As she celebrates her 80th birthday, we take a look at the life of Princess Michael of Kent.
Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz was born on 15 January 1945 as the youngest daughter of Günther-Hubertus Freiherr (Baron) von Reibnitz and his second wife, Countess Maria Anna Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget et Szapár. She has an older full brother, Friedrich and an older half-sister, Margarita (died 2012). Marie-Christine was born in Tachau, now known as Tachov in present-day Czech Republic. Her mother had just been released from a Nazi prison camp after she was arrested for taking part in an anti-Nazi Party demonstration, and her father was being held as a prisoner of war.
Her father was a member of the Nazi Party, and he had served in the Waffen-SS. As the Russians advanced, the family was forced to abandon their residence, and they moved to Bavaria in Germany, which was then part of the American-occupied zone. Her father managed to escape and was able to rejoin his family. However, between 1947 and 1948, he was tried by a Bavarian de-Nazification court, and he was classified as a “lesser offender”, the third of five classifications. He appealed and was later classified as a mere “follower.”
Her parents separated when it became clear that her father’s first marriage had not been annulled. As a devout Catholic, her mother could not continue living with him. As she had married him in good faith, their children were still considered legitimate. Her father left to travel around Africa, where he would meet his third and fourth wives. Her mother decided to start a new life in Australia with her two young children. They settled in Sydney, where her mother eventually remarried a Polish nobleman.
While in Australia, Marie-Christine attended a prep school called Baratburn, where nuns from the Sacred Heart Order taught. At the age of 8, she moved to the sister convent at Elizabeth Bay in Kincoppal, where she could be a weekly boarder. When that school closed, she was transferred to the Rose Bay Convent. When she finished school at 16, her mother sent her to Mozambique to live with her father for two years. After this, she travelled to Vienna, where she stayed with an uncle and took courses in art history. She then decided on interior design, for which she moved to the United Kingdom, and she was taken in by one of her mother’s many friends. She then set up her own business, Szapáry Designs., which was quite successful.
Marie-Christine met her future first husband on a boar hunt on the German estate of the family. His name was Tom Troubridge, and he was a successful banker. Their engagement was formally announced on 25 May 1971. As a Catholic, Marie-Christine required a dispensation for a Catholic-Anglican service. Their wedding took place on 15 September 1971, with Father Jean Charles-Roux standing as the essential Catholic witness. She was given away by her uncle, Count Ladislaus. Her brother, Friedrich, had married the day before in Australia, and her father was also not present as he had recently had a heart attack.
The newlyweds had a lively social circle, and sometime in 1972, Marie-Christine met Prince Michael of Kent, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, at the home of Prince William of Gloucester, a school friend of her husband’s. She later recalled, “I thought he was the funniest man I had ever met. We just kept laughing and talking together. But I didn’t think he had really ‘noticed’ me at all. He was with such a pretty girl.”1 Their friendship began to develop over the years, and her marriage became strained. Not much later, she moved out of the family home. In 1976, it was Lord Mountbatten who told Marie-Christine she should marry Michael.
In the summer of 1977, Thomas and Marie-Christine’s marriage was dissolved after they had lived apart for three years. An annulment proved a bit harder to obtain, and it was only granted in May 1978. Prince Michael needed the consent of the monarch to marry, and she gave it, which may have been surprising given the circumstances. Had The Queen taken a softer stance? The Queen’s permission could not fix the fact that Prince Michael would lose his place in the line of succession by marrying a Roman Catholic. He was 15th in the line of succession at the time. The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 returned Prince Michael to the line of succession in 2015.
Officially labelled a “divorcee” according to the Anglican church, they were forced to plan a Catholic wedding, and Prince Michael needed dispensation for this “mixed marriage.” However, this dispensation was not granted, and they ended up having a civil wedding in Vienna. Upon marriage, she became Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent, taking on the feminine form of her husband’s title. It wasn’t until 1983 that they received a Roman Catholic blessing for the marriage.
On 6 April 1979, Marie-Christine gave birth to her first – a boy named Frederick – styled as Lord Frederick Windsor. On 23 April 1981, a daughter was born. She was styled as Lady Gabriella Windsor until her wedding to Thomas Kingston in 2019. The family lived at Kensington Palace, and Prince Michael had inherited the contents of his mother’s apartment, leaving them with plenty of furniture to decorate. They were not provided for by the Civil List, and for a long time, they paid only a nominal amount for their apartment. Marie-Christine kept her interior design business going, although she was now only acting as a consultant. She also began writing books.
It wasn’t until 1985 that Marie-Christine learned the full extent of her father’s Nazi past. She had been raised almost entirely without her father, so perhaps this is not as strange as one might think. She later spoke of her “deep shame.” She added, “Here I am, 40 years old, and I discover something that is really quite unpleasant. I shall just simply have to learn to live with it.”2
Marie-Christina is active for several animal conservation organisations and undertakes charitable engagements, although these have decreased over the years. She has not remained without controversy, and she has been accused of being racist on several occasions, such as when she wore a blackamoor brooch to a lunch where the future Duchess of Sussex was also present.3
- Princess Michael of Kent by Peter Lane, Peter p.59
- The New York Times
- BBC
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