Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark

Early life

Irene was born on 11 May 1942 in Cape Town, Union of South Africa, where her parents were living in exile because of the German invasion of Greece during the Second World War. She was the younger daughter of Paul, Crown Prince of Greece (later King Paul), and his wife Frederica of Hanover. She was christened three weeks after her birth at her parents' Claremont rented home by the Metropolitan of the Holy Archdiocese of Johannesburg and Pretoria and was named after her paternal aunt Princess Irene, Duchess of Aosta. She had ten godparents, including General Jan Smuts, Lady Katherine Brandram (her paternal aunt), King George II of Greece (her paternal uncle), Queen Mary of the United Kingdom, and the Duchess of Kent (her paternal first cousin once removed).

In 1944 the family moved to Egypt and returned to Greece in 1946 after the approval of the continuity of the Greek monarchy in the referendum with her uncle George II. In 1947 her father became King of the Hellenes after the death of his brother. Irene was educated at Arsakion school at Psykhikó Palace in Greece and at Schule Schloss Salem in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Irene took up the piano in 1962. She was a pupil of concert pianist Gina Bachauer and became a professional concert pianist herself. With Bachauer, she undertook a tour of the United States in 1967 and performed at the Royal Festival Hall in London with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in June 1969.

As a young woman, Irene was courted by Prince Michel, Count of Évreux, younger son of the Orléanist pretender Henri, Count of Paris, until he met and later married a French noblewoman without his father's consent in 1967. She was also rumoured to be a potential bride of Crown Prince Harald of Norway (later King Harald V) who later married Sonja Haraldsen in 1968. Irene was one of the bridesmaids at the wedding of Spanish Prince Juan Carlos and Princess Sofía in 1962. Her brother Constantine became King in 1964 after the death of their father.

Between her father's death and the birth of her niece Princess Alexia, Irene was heiress presumptive to the Greek throne.

Exile and later life

After her brother was dethroned in the Colonels' coup of 21 April 1967, Irene and the Royal Family moved to Italy after Constantine's unsuccessful countercoup against the junta. With her mother Irene resided in Rome. They later moved to India with her mother where the two pursued their interest in Hindu philosophy. She studied philosophy at the University of Madras under T. M. P. Mahadevan. As Mahadevan grew frailer, he dictated his memoirs to Irene.

After her mother's death in 1981, she lived in Spain in an apartment at the Palace of Zarzuela in Madrid, the residence of her sister and brother-in-law, Queen Sofía and King Juan Carlos.

In the 1980s, during the BSE outbreak, Irene arranged for thousands of surplus cows from Europe and the United States to be shipped to India where they evaded slaughter. She was the founder and president of the organisation World in Harmony (Mundo en Armonía) from 1986 to 2023. During the 1981 Spanish coup attempt, Irene was at the Palace of Zarzuela with King Juan Carlos and her sister Queen Sofia; years later, she recounted the fear they both experienced when remembering the coup in Greece years earlier. Irene accompanied inseparably in Sofia's activities although with a discreet profile.

In 2002, the European Court of Human Rights awarded her £500,000 to compensate for the loss of her family's Greek property, and she donated the entire sum to charity. In 2007, her biography Irene of Greece, the Rebel Princess was published. On 16 March 2018, Irene obtained Spanish nationality and renounced her Greek nationality.

On 23 April 2008 she became the godmother of Simeon-Hassan of Bulgaria. The godfather is King Mohammed VI of Morocco and the ceremony took place at Saint John of Rila Church at Tsarska Bistritsa.

Personal life

Irene never married and had a passion for piano and archaeology. She was also interested in paranormal phenomena, occultism, parapsychology and extraterrestrial life. She was known for being eccentric and having a good sense of fashion, but she detested jewellery. With Sofía, they excavated the sites of the ancient village of Decelea and both, together with archaeologist Theophanó A. Arvanitopoulou, wrote two essays. In 2000, Irene donated a selection of rare books and archaeological artefacts from the family collection to the Benaki Museum.

She translated English philosophical texts into Greek and Spanish, and also collaborated informally in the revision of works related to Jiddu Krishnamurti.

After the death of her father Paul, Irene became vegetarian.

Health and death

In 2002 she overcame breast cancer after chemotherapy treatment. In November 2023 it was made public that Irene was suffering from cognitive impairment. Irene's last public appearance was at the wedding of her nephew and godson Prince Nikolaos in February 2025 in Athens. In the summer of that year, her illness worsened, so she withdrew from public activities in which she accompanied her sister Queen Sofia, who adapted her schedule to Irene's condition.

On 13 January 2026, the Spanish Royal Household announced her condition had worsened and Queen Sofía cancelled all her public engagements to be at her side. She died at the Palace of Zarzuela in Madrid, Spain, on 15 January, at the age of 83.

After private services at the Palace of Zarzuela, Irene's body—escorted by the Royal Guard—was laid in repose at the Cathedral of St Andrew and St Demetrius in Madrid on 17 January. The Spanish royal family and representatives of the Greek, Bulgarian and Bourbon-Two Sicilies royal houses, among others, attended the requiem. Politicans and relevant personalities close to the royal family also attended. After the private ceremony, the church was open to the public until the afternoon.

The following day, her body was flown to Athens and on 19 January, she lay in repose at the Church of St Eleutherius before a funeral service took place at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. She was interred alongside her parents and brother at the Royal Burial Ground at Tatoi.

Notable published works

• En Decelia: fragmentos cerámicos de Decelia y miscelánea arqueológica. Athens (1959–1960). Spanish translation from the Greek published in Spain, 2013. .

Honours

National

• Kingdom of Greece:
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Redeemer
  • Dame Grand Cross, Special Class of the Royal Order of Saints Olga and Sophia
• Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant (RE; 11 September 1964)

Foreign

• [[File:Flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1738).svg|border|20px]] House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies: Dame Grand Cross of Justice of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (1962)
• Italy: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (27 November 1962)
• Thailand: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Chula Chom Klao (14 February 1963)

Ancestry

References

References

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