PRINCE Michael of Kent has been a prominent member of the British Royal Family for many years.
Here’s everything you need to know about his life and his distinguished career.
Prince Michael of Kent is a member of the British Royal Family, and 52nd in line to the throne.
He was born on July 4, 1942, in Buckinghamshire, and is the youngest son of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark.
Seven weeks after Michael’s birth, his father was killed in a plane crash in Scotland.
The Prince has a brother and a sister.
His brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, was born in London in 1935.
His sister, Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, was born a year later on Christmas Day in 1936.
Prince Michael of Kent was educated at Eton, and is regarded as the first member of the family to learn Russian.
He served in the military from the early 1960s to 1981, retiring with the rank of Major following service in Germany, Hong Kong and Cyprus.
Prince Michael is a first cousin to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
This means he’s King Charles III‘s first cousin once removed.
Prince Michael is the grandson of King George V and Queen Mary.
In an ITV documentary he opened up about taking part in the late Queen’s Coronation in 1953.
Aged just ten, the young prince dressed up in a kilt and black jacket for the procession to Westminster Abbey.
He said: “The Coronation was the most extraordinarily exciting thing for a small boy.”
Prince Michael of Kent announced his retirement from public life in June 2022, as he approached his 80th birthday.
He represented the late Queen on a number of occasions at functions outside the UK.
The Prince also managed his own consultancy business, doing a lot of commercial work around the world.
He has also presented some TV documentaries on the royal families of Europe.
Prince Michael remains involved in around a hundred charities and organisations, and is Patron of a large number of these.
He caused controversy in 2021 when he was accused of introducing businessmen to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prince Michael married Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, daughter of Baron von Reibnitz and the former Countess Marianne Szapary.
They tied the knot in Vienna in 1978.
Upon their marriage, she was given the title of Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent – the female equivalent to her husband’s title.
He forfeited his line to the throne by marrying her because she was a Roman Catholic, but was later reinstated through the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.
They now live together at Kensington Palace.
Prince and Princess Michael have two children: Lord Frederick Windsor and Lady Gabriella Windsor.
Frederick was born in 1979.
He went to Eton College, and later graduated from Magdalen College at Oxford University with a 2:1 in Classics.
Gabriella was born two years later in 1981.
She’s a writer and a singer-songwriter who goes professionally by the name of Ella Windsor.
She has a degree in Comparative Literature, along with a masters in Social Anthropology from Oxford.
She hit the headlines in 2024 when her husband Thomas Kingston died suddenly at home.
