Happy 75th Birthday to Prince Michael of Kent

Prince Michael of Kent today turns seventy-five. He was born in 1942 at Coppins, the country home of his parents – Prince George, Duke of Kent and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark – in Buckinghamshire.

The Prince was only seven weeks old when his father was killed in a plane crash. Michael was raised alongside his two older siblings, Edward and Alexandra. He attended Sunningdale and Eton before military training at Sandhurst, which led to a twenty year career in the armed forces that saw the Prince serve in Germany, Hong Kong and Cyprus as part of the UN’s peacekeeping missions.

In 1978, he married the Catholic Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz, causing him to lose his position in the British succession (which he gained back in 2015); the couple have two children, Frederick and Gabriella. They are also grandparents to two little girls, Maud and Isabella, their son’s daughters.

Prince Michael has run his own consultancy business since he retried from the army in 1981. While he is patron and president of many charities and organisation, Michael does not receive any allowance from his cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, for his engagements – though he does on occasion represent her at state events abroad.

With familial connections to Russia through both his parents (though stronger via his mother Marina, a descendant of Alexander II of Russia), Michael has a deep interest in the country and has worked with a number of charitable organisations over the years to foster positive outcomes between Britain and Russia. He is a qualified Russian interpreter, and in 2009 was even awarded the country’s Order of Friendship in recognition of his work on Anglo-Russian relations.

He is currently 45th in line to the British throne.

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