| Marie-Christine | |
|---|---|
| Princess Michael of Kent | |
 Photograph byAllan Warren, 1999 | |
| Born | Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz (1945-01-15)15 January 1945 (age 81) Karlsbad,Greater German Reich (nowCzech Republic) |
| Spouses | |
| Issue | |
| House | Reibnitz (by birth) Windsor (by marriage) |
| Father | Baron Günther von Reibnitz |
| Mother | Countess Maria AnnaSzapáry von Muraszombath |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Signature |  |
| Royal family of the United Kingdom and the otherCommonwealth realms |
|---|
 |
Princess Michael of Kent (bornBaroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, 15 January 1945) is a member of theBritish royal family. She is married toPrince Michael of Kent, a grandson of KingGeorge V. Princess Michael of Kent was an interior designer before becoming an author; she has written several books on European royalty.
Princess Michael was bornFreiin (Baroness) Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz[1] on 15 January 1945[2] inKarlovy Vary, then part ofNazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, and officially known asKarlsbad in the German-populatedSudetenland, now in theCzech Republic. She was born atJagdschloss Inselthal, the family estate inherited from her Austrian maternal grandmother, Princess Hedwig vonWindisch-Graetz (1878–1918), the eldest daughter ofAlfred III, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, who served as the 11thMinister-President of Austria and was President of theImperial Council from 1895 to 1918.[3][4][5]
She is born into theReibnitz family, an ancient (uradel) German nobility fromSilesia who can trace its noble lineage back to 1288 withHenricus de Rybnicz.[6] The ancestral seat of the family wasBurg Läusepelz, todayRybnica in present-dayPoland.[7] On her paternal line, Princess Michael is descended from theBurggrafen ofDohna, Herrand III vonTrauttmansdorff, and theNostitz family, who are also among the ancestors ofQueen Elizabeth II.[8]
She is the younger daughter ofFreiherrGünther Hubertus von Reibnitz (1894–1983) by his second wife, Countess Maria Anna Carolina Franziska Walburga BernadetteSzapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár (1911–1988),[1] who was the daughter ofCount Friedrich Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár, theAustro-HungarianAmbassador toSaint Petersburg at the outbreak of theFirst World War.[9] On her mother's side, she descends from theHouse of Lobkowicz and numerous otherAustrian princely houses, lineages which also connect her by blood to her husband, Prince Michael of Kent, and to Queen Elizabeth II andKing Charles III.[10][11][12] Through her maternal line, she is also descended from KingHenry II of France via both his wife,Catherine de' Medici, and his longtime mistress and rival of Catherine,Diane de Poitiers, a connection noted in her historical work.[13][14][15] She also descends, through this line, fromPeter Paul Rubens, the celebrated Flemish Baroque painter, artist and diplomat who served and was knighted by theHabsburg andStuart monarchs.[16][17]
Princess Michael's father was aNazi Party member and served as a cavalry officer in theWaffen-SS during theSecond World War.[18][19] In response to the advances of theRed Army near the end of the war, the family abandoned their estates and moved toBavaria, which was part of theAmerican-occupied zone of Germany.[20] Her parents divorced in 1946 and, along with her mother and elder brotherBaron Friedrich von Reibnitz (born 1942), Princess Michael moved to Australia, where she was educated atConvent of the Sacred Heart,Rose Bay (now Kincoppal-Rose Bay). In the early 1960s, she lived with her father on his farm in Portuguese-ruledMozambique. She then went from Vienna to London to study History of Fine and Decorative Art at theVictoria and Albert Museum.[21][22]
Her first husband was the English bankerThomas Troubridge (1939–2015), the younger brother ofSir Peter Troubridge, 6th Baronet. They met at a boar hunt inGermany and were married on 14 September 1971 atChelsea Old Church, London. The couple separated in 1973 and were civilly divorced in 1977. The marriage wasecclesiastically annulled byPope Paul VI in May 1978.[1]
One month after the annulment, on 30 June 1978, at a civil ceremony at theCity Hall (Wiener Rathaus) in Vienna, Austria, she marriedPrince Michael of Kent, the son ofPrince George, Duke of Kent, andPrincess Marina of Greece and Denmark. Prince Michael is a grandson ofKing George V. Marie-Christine has namedLord Mountbatten as their matchmaker.[23]
Michael presented Marie-Christine with a two-stone sapphire-and-diamond ring made from stones that had belonged to his mother, Princess Marina.[24] At the civil ceremony she wore a cream two-piece suit, a blazer and knee-length skirt combination, byHardy Amies. For the ball held after the wedding, she wore the City of London diamond fringe tiara and a cream dress fromBellville Sassoon.[25][26] Upon their marriage, she was accorded the style and title ofHer Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent, the female equivalent to her husband's title. After receivingPope John Paul II's permission (Pope Paul VI had barred them from having a Catholic wedding),[27] the couple later received a blessing of their marriage in a Roman Catholic ceremony on 29 June 1983 at Archbishop's House, London.[28]
Since theAct of Settlement 1701 prohibited anyone who married a Roman Catholic from succeeding to the throne, Prince Michael of Kent (at that time, 15th in the line of succession) lost his succession rights upon marrying Marie-Christine.[29] Prince Michael was reinstated to theline of succession to the British throne on 26 March 2015 with the passing of theSuccession to the Crown Act 2013. Their children are members of theChurch of England and have retained their rights of succession since birth.
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent have two children:[1]
Marie-Christine was linked romantically by the press toJohn Warner and tycoons Ward Hunt and Mikhail Kravchenko.[31][20] She also had a friendship withJohn W. Galbreath andPeter de Savary, the latter of whom gifted her a £150,000 parcel of land on Antigua.[20]
Before her marriage to Prince Michael, she worked as an interior designer.[1] According to a report inThe Observer's Pendennis column in September 2007, the Princess resumed decorating under her original company,Szapar Designs.[32] In 1986, her first bookCrowned in a Far Country: Portraits of Eight Royal Brides was published, after which she faced allegations of plagiarism and reached an out-of-court settlement with another author.[20] Her second bookCupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours faced the same issues, which the Princess attributed to the researcher, who had allegedly submitted notes without due attribution.[20] The book was to be published by Michael Joseph, but after the draft was submitted several months late, it was rejected and published byHarperCollins.[20] From 2007 to 2011, the Princess served as president of Partridge Fine Art, a gallery in London's New Bond Street until it went into administration having suffered substantial multi-year losses.[33] In 2008, the Princess was engaged as a consultant byGalerie Gmurzynska in Switzerland,[34] and later became their international ambassador.[21] She also served on the board of theVictoria and Albert Museum,[21] and goes on lecture tours around the world where she talks about historical subjects at universities, museums and galleries to promote her books and endorse her charities.[1] Marie-Christine, whose husband has a strong interest in Russia, was reportedly taking Russian lessons in 2012.[35]
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Prince and Princess Michael represented the Queen at theBelize independence celebrations and at the coronation ofKing Mswati III of Eswatini. Prince Michael also supports a large number of charities and organisations, and Princess Michael supports him in his work.[36]
Since she was a teenager, Princess Michael has held a long and enduring passion for the conservation ofcheetahs and she is international royal patron for theCheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia.[37][38] She is a Fellow of theLinnean Society of London, a learned society dedicated to natural history and taxonomy.[39]
Prince Michael has never received aparliamentary annuity or an allowance from thePrivy Purse. The couple have had the use of a five-bedroom, five-receptiongrace and favour apartment atKensington Palace. Queen Elizabeth II had paid the rent for the apartment at a market rate of £120,000 annually from her own private funds with the couple paying the nominal amount of £70 per week. The rent goes to the Grant-in-aid, provided by the Government for the maintenance of the Occupied Royal Palaces. The rent is based on the current rate for commercially rented properties at Kensington Palace, and is recorded in the overall figures for commercial rents in the Grant-in-aid annual report. This rent payment by the Queen is "in recognition of the Royal engagements and work for various charities which Prince and Princess Michael of Kent have undertaken at their own expense, and without any public funding", according to a statement released by the British Monarchy Media Centre.[40]
In 2008, it was announced that it had been agreed that Prince and Princess Michael would pay rent of £120,000 a year from their own funds from 2010.[41][42] Members of Parliament on the public accounts committee had demanded the change after the Kents' rent had come to light.[41] The Kents have lived in the apartment since 1979, paying only their utility bills prior to 2002.[41]
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Princess Michael of Kent is a Roman Catholic, and attended several events duringPope Benedict XVI'sstate visit to the United Kingdom in September 2010. She attendedMass inWestminster Cathedral, where she was seated in the first row among other dignitaries, includingLord andLady Nicholas Windsor, theDuke of Norfolk and former Prime MinisterTony Blair; the Pope gave them an audience after Mass.[43][44] On the last day of the Pope's visit she attended the open-air Mass of beatification forCardinalJohn Henry Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham. Princess Michael was personally involved in thebeatification process[45] and attended several other celebrations relating to his beatification before and after the Cofton Park Mass. She also attended a civic dinner with invited dignitaries andbishops in Birmingham, before attending the Mass and meeting the Pope.[46] Previously, in 2008, the Princess attended the translation of remains of Cardinal Newman atBirmingham Oratory.[45]
Princess Michael of Kent represented the Duke of Edinburgh at the launching ceremony of theGreen Pilgrimage Network inAssisi, Italy, in 2011. It was organised by theAlliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), founded by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1995, in association with theWorld Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), of which Prince Philip was formerly President. The Princess spoke on behalf of the Duke of Edinburgh and led the opening procession.[47]
In 2024,The Times published a letter to the editor, co-signed by Princess Michael of Kent and other Catholic and non-Catholic public figures, calling upon theHoly See to preserve what they describe as the "magnificent" cultural artifact of the Catholic Church'sTraditional Latin Mass.[48]
Princess Michael of Kent has a controversial history of statements and actions that have been accused of being racist.[49]
The media claim 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".[8] After being told about Princess Michael’s aristocratic lineage by Lord Mountbatten, Queen Elizabeth II reportedly joked that “she seems a bit too grand for us.”[50]
In 2004, she was accused of racially insulting black diners at a restaurant in New York. A spokesperson acknowledged that the Princess had been angry at the group, who were seated at a table near her, but denied that she had told them to "go back to the colonies".[51] In an interview with a newspaper she reflected on her encounter with "a group of rappers", which in fact included the TV reporterA. J. Calloway as well as a banker, a lawyer, and a music mogul.[20]
In 2005, she gave a series of interviews to promote her book, in one of which she said that Britons should be more concerned about the bloodlines of their children, and claimed that the British media were "excited" byPrince Harry's decision to wear aswastika for a fancy dress party because of the British press' "ownership structure", a statement interpreted by some as antisemitic.[52] She claimed that "nobody would have got excited" had he worn thehammer and sickle.[52]
In 2005, she talked toMazher Mahmood, aNews of the World journalist posing as a fake sheikh and potential buyer forNether Lypiatt Manor, Princess Michael and her husband's country home at the time.[53] The Princess shared her opinions onDiana, Princess of Wales, describing her as a "bitter" and "nasty" woman.[53] She went on to say thatCharles, Prince of Wales, was "jealous" of his former wife's popularity, and that he had effectively married a "womb".[53] She also added that the Prince'sDuchy Originals jams were not homemade: "He's got factories. It's just got his name on it."[53]
On hearing that research by Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth seemed to indicate that rank among female baboons is hereditary, the Princess is reported to have said: "I always knew that when people who aren't like us claim that hereditary rank is not part of human nature, they must be wrong. Now you've given me evolutionary proof!"[54]
In 2015, the Princess generated controversy by publicly asserting that animals do not have rights, on the grounds that they do not pay taxes, maintain bank accounts, or participate in elections.[55]
In 2017, the Princess was criticised for wearing ablackamoor brooch with a stylised figure of an African man to a Christmas banquet at Buckingham Palace.Meghan Markle, later the Duchess of Sussex, a mixed-race American woman of African and European descent, and at the time the fiancée of Prince Harry, was present at the dinner.[19] A spokesperson for the Princess later said that she "is very sorry and distressed that it has caused offence".[56]
In 2018, British-American writer and journalistAatish Taseer, who had previously been her daughter’s partner, alleged that the Princess had owned a pair of black sheep named afterVenus and Serena Williams.[57]
In 1985, Marie-Christine was hospitalised for one week to undergo treatments for "nervous exhaustion".[31] In 2002, she was treated forskin cancer.[58] In May 2021, it was reported that Princess Michael was suffering fromblood clots after being diagnosed withCOVID-19 six months earlier.[59] She is known to have suffered from lung issues in her childhood.[59] In late 2024, she fell down stairs at herKensington Palace apartment and broke both wrists ahead of a Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace hosted byCharles III.[60]
Prior to her marriage to Prince Michael, she was known as Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz.[61] Since her marriage to Prince Michael, Marie-Christine has been styled asHer Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent.[62]
6 February 2012: Recipient of theQueen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal[63]
: Dame Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of theSovereign Military Order of Malta[21][64] (September 2010)
: Dame of theOrder of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy[21][65]
House of Habsburg: Dame of theOrder of the Starry Cross[21][65]
House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (Castroan branch): Dame Grand Cross of Justice of theTwo-Sicilian Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (GCJCO)[66] |
|
| Name | Birth | Marriage | Children | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lord Frederick Windsor | 6 April 1979 | 12 September 2009 | Sophie Winkleman | Maud Windsor Isabella Windsor |
| Lady Gabriella Kingston | 23 April 1981 | 18 May 2019 | Thomas Kingston (died 25 February 2024)[68] | None |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Ladies HRH Princess Michael of Kent | Succeeded by |
