Who are the Mountbattens and why do they share a surname with Prince Harry’s kids? Meet some VERY bohemian Royal relatives including one on a houseboat, a Made in Chelsea star and someone who married a mermaid!

There was something of a surprise for fans of Made in Chelsea when the latest series  of the Hooray Henry reality show aired recently.

For the summer spin-off, For Made in Chelsea: Corsica, featured a newcomer with genuinely toffish connections for once.

Almost impeccable, in fact, thanks to his royal links.

Freddy Knatchbull is a student and model who was signed to the Select agency after being spotted walking down London’s Oxford Street. 

He is also a member of the Mountbatten family, whose relationship with the British monarchy is so close that Prince Harry’s children, Princess Lilibet and Prince Archie, carry its surname (hyphenated with Windsor). 

Freddie, 20, is the son of Curzon Cinemas CEO Philip Knatchbull, whose grandfather was Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India and Prince Philip’s uncle (as well as a distant cousin of the Queen).

And when it comes to Mountbatten great grandchildren, he is certainly not alone. There are in fact 29 of them in fact – and with a decidedly bohemian flavour.

Between them they boast several fashion entrepreneurs, a well-being adviser, an artist, a paramedic, a model and reality ‘star’. One secretly married a DJ called Jazz Jurple before becoming engaged to a welder. 

Another lives on a houseboat having established the first tailoring business for women on Savile row, while yet another is married to a performance-art ‘mermaid’. One or two have overcome drug addiction.

What they have in common is membership of one of the most famous families in the land with connections to the heart of monarchy itself.

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten was born in Windsor on June 25, 1900, to Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse.

Known as Dickie, Lord Mountbatten’s influence on the Royal family during his lifetime was perhaps greater than any other figure. 

A divisive character, he has often been accused of meddling and manipulating the royals, who trusted him implicitly.

‘Mountbatten had a slightly unusual relationship with the Royal family,’ writes Andrew Lownie in his book The Mountbattens. 

‘He was the last godchild of Queen Victoria, friendly with George VI at Cambridge, was a slight mentor to the Queen when she came to power but he was not in direct line to the throne.

‘Yet he was always writing himself into the script. He always thought that he was helping the Royal family and the courtiers. He had a strong sense of entitlement and saw himself as a fixer.’

It was Mountbatten who is believed to have arranged the famous first meeting between the Queen and Prince Philip at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

King Charles described him as ‘the grandfather I never had’ and listened to his advice about his love life, which included urging him to seek a bride with ‘no past’ rather than marrying Camilla Shand.

In fact, he hoped Charles would marry his granddaughter, the Hon Amanda Knatchbull, but Amanda rejected Charles’s proposal in 1979, shortly after the death of her grandfather. 

Mountbatten was killed when a bomb planted on his fishing boat by the IRA exploded, killing him and his grandson Nicholas, as well as a young crew member named Paul. Charles was devastated by his death.

It is well-documented that Prince Philip had hoped that his children would carry his Mountbatten surname and that he was greatly disappointed when it was decreed that they would be known as Windsor. 

Yet his name lives on because it was also agreed that descendants not in direct line to the throne – the children of Prince Harry, for example – could be known as both Mountbatten and Windsor.  

For his own part Lord Mountbatten had two daughters: Patricia Knatchbull and Lady Pamela Hicks. The former died in 2017, while Lady Pamela is now 94 and made headlines this year when she was not invited to the Coronation due to the decision to slim down the guest list.

Although none bears the Mountbatten surname, the clan has since grown exponentially, with 11 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and one adopted great-grandson.

Freddy is far from the only noteworthy Mountbatten great-grandchild. 

His cousin Nicholas Knatchbull is the son of Norton Knatchbull, who caused a scandal when he left his family in 2010 to live in the Bahamas with Eugenie Nuttall, later returning.

Nicholas is the 41-year-old heir to the £100 million Mountbatten fortune and mentored Prince William at Eton. 

He later became addicted to heroin and crack cocaine, before recovering and marrying Ambre Pouzet, a former professional mermaid. His sister Leonora Knatchbull tragically died of cancer in 1991 at the age of just five.

Another cousin, Eleuthera du Breuil, 37, is the daughter of Joanna Knatchbull and Baron Hubert Pernot du Breuil. She studied marine ecology at the University of Aberdeen and is now the chief instructor at Atlantic Pacific International Rescue Ltd and a paramedic for the London Ambulance Service.

Freddy’s half-sister Daisy Knatchbull – whose mother is Philip Knatchbull’s first wife Atalanta Knatchbull – worked in fashion journalism and set up her own fashion label, The Deck, in 2019. 

She lives on a houseboat on a London canal. Freddy’s other sister, Phoebe Knatchbull, works in PR for the high-profile agency Freuds.

Maddison May Brudenell is the 29-year-old daughter of Edwina Hicks and actor Jeremy Brudenell, who was in The House of Eliott. 

A former Ralph Lauren model, Maddison secretly married DJ Olaoluwa Modupe-Oju in 2015 and the couple had three children before separating. She is now engaged to a Canadian welder named Bret Kapetanov, whom she met on a flight.

Angelica Hicks, 31, the daughter of Ashley and Allegra Hicks, made her debut at the Crillon Bal des Debutante in Paris in 2009 with Lady Kitty Spencer and Francesca Fisher-Eastwood, daughter of Clint Eastwood.

She is now a successful fashion illustrator whose clients include the likes of Gucci, British Vogue and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Felix Flint-Wood, 25, is one of three sons of India Hicks, the fashion designer and former model who was a bridesmaid at Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding and now lives in the Bahamas. Felix has struggled with substance abuse but is now clean and is the founder of clothing brand Idle Assembly.

His 15-year-old sister Domino is a micro-influencer who documents her idyllic life in the Bahamas on social media. She and her brothers also have an adopted brother, Wesley, 26, whose mother Lynne was working as a waitress at a local restaurant in the Bahamas when she became friends with India. When Lynne, a single mother, died from cancer in 2010, India adopted Wesley, who was 12 at the time.

Louis Mountbatten himself is known an extremely an extremely colourful life both in public and private. If his great-granchildren are by no means conventional, he’s probably have approved

Nicholas Knatchbull, 41. Heir to the title. Married to a ‘mermaid’

The son of Norton Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and Countess Mountbatten of Burma, Penelope Eastwood, the daughter of the founder of the Angus Steakhouse chain, married two months after the assassination of Lord Mountbatten and his grandson Nicholas. So, when their eldest son was born, they named him after his late cousin. It was Norton who was the King’s minder when he arrived at Gordonstoun – and 33 years later, Nicholas returned the favour by mentoring Prince William at Eton. Penny was a carriage-driving companion of Prince Philip and was the only person other than family to attend his funeral. Life has not gone smoothly for the heir to the £100 million Mountbatten fortune. He was admitted to a drug rehabilitation clinic after his father threatened to disinherit him over his battle with crack cocaine and heroin. But the tattooed former drug addict, who works musician under the monikers Deep N Beeper and Five-Dimensional Nick, now lives a more sober lifestyle in a cottage on the family estate Broadlands – the stately home where the Queen spent her honeymoon and where he is believed to do gardening work. He married Ambre Pouzet, a behavioural therapist and professional mermaid, in 2021 – she once donned a custom-made Swarovski crystal-encrusted mermaid tail for underwater shows and photoshoots. They have a one-year-old son Alexander.

Alexandra Hooper, 40. Forensic accountant

Norton’s sister Alexandra still has close ties to the Royal family – the goddaughter of Princess Diana, she was given away by Prince Charles during the society wedding of 2016 and the ceremony, at Romsey Abbey, in Hampshire, was attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. A theology graduate of Regent’s Park, Oxford, and forensic accountant, she is now patron of The Mountbatten School, which was set up by her great-grandfather. She and her husband Thomas, a director of teacher-entrepreneurial partnership Third Space Learning, whom she met through her work at the consultancy firm FTI Consulting, have a five-year-old son Thomas, who was the Duke of Edinburgh’s godson.

Leonora Knatchbull

Daughter of Norton and Penny Knatchbull, sister of Nicholas and Alexandra. She sadly died of cancer in 1991 at the age of five.

 Kelly Knatchbull, 35. Talent agent  

The only daughter of film producer Michael Knatchbull and his wife Melissa, Kelly starred opposite Peter Capaldi in the Christmas film The Greatest Store In The World, and now works as a showbusiness talent agent. Two years ago, she announced her engagement to fellow agent Alexander Cooke, 39, in The Times newspaper.

Savannah Knatchbull, 22. New graduate

Kelly’s half-sister Susannah is the daughter from Michael’s second marriage to wife Penny. She went to the co-ed boarding school Lancing College, in West Sussex, before graduating from Exeter University with a first-class Honours Degree in BA English, as well as achieving a first in her dissertation titled ‘Destroying Mother Earth: Gender and Climate Change Within Oryx and Crake and The Carbon Diaries 2015’.

 Eleuthera du Breuil, 37. Paramedic and lifeboat specialist 

The only daughter of Joanna Zuckerman and her husband Hubert Pernot Du Breuil, Eleuthera went to Ibstock Place School before studying applied marine and fisheries ecology at Aberdeen University and marine biology at Newcastle University. Today, she  works for the NGO the Atlantic Pacific International Rescue Project, which helps support lifeboat efforts around the world and is a paramedic for the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Alexander Zuckermann, 20 

Eleuthera’s half-brother Alexander, known as Xan, is the son of Joanna and her second husband Azriel Zuckerman.

Luke Ellingworth, 33. Entrepreneur

The son of social worker Lady Amanda Knatchbull, who turned down Prince Charles’ hand in marriage, and her husband novelist and property entrepreneur Charles Ellingworth. He describes himself on Companies House as an ‘entrepreneur’ and has run two  companies On The Rocks Tours and JF Educational Services.

Joseph Ellingworth, 30. Diving instructor 

The second son of Amanda and Charles Ellingworth went to the public school Milton Abbey  before becoming a Divemaster. He has worked as an instructor at the Thailand’s Phi Phi scuba diving centre, the Four Seasons Resort, in the Maldives, Aquacenter Diving, in Costa Rica, and the Batu Batu resort, on Malaysia’s Tengah Island.

Louis Ellingworth, 27

The youngest brother of Luke and Joseph Ellingworth.

Daisy Knatchbull, 30. Fashion entrepreneur. Lives on a houseboat

The daughter of Philip Knatchbull, the head of art-house cinema chain Curzon, and his wife Atalanta, Daisy went to Princess Anne’s alma mater Benenden, before working in fashion journalism. She then got a job working at Savile Row tailor Huntsman, a tailor featured in the Kingsman films starring Colin Firth, turning up to Ascot one year in a men’s morning suit, top hat, and Louboutin heels. She has since set up her own bespoke women’s tailoring company and has a shop in Savile Row – the first to cater for women. She lives on a houseboat on a London canal. ‘I’m so proud to say The Deck is the newest kid on the block,’ she said at the opening. ‘Words cannot describe how excited we are. A dream come true.’ This became the first tailors for women on Savile Row. Daisy lives on a houseboat on a London canal.

Phoebe Knatchbull, 28. Public relations executive

Daisy’s younger sister Phoebe went to Wycombe Abbey boarding school before going up to Bristol University. She is now a global account development director at Freuds+ in New York.

Frederick Knatchbull, 20. Model who appeared on Made in Chelsea

The son of Philip Knatchbull and his second wife Wendy, Freddy left public school Radleigh in 2021 and is now a model at Select Model Management after being spotted on London’s Oxford Streeet. His Tatler cover girl girlfriend Delphi Primrose is the daughter of Sotheby’s boss Lord Dalmeny. He is hoping to go to university to study politics. He recently appeared on Made in Chelsea: Corsica, a summer spin off of the C4 reality show. 

John (Rocky) Knatchbull, 19. Keeps a low profile

Brother of Freddy, John, known as Rocky, keeps a much lower profile than his brother, setting his Instagram and Facebook accounts onto the most private settings.  

Amber Knatchbull, 23. Influencer

The eldest daughter of film maker the Honourable Timothy Knatchbull, whose twin brother Nicholas was killed in the IRA bomb blast, and his Montessori teacher wife Isabella Norman, whom he met her at his cousin India Hicks’ home in the Bahamas. After going to Godolphin School, she did her A levels at Millfield before gaining a first class BA in psychology with media and communications. She now works for the influencer marketing agency Tailify! 

Milo Knatchbull, 22. Graduate in history and Italian

Amber’s younger brother Milo went to Twyford and Charterhouse schools before going up to St Andrew to study for an MA in modern history and Italian. As part of his course, he spent a year at Turin University.

Ludovic ‘Ludo’ Knatchbull, 19.  Old Etonian and Chelsea fan

The third of the Knatchbull children, Ludo went to Eton University, where he wrote for the student-run history publication the 1440 Review. His interests vary from the British Monarchy to the Second World War. He is a keen golfer, football player and tennis player and is a ‘big’ Chelsea fan.

Isla Knatchbull, 17 

After following her brother Milo to Twyford, Isla went to the co-educational boarding school Canford.

Wilhelmina ‘Willa’ Knatchbull, four

The youngest of the five children of Timothy and Isabella Knatchbull. 

Maddison May Brudenell, 29. Model and well-being advocate who beat addiction

The granddaughter of Lady Pamela Hicks, one of the Queen’s two surviving bridesmaids, and her interior designer husband David, and eldest daughter of Edwina Hicks and actor Jeremy Brudenell, Maddison May was signed as a model by the agency Storm at the age of 16. She went onto become addicted to drugs and battled an eating disorder but now is a ‘well-being’ advocate. When she was 21, she ran off to marry Nigerian DJ Olaoluwa Modupe-Ojo, whose stager name is Jazz Purple and had three children. She is now planning to marry Canadian welder Bret Kapetanov, whom she met on an eight-hour flight.

21. Jordan Brudenell, 28. Studio manager and multimedia artist

Maddison May’s younger sister Jordan went to Queen Anne’s School, in Caversham, before enrolling at Loughborough University to do an Art Foundation course. After spending the summer travelling around New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, she did a degree in graphic communication at Bath Spa University, setting up and running the Dance Society. She then set up a sustainable fashion brand called Adopted Threads, in which she upcycled second-hand clothes, worked as studio manager for the photographer Miles Aldridge, and is now the Studio Manager, hosting events for Kode Media. She also describes herself as a photographer and graphic designer.

Rowan Brudenell, 22. Recent graduate from Durham

The youngest child of Edwina and Jeremy, Rowan went to Stowe School before studying for a Bsc in geography at Durham University. He graduated this summer. He was also a part-time officer cadet in the Royal Air Force’s National University Air Squadron at RAF Leeming. 

Angelica Hicks, 30. Artist and illustrator

The eldest daughter of interior and fashion designer Allegra Hicks and the architect Ashley Hicks, Angelica Hicks came out at the Crillon ball in Paris with Princess Diana’s niece Lady Kitty Spencer and Clint Eastwood’s daughter Francesca Fisher-Eastwood. She studied history of art at University College London and landed her first big commission 60 portraits for the menswear brand Pal Zileri while at university enabling her to buy a flight to New York and find herself an agent. She has since made a name for herself on Instagram as an artist, posting satirical cartoons – when she drew Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid together, after they had been anointed Victoria’s Secret models, they re-posted the drawing. Last year she recreated an outfit worn by the Queen during her Silver Jubilee visit to Northern Ireland in 1977, using a cushion cover on top of  a fruit bowl, covered in shaving foam, to imitate Her Majesty’s striking hat. Her book Tongue in Chic! is described as a witty commentary on the fashion world.

Ambrosia Hicks, 26. Marketing manager for Ralph Lauren

Angelica’s younger sister Ambrosia went to Wycombe Abbey before going up to Oxford to read history. She spent two years in Milan, working as an assistant media planner for the Out There Agency and a creative project manager for Bally before returning to the UK in 2021 to join Ralph Lauren, where she is now marketing manager.

Wesley Flint-Wood, 26

Adopted at the age of 12 by India Hicks and her David Flint Wood, in 2010, after his waitress mother Lynne died of cancer. India first befriended Lynne during pregnancy and cared for him when his mother went to work. He and Felix became close friends from a young age. She posted a photograph on Facebook of his graduation and every year they go and visit his mother’s grave. ‘Every Christmas Day we go and see Wesley’s Mum,’ she wrote. ‘I don’t think it ever gets easier for Wes. How could it?’

Felix Flint-Wood, 25. Recovered from addiction and founded fashion label

The eldest son of Princess Diana’s bridesmaid India Hicks and her husband David, a former advertising executive, Felix  revealed this year that he had been struggling with substance abuse but kicked the habit a year ago. Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece described his recovery as ‘incredible’. Felix  founded the clothing brand Idle Assembly and has recently collaborated with his mother on a collaboration with Trusting luxury bags.

Amory Flint-Wood, 24. Film and television graduate

The second son of India and David, Amory hit the papers when he turned up at a racing fundraiser in his native Bahamas dressed as a wild horse, with an animal head – his mother India was dressed as an old man with wispy grey whiskers, thick-rimmed glasses, a top hat, and binoculars. This year he graduated as a BA of fine arts, in film and television – a first for his family.

Conrad Flint Wood, 20 

The younger brother of Felix and Amory, Conrad went to the public school, Stowe.

Domino Flint-Wood, 14. Micro-influencer

The goddaughter of shoe designer Christian Louboutin and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, Domino is a keen micro-influencer. Currently at Stowe, she is in the school lacrosse team. Domino enjoys outdoor pursuits, including kite surfing.