Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, R.E. (born 11 May 1942) is the youngest child and second daughter of Paul of Greece and his wife Queen Frederica. She is the youngest sister of Queen Sofia of Spain and of the deposed Constantine II of Greece, Prince of Denmark and maternal aunt of Felipe VI of Spain.
Biography
Irene was born in Cape Town, South Africa, where her parents were living in exile, on 11 May 1942. She was christened at her parent’s Claremont home by the Metropolitan of the Holy Archdiocese of Good Hope. She had ten godparents including General Jan Smuts, Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark (her paternal aunt), the King of Hellenes (her paternal uncle), Queen Mary of the United Kingdom, and Duchess of Kent (her paternal first cousin once removed). She was a pupil of concert pianist Gina Bachauer and, for a while, she was a professional concert pianist herself.
Irene was courted by Prince Michel of Orleans, a younger son of the Orleanist pretender Henri, Count of Paris, until he met French noblewoman Beatrice Marie Pasquier Franclieu, whom he married on 18 November 1967 in Casablanca, Morocco, without his father’s consent.
After her brother was dethroned, Irene moved to India with her mother.
Since her mother’s death in 1981, she has lived in Spain in an apartment at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, the residence of her sister and brother-in-law, Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos.
Irene is the founder and president of the organization World in Harmony (Mundo en Armonia). On 16 March 2018, Princess Irene obtained the Spanish nationality and renounced her Greek nationality.
Titles, Styles and Honors
Title and Styles
11 May 1942-present Her Royal Highness Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark
Honors
-Greece: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Olga and Sophia
-House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies: Dame Grand Cross of Justice of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (1962)
-Italy: Knight Grand Cross of the Oder of Merit of the Italian Republic (27 November 1962)
-Thailand: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Chula Chom Klao (14 February 1963)
-Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant (R.E. 11 September 1964)
House: Glucksburg