On Air Now
Smooth Breakfast with Jenni Falconer 6am - 10am
4 May 2023, 11:46
Prince Michael of Kent was once seventh in line to the British throne, and is often seen at major Royal events.
Now in his 80s, Prince Michael has dropped to 51st in line to the throne as of 2022, but who is he and who were his parents?
Prince Michael is the younger son of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark.
Prince George was one of King George V's sons.
He was a paternal first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II, as he was the grandson of King George V and Queen Mary.
Prince Michael would occasionally represent Queen Elizabeth II at various functions at Commonwealth realms outside the UK during her reign.
Meanwhile, he manages his own consultancy business and undertakes various commercial work. He has also presented some TV documentaries on the royal families of Europe.
Prince Michael was born on July 4, 1942, at Coppins, Iver, Buckinghamshire.
He celebrated his 80th birthday in 2022.
He was the third child of Prince George, Duke of Kent. At the time of his birth, Michael was seventh in the line of succession to the British throne.
His mother was Princess Marina, a daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia.
Just seven weeks after Michael's birth, his father was tragically killed in a plane crash near Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland.
Aged five, Prince Michael was a page boy at the wedding of his cousins Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten.
In June 1978, Prince Michael got married, at a civil ceremony, at the Rathaus, Vienna, Austria.
He married German noblewoman Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz.
Marie-Christine was a Roman Catholic, and a divorcée. She had been married to the banker Thomas Troubridge, but had divorced in 1977.
Under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, Michael forfeited his place in the line of succession to the throne through his marriage to a Catholic. He was reinstated in 2015, with the coming into force of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.
Michael and Marie-Christine have two children: