The Latest Royal to Get Engaged Has a Pretty Controversial Family
There’s another royal wedding to look forward to. Months after the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and just one month before the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, a third member of the royal family has gotten engaged.
Buckingham Palace announced Lady Gabriella Windsor, daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, will marry her boyfriend, Thomas Kingston. The two were engaged in August on the Isle of Sark in the English Channel, and will marry in spring 2019. Here’s what you need to know about the future royal bride.
Her parents are Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.
Lady Gabriella, who goes by Ella with friends and family, is the daughter of Prince Michael of Kent, the Queen’s first cousin. His father, Prince George of Kent, was the younger brother of King George VI, the Queen’s father.
Prince Michael only occasionally carries out duties on behalf of the Queen. He runs his own consultancy company and is a qualified Russian interpreter, and patronizes a number of charities and trade associations.
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Gabriella’s mother, Princess Michael of Kent, is the former Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz but took on the royal title of her husband. Because she is a divorced Catholic, Prince Michael had to give up his right to succession to the throne to marry her, though that right was eventually reinstated.
Princess Michael is one of the most controversial members of the royal family, with the nickname "Princess Pushy," and has been accused of racism several times, according to People. She once told a group of African-Americans to “go back to the colonies” and once wore a blackamoor brooch to meet Meghan Markle. She apologized both times.
She works in branding.
Gabriella, who graduated from Brown and Oxford with degrees in comparative literature and social anthropology, is a Senior Director at Branding Latin America, where she specializes in arts and travel.
According to her company biography, she spent several years in Latin America doing social projects, like teaching English in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, working on music events in Buenos Aires, and doing academic research in Cartagena. She also works as a writer, with her articles appearing in several national media outlets.
Though she is a royal, she is 50th in line for the throne, so there’s little chance of her taking on many royal duties. She is occasionally seen with the rest of the family at official events.
Her ex-boyfriend has made some pretty outrageous claims.
Aatish Taseer, who dated Gabriella for three years in the early 2000s, wrote an explosive article for Vanity Fair this May about what it was like to date her-and deal with her family. The two met in America when Taseer recently graduated from Amherst College and Gabriella was still at Brown.
He claimed the two swam naked in the Queen’s pool in Buckingham Palace and took MDMA in Windsor Castle, among other stories. He also claimed Princess Michael had two black sheep named Venus and Serena, after the Williams sisters. Some sources denounced Taseer’s report as “fiction.”
She’s marrying Pippa Middleton’s ex.
Tom is an ex of Pippa Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge's sister. She dated the Bristol graduate in 2011. Tom used to procure the release of hostages in Iraq before moving into the world of finance. He and Ella attended Pippa's wedding to James Matthews last year. Small world! https://t.co/Yg6blnO8zK
- Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) September 19, 2018
According to Daily Mail royal reporter Rebecca English, Gabriella’s fiancé, Thomas Kingston, used to date none other than Pippa Middleton back in 2011. But things don’t seem to be too awkward, since Gabriella and Tom attended Pippa’s wedding to James Matthews last year.
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