Henri, Comte de Paris (1933-2019), Head of the Royal House of France, wives & family


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There was a rare interview with the Duchesse de Montpensier in Point de Vue, August 2004. She talked about raising the two handicapped children, Francois and Blanche, and how the divorce was "forced" on her by her husband, the current Comte de Paris. She did not state where she lives, but I would assume in Paris.

Off this topic, but interesting: the Duchesse related how during WWII the SS stationed a surveillance squad in Schloss Altshausen to keep a close watch on the Duke and Duchess of Württemberg.
 
OT- The SS really disliked royalty, didn't they? Of course some were involved (most notably the Waldeck Pyrmonts, Oldenburgs and Mecklenburgs) but most of them kept a distance. I remember Louis-Ferdinands story on his interigation by SS officers & how he gave them so much drinks that they became drunk and left him alone. A tricky thing as LF was, I believe slightly involved on the attack on Hitlers life in 1944. They also put Mafalda of Hesse-Kassel, nee Italy and Antonia of Bavaria, nee Luxembourg in concentrationcamps I believe. Mafalda died there and Antonia died in the 50-ties as a result of this. (I believe she was escorted to the concentrationcamp by the Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont).

Back to french royalty: Very rare indeed that she says those things, she is usually so very discrete. Wasn t one of the reasons that Henri divorced her that she was such a prude, I believe I read somewhere that Henri had to cover/ take away an old painting from his office as a bare breast was to be seen on it (quite normal on old paintings).
 
Legally, he is HRH Henri d'Orleans, Duc de France et Comte de Paris. The French Republic formally recognizes the royal and noble titles of the three families who are descendants of French Sovereigns.
 
branchg said:
Legally, he is HRH Henri d'Orleans, Duc de France et Comte de Paris. The French Republic formally recognizes the royal and noble titles of the three families who are descendants of French Sovereigns.

Yes, I just meant his legal family name was Orléans.
 
count of paris

can anyone tell me anything about the count of paris? thank you! Tanya and his oldest son?
 
I´ve seen photos of two of the groom´s siblings born in 1961 and 1962, a sister and a brother
Is that right that both are (mentally) handicapped? And if yes might this be a problem for the young married couples` future parenthood?
If this question is already discussed somewhere else please inform me - thank you!
 
Their problems are due to toxicoplasmosis of their mother...
 
Stefanie,
Princess Marie von und zu Liechtenstein has 5 children , Prince Eudes 2, and all are normal. Having myself an handicapped son , I was afraid when my daughter in law was pregnant and I have a lovely granddaughter. I think that the day the new Duchesse de Vendôme will be pregnant , Jean and his mother the Duchesse of Montpensier will de afraid as my son and myself were.
 
There's something I can't understand: I guess the Duchess of Montpenser had recovered, since she is still alive; but had she been ill of toxoplasmosis for more then 19 months (the time between Francois and Blanche's birhs)? It would be a very long time to be ill and after recover...
 
MAfan, it is only now that we know about the then Comtesse de Clermont's toxoplasmosis.
She visited her husband who was in Algerie, A few months later she had her first son François and one year later Blanche, both trisomics.
Afterwards she had 2 normal children Jean and Eudes.
A pregnant lady don't have to go to Algerie for having toxoplasmosis, she can get it here with bad-cooked meat..Blanche came to early and I think she did not realised or knew about it.. but later she knew quite well and had her 2 sons..
 
I think it takes years to get rid of toxoplasmosis
 
It is more likely that Madame la duchesse de Montpensier (then comtesse de Clermont) contracted toxoplasmosis in France than in Algeria -- probably through exposure to cats and cat feces, or by eating undercooked contaminated meat. Statistics show that 30% of women in the UK have been exposed to toxoplasmosis; the number is 30-35% in the U.S., and more than 65% in France. Indeed, it is tragic that modern medicine was not sufficiently advanced at the time to recognize what had happened after Prince François was born, so as to prevent the second occurrence of prenatal infection in this family. :nonono:

By the way, the mother was not necessarily acutely ill for the entire period between the two pregnancies. Often, people who are affected by toxoplasmosis don't even know that they are ill. If there are any symptoms, they are very similar to those of the flu.
 
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You have to take into account the religious beliefs... if it was detected for the second child I am sure they would have refused to abort her....
 
Thanks a lot Claypoint for your explanations.
I am sure that nowadays Princesses and specially Crown-Princesses are followed during their pregnancy by the best Doctors and Specialists so that nothing may happen to their child. Excepting Cecila-Cornelia of Prussia , I think they are no handicapped children in the Royal Houses?
 
I know a couple of Princess of Bavaria are handicapped, one is a daughter of Princes Leopold and Ursula, and the other one is a daughter of Princes Luitpold and Beatrix; but I'm not totally sure.
 
You have to take into account the religious beliefs... if it was detected for the second child I am sure they would have refused to abort her....

I wasn't thinking about abortion, Rominet -- I was thinking about prenatal treatment. The mother could have been given antibiotics to fight the parasite Toxoplasma gondii while her children were still in utero. Infants who receive treatment before birth are more likely to be healthy afterward. (Antibiotic treatment is continued for one year after birth if the child is confirmed to be infected). By contrast, infected babies who aren't treated until after they are born are at higher risk for brain and eye damage.

That's what makes this case so very sad.... If the condition had been diagnosed and treated on time, a poor outcome might have been avoided in one or both children.
 
Thank you all for commenting my question concerning the handicaps of his sister and brother
I still don´t understand why this tragedy happenend again with the next child
 
Thank you all for commenting my question concerning the handicaps of his sister and brother
I still don´t understand why this tragedy happenend again with the next child
I also wonder...
 
The conditions as Claypoint says were not diagnosed and Blanche came one year after François.. And this happened 40 years ago.. very very sad..
 
:previous:

I agree, Maria-Olivia. I did a quick review of the medical literature, and it appears that the earliest papers on toxoplasmosis in humans date to 1965, or approximately three years after the birth of Princess Blanche. In other words, it was really not anybody's fault.... It appears that medical science was only beginning to come to terms with the disease in the mid 1960's, and it's very sad indeed to think of all the children (royal and otherwise) who might have been spared, and whose lives could have been fuller, if we had known earlier.

Cook, I.: Isolation of toxoplasma gondii from man. Med. J. Aust.1, 850–851 (1965)

Feldman, H. A.: A nationwide serum survey of United States military recruits, 1962. VI. Toxoplasma antibodies. Am. J. Epidemiol.81, 385–391 (1965)

Remington, J. S., Cavanaugh, E. N.: Isolation of encysted form of toxoplasma gondii from human skeletal and brain. New Engl. J. Med.273, 1308–1310 (1965)

Sheffield, H. C., Melton, M. L.: The fine structure of toxoplasma gondii. J. Parasit.54, 209–226 (1968)

Townsend, J. J., Wolinsky, J. S., Baringer, R. J., Johnson, P. C.: Acquired toxoplasmosis. A neglected cause of treatable nervous system disease. Arch. Neurol.32, 335–343 (1975)
 
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Correction

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I wanted to correct some misleading information that I gave in my prior post. There were papers on congenital toxoplasmosis in Europe published as early as 1948, and there were several throughout the 1950's. However, I think that it's still fair to say that in the early 1960's the condition was not on the diagnostic radar of obstetricians or internists in the same way that it is now....

Ok, enough about this topic now!! :rolleyes:
 
Stephanie,

As fahr as i know, and was told by the late comtesse de Paris herself, the handicapp on prince François was not obvious at all when he was born. Both children are not what we call today "trisomic". It was only when prince François was a few months old (about 5 or 6), that his mother and grand mother noticed something was wrong. And at that time, the comtesse de Clermont was allready pregnant with blanche.
I hope this is your answer.
 
Princess Blanche was born 19 months after her brother François: so he had to be at least one year old if his mother and grandmother have seen something was wrong when his mother was already pregnant...
 
Trisomy v. Toxoplasmosis

To clarify: Trisomy has nothing to do with toxoplasmosis. Trisomy is a genetic abnormality in which the person has a third copy of a given chromosome, instead of the usual two. For example, Trisomy 21 (where there is an extra copy of chromosome 21) is commonly known as Down Syndrome.

By contrast, toxoplasmosis is an infectious disease; it is acquired, and not a genetic disorder. But it is congenital -- meaning that it involves defects or damage to the fetus, some of which may not be immediately evident at birth but which are already present and may manifest later.
 
Stephanie, As fahr as i know, and was told by the late comtesse de Paris herself, the handicapp on prince François was not obvious at all when he was born. Both children are not what we call today "trisomic". It was only when prince François was a few months old (about 5 or 6), that his mother and grand mother noticed something was wrong. And at that time, the comtesse de Clermont was allready pregnant with blanche.
I hope this is your answer.

Princess Blanche was born 19 months after her brother François: so he had to be at least one year old if his mother and grandmother have seen something was wrong when his mother was already pregnant...

In response to Vincent I would say that, if prince François had been adequately diagnosed when his abnormality was first noticed, then the comtesse de Clermont could have received antibiotics while she was pregnant with the princesse Blanche, and this might have avoided or minimized the damage to the second child.

But, then again, in response MAfan I would say that we need to be compassionate towards the family and the doctors, who at the time were probably doing the very best that they could with limited knowledge. Medical science had not completely figured out this condition in the early 1960's.
 
I think the hypothesis of toxoplasmosis would be impossible, if not for one of the princes, at least for both.
Further, I have read a pair of times that they suffered phenylcetonuria, which in these times was not detected at birth (nowadays all babies are tested). A baby born with this genetic disease, if he follows a very strict diet, can grow normally. If he doesn't (if it is no detected, he will necessarily : simply eating milk, chocolate...) the phenylalanin he eats is toxic to his brain and he gets rapidly handicapped.
 
Thanks

I didn't know there was treatment available at that time, sorry !
 
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Just curious: Why would the hypothesis of toxoplasmosis be impossible? It is an infectious disease, and statistics show that 65% of women in France have been exposed. (Nowadays, screening is routine during preganancy, but that was certainly not the case in the 1960's). On the other hand, phenylketonuria -- which in France has an incidence of 1 in 13,500 births -- appears less likely.
 
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