2006, in an interview for US TV, in which she claimed that her children were the brightest royals with the best (university) degrees.
[5]
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles
★ '
15 January 1945-
30 June 1978': Baroness Marie-Christine
von Reibnitz
★ '
30 June 1978-': ''Her Royal Highness'' Princess Michael of Kent
See also
★
British princess
★
List of famous tall women
External links
★
Royal.gov.uk- Prince and Princess Michael of Kent
★
Princess Michael of Kent's Official Website
★
Princess Michael of Kent Picture Site
References
★ HRH Princess Michael of Kent.
Princess Michael's Descent from Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de' Medici. Retrieved June 24, 2005.
1. As a titled royal, Princess Michael holds no surname, but, when one ''is'' used, it is 'Windsor'
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