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He could have been king of at least three different countries, but instead he turned his back on royal life to party with the likes of Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol and marry the woman of his dreams.
As a royal, Prince Michael of Greece’s pedigree was second to none – he was the first cousin of three kings of Greece, Britain’s Prince Philip and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.
The Prince, whose death at the age of 85 was announced at the weekend, was also a cousin by marriage of King Carol of Romania, and his uncle was the Count of Paris, pretender to the French throne.
Yet he escaped the stuffy confines of court life by falling in love with gifted artist Marina Karella, a decidedly non-royal figure whose family were industrialists.
To marry her he was obliged to give up his succession rights – he was third in line to the Greek throne – and step back from royal duties.
He didn’t care. ‘It was love at first sight,’ he said, 58 years later. ‘I was dancing with her at a party, and I just looked at her. It was like a revelation — it was her and no one else.’
He could have been king of at least three different countries, but instead he turned his back on royal life to party with the likes of Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol and marry the love of his life. Above: Prince Michael of Greece with his fiancee Marina Karella, 1965
Prince Michael of Greece, whose death at the age of 85 was announced at the weekend, was also a cousin by marriage of King Carol of Romania , and his uncle was the Count of Paris, pretender to the French throne
He could afford to choose. At 19 while a student in Paris he’d inherited the equivalent of £3 million, which gave him the breathing space to decide what to do with his life.
His father Prince Christopher – known as Christo – had married Nancy Leeds, a fabulously wealthy American.
Her money put Prince Philip, like them stranded in Paris after the Greeks kicked out their royals in 1924 (a decade later they invited them back), through prep school.
Nancy died and Christo’s next wife – Michael’s mother – was Princess Francoise of Orleans, whose brother was the Count of Paris, the de facto king of that country.
So Michael, rare among the exiled Greek royals, never had to worry about money – although his father did die a year after his birth and his mother passed away from a mysterious illness in 1953, when he was barely a teenager.
Michael, now an orphan, spent the rest of his childhood living with the Count of Paris and his family of 11 children.
When he turned 21, he decided to move to his native Greece.
Freed from royal responsibilities, he set about making a life for himself, one which was a heady mix of glamour and hard work.
He and Marina married in a tight-knit family ceremony at Tatoi, the Greek palace near Athens, but once free of the court they became jet-setters, travelling between New York, Paris and Greece.
They had daughters Princess Alexandra and Princess Olga in 1968 and 1971 respectively.
They became the darlings of the New York social set, partying at Studio 54 with Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, and many others – but in 1995, a colossal scandal in the city was to change their lives.
A six-year old child, Elisa Isquierdo, had been murdered by her own mother after more than a year of torture and abuse.
It was a shocking and tragic crime, but not unknown in New York City – but one which involved the prince, as he’d known the child.
Elisa had been a pupil at a Manhattan school of which Michael was patron.
Such were her imoverished circumstances – her caretaker father had died, the mother was a drug addict – that he offered to pay her school fees (just as his father Christo had done for Prince Philip).
Prince Michael’s mother and father, Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark and Princess Françoise of Orléans
Prince Michael of Greece and Marina Karella on their wedding day in Athens in 1965
Prince Michael and Marina Karella before their wedding, February 1965
Prince Michael of Greece with his wife Marina and their daughters Alexandra and Olga in the garden of their palatial home in Greece
Prince Michael of Greece arm in arm with his daughter Princess Alexandra on her wedding day in Torcello, Italy, 1998
The Daily Mail’s 1964 report on Prince Michael of Greece’s love interest, Maria Karella. The couple married in 1965
Unknown to Michael, the child suffered terrible abuse – so awful that the New York authorities later described it as ‘the worst case of child abuse we have ever seen’.
Her death became a public scandal, and hundreds attended her funeral.
Michael and Marina, shaken by the violence of the child’s death, set up a child abuse charity called Elisa and he continued to support it in the following years up to his death.
The organisation runs awareness programmes for doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers and social workers to help them to recognise cases of child abuse and to know how to act accordingly.
Meanwhile the royal couple continued their artistic life – writing, painting, photography – and glamorously travelled the world.
Prince Michael penned several books, including one called ‘Living with Ghosts’ in 1997.
In that, he eccentrically claimed: ‘In my view, everybody is capable of communication with ghosts.
‘It is one of the human faculties we all possess from birth, and which we subsequently allow to atrophy.’
To research his spooky tome, Michael visited some of Europe’s most famously haunted castles and palaces.
So although Michael’s life as a writer was not boring, things could have all been so different.
Prince Michael of Greece and his wife Marina arrive for a dinner to mark the release of the film ‘Zorba the Greek’ in Paris, March 1965
Prince Michael of Greece and his wife Marina seen alongside Prince and Princess Michael of Kent at the wedding of Elia Zaharia and Crown Prince Leka II of Albania in Tirana, 2016
Prince Michael and his wife Marina at the opening of a painting exhibition in Athens, 2012
Prince Michael of Greece with Queen Sofia of Spain at the opening of an exhibition of his wife Marina’s works in Athens, 2005
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Michael’s father Christo had, remarkably, been offered three separate crowns – the thrones of Portugal, Lithuania, and Albania.
Tempting, maybe, but not tempting enough to disrupt his comfortable lifestyle in Paris.
‘Nothing under the sun would induce me to accept a crown,’ he said. ‘A crown is too heavy a thing to be put on lightly. It has to be worn by those born to the destiny.’
Years later, Michael agreed. ‘I do not envy him, the poor guy,’ he said when his cousin King Charles III succeeded to the throne in 2022. ‘He does it with dedication. But I would not like that job at all.’
Instead, he found a way of being both regal and accessible, rare among modern royals.
He had an Instagram page and a website – www.princemichaelofgreece.com –detailing his life and work which is well worth viewing.
If people wrote to him, he would reply personally, writing in fountain pen on crested blue notepaper.
He maintained his dignity, but wanted the world to know he earned a living by working – as an author and biographer, but also as a columnist for the Architectural Digest.
To the end, he remained an elegant figure, full of life and always interested in new things.
His funeral will be held in Athens today.
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