Princess Michael of Kent marks her 81st birthday today, having spent nearly five decades as part of the British Royal Family.
The former Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz wed Prince Michael at Vienna Town Hall in 1978, just a fortnight after her divorce from English banker Thomas Troubridge was finalised.
Prince Michael required the late Queen Elizabeth II's blessing to marry, given his bride was both Catholic and previously married.
Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Prince Philip's uncle and a distant relation of the monarch, acted as intermediary to secure royal approval.
Member of Royal Family celebrates 81st birthday after years of controversy
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The Queen granted permission on one condition: Prince Michael would relinquish his position in the line of succession.
The couple went on to have two children, Lord Freddie Windsor, now 46, and Lady Gabriella Kingston, 44.
When Lord Mountbatten presented the Baroness's impressive aristocratic heritage to the Queen, laying on details of her descent from Charlemagne and various European monarchs, the sovereign offered a wry response: "Well Dickie, she sounds a bit too grand for us."
Princess Michael later addressed this remark in a 2000 interview with W magazine, explaining that Lord Mountbatten, an enthusiastic genealogist, had "laid it on a bit thick" when describing her lineage.
Prince Michael of Kent and Princess Michael of Kent at the Coronation
| PAShe maintained that of all those who had married into the Royal Family since Prince Philip, she possessed more royal blood than any other bride or bridegroom.
"I was not born a Royal Highness, so technically I am a commoner, but I happen to have a lot of royal blood," she stated.
The princess suggested Lord Mountbatten had found the Queen's quip amusing and repeated it, allowing the story to be weaponised against her.
Five years after that interview, Princess Michael found herself offering an apology to the Queen following a damaging newspaper sting operation.
Princess Michael of Kent pictured at Wimbledon in 2025
| PAWhile attempting to sell her £6million Gloucestershire property, Nether Lypiatt Manor, she served tea and cake to a journalist posing as a wealthy buyer, unaware their conversation was being secretly recorded.
During the exchange, she accused the then-Prince Charles of treating Diana as "a convenient womb" for producing an heir, whilst describing the late princess as "bitter", "nasty" and "strange".
She also ventured that Camilla would eventually become Queen, contradicting official Buckingham Palace guidance at the time, and expressed her belief that Charles would never abdicate in favour of Prince William.
Princess Michael's relationships with other members of the Royal Family have not always been smooth, with the princess earning the nickname "Princess Pushy", reportedly coined by Princess Anne.
Princess Michael of Kent pictured attending Sophie Winkleman's wedding in 2009
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The Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, harboured a particular dislike for her cousin's wife, whom biographer Theo Aronson described her as viewing as "a limelight-seeking adventuress far too keen to force her way into the Royal Family's inner circle".
This animosity was on full display during an Ascot carriage procession when, despite Princess Michael's animated attempts at conversation, Margaret responded only with grunts.
Margaret's son Lord Linley inherited something of his mother's disdain, once remarking that as a Christmas gift to his worst enemy, he would give "dinner for two with Princess Michael" during the mid-1980s.