Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark

Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark R.E. (Greek: Ειρήνη, romanized: Iríni; 11 May 1942 – 15 January 2026) was the youngest child and second daughter of King Paul of the Hellenes and his wife, Queen Frederica.

She was the younger sister of Queen Sofía of Spain and the late King Constantine II of the Hellenes. She was also the great-granddaughter of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, who was the first grandson of Queen Victoria.

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 parents' 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), King George II of the Hellenes (her paternal uncle), Queen Mary of the United Kingdom, and the 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 Orléans, Count of Évreux, a younger son of the Orléanist pretender Henri, Count of Paris, until he met French noblewoman Béatrice Marie Pasquier de Franclieu, whom he married in 1967.

Between her father’s death and her brother having his first child, she had the title “Crown Princess of Greece”.

After her brother was dethroned, Irene moved to India with her mother. Since her mother's death in 1981, she had been living in Spain in an apartment at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, the residence of her sister and brother-in-law, Queen Sofía and King Juan Carlos.

Irene was the founder and president of the organisation World in Harmony (Mundo en Armonía) from 1986 to 2023. On 16 March 2018, Princess Irene obtained Spanish nationality and renounced her Greek nationality.

She died on 15 January 2026 at the Palace of Zarzuela in Madrid, Spain, at the age of 83.

She will interred at Tatoi (the royal family's palace and burial ground in Greece).

Notable published works

• En Decelia: fragmentos cerámicos de Decelia y miscelánea arqueológica. Athens, (1959–1960). Edited in Spanish in Spain, 2013. ISBN 9788494103308

Honours

•  Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant (R.E., 11 September 1964).
•  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 Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (27 November 1962).
•  Thailand: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Chula Chom Klao.