Just because someone's in the British royal family doesn't necessarily mean they're a household name here in the States. One close relative of Queen Elizabeth's, Prince Michael of Kent, has been seen attending royal events like Trooping of the Colour, and family weddings, but he's relatively under-the-radar in America.
Here's what you need to know about this lesser-known royal:
Michael and Queen Elizabeth are first cousins.
Prince Michael and the Queen.
Prince Michael of Kent was born on July 4, 1942 to Prince George, the Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. As a fellow grandson of King George V and Queen Mary of Teck, he is Queen Elizabeth's first cousin. Whilehe was seventh in line to the throne at birth, he has since fallen much further down the order of succession. (He was also removed from the order and later reinstated, but that's a longer story!)
He's also distantly related to the Romanovs.
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife, and their children before the revolution.
In addition to being a member of the British royal family, Prince Michael is also distantly related to the Romanovs, the last imperial family of Russia. His grandmother was first cousin to Nicholas II, making Michael a first cousin twice removed of the last Russian Tsar. In fact, he traveled to St Petersburg in July 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Tsar, Tsarina, and their children.
In March 2022, he returned a Russian honor amid the Invasion of Ukraine. "I can confirm that HRH Prince Michael of Kent is returning his Russian Order of Friendship," a spokesman for the prince said, according to the Daily Express. "There will be no further comment."
Prince Michael married Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz in 1978.
The Kents on their wedding day in 1978.
She now goes by Princess Michael of Kent. They have two children together, Lady Gabriella Windsor and Lord Frederick Windsor, who in turn has two children, Maud and Isabella.
They are not working royals, but sometimes appear at royal events.
The Kents on the royal balcony at this year's Trooping the Colour
Prince Michael of Kent and his family do not receive public funds, but they were still close relatives of the late Queen Elizabeth and attend royal celebrations from time to time.
Other than the occasional royal appearance, Prince Michael had a long military career. According to his biography on the royal family's website, he served in Germany, Hong Kong, and Cypress, and now owns a consultancy business.
Additionally, he is involved in about 100 charities and organizations, and is a qualified Russian interpreter.
His daughter, Ella, married at Windsor Castle in 2019.
Just weeks before Princess Eugenie was set to walk down the aisle, Buckingham Palace announced that Lady Gabriella Windsor was engaged to Thomas Kingston. The couple married at Windsor Castle on Saturday, May 18, 2019, just one day before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's first wedding anniversary. Sadly, Kingston passed away in 2024, at the age of 45.
"It is with the deepest sorrow that we announce the death of Thomas Kingston, our beloved husband, son and brother. Tom was an exceptional man who lit up the lives of all who knew him. His death has come as a great shock to the whole family and we ask you to respect our privacy as we mourn his passing," reads a statement shared at the time on behalf of Lady Gabriella Kingston.
Here is Prince Michael with his daughter Ella, before they walked in to St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for the ceremony.
The Kents are no strangers to controversy.
Well before a report in the Sunday Times accused Prince Michael of being willing to seek favors from Vladamir Putin, the Kents had seen their fair share of controversies. (Prince Michael has denied the claims.)
In 2018, Aatish Taseer, a former boyfriend of Prince Michael's daughter, Lady Gabriella, published an essay in Vanity Fair detailing the time he spent in London with her family. In it, Taseer writes that he and Gabriella did drugs and skinny-dipped in the Buckingham Palace pool. He also shares an unfortunate anecdote about how Princess Michael of Kent had named two black sheep Venus and Serena.
A spokesperson for Lady Gabriella's parents told the Daily Mail that "There won’t be any comment on the story," but a friend of the young Windsor cousin told the publication that the allegations were "fiction."
But Taseer's story wasn't the first allegation of Princess Michael's racism. At Christmas in 2017, she wore a racist "blackamoor" brooch to lunch at Buckingham Palace, and later apologized.
The family's controversies aren't entirely recent. In 2002 it was revealed that the Kents had been living in Kensington Palace rent-free, even though they were not carrying out official duties full-time. Queen Elizabeth then agreed to pay their rent out of her own pocket.
"The Queen is paying the rent for Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s apartment at a commercial rate of £120,000 annually, from her own private funds," Kensington Palace officials explained. "This rent payment by The Queen is in recognition of the Royal engagements and work for various charities which Prince and Princess Michael of Kent have undertaken at their own expense, and without any public funding.”
But in 2010, it was agreed that they would pay their own rent from then on.
He was one of four royals to attend both Queen Elizabeth's coronation and King Charles's coronation.
Here he is at the ceremony in 1953, and again in 2023:
The other three royals who were at both coronations include his siblings Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra, and his cousin Prince Richard.
