Like many members of the Royal Family, Prince Michael’s list of godparents reads like a who’s who of the world’s most influential figures: King George VI, King Haakon VII of Norway and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt were among those chosen. Just weeks later, the family suffered a devastating blow when Prince Michael’s father, Prince George, Duke of Kent, was killed in a plane crash near Dunbeath in Scotland.
Prince Michael of Kent enjoyed a lunch with submarine reservists at the Naval and Military Club earlier this month
Royal Navy
At the age of five, Prince Michael had a starring role as a page boy at the wedding of his cousin Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. Educated at Eton, Prince Michael proved something of a linguist, and in addition to being fluent in French, he had a ‘working knowledge’ of German and Italian and became the first member of the Royal Family to learn Russian, of which he is a qualified interpreter. After Eton, he went to Sandhurst, before serving in the military for 20 years.
Prince Michael of Kent was forced to give up his place in the line of succession (but was later reinstated) when he married German divorcée, Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz, a Catholic who is today known as Princess Michael of Kent, a former interior designer. They were married at a civil ceremony in Vienna after receiving Pope John Paul II’s permission. Princess Michael, who has authored multiple books on European Royalty, is a great lover of Siamese and Burmese cats as well as cheetahs (she had a pet as a young girl, chronicled in her book A Cheetah’s Tale).