Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Princess Lavinia of Yugoslavia

From my book, Queen Victoria's Descendants:

"Following his divorce from Princess Christina, Prince Andrej married Princess Kira of Leiningen, the third child of the 6th Prince of Leiningen and Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, and yet another descendant of Queen Victoria.
Kira and Andrej were married in September 1963, but the announcement of their marriage was not made until after the birth of their first son, Karl Wladimir, the following March. A second son, Prince Dimitri, was born a year later. A few months after Dimitri's birth, Prince Andrej and Princess Kira adopted a four-year-old girl, Lavinia Maria, who was, in fact, Kira and Andrej's natural daughter, born in 1961 when Andrej was still married to Princess Christina. The adoption was a formality to give the little girl a new surname. Crown Prince Alexander, as Head of the Family, has recognized Lavinia as a Princess of Yugoslavia.
"
and from one of the footnotes:
Lavinia Maria Lane was born at 12 Avenue Road, St. John's Wood, London. No father's name appears on her original birth certificate; her mother's name is given as Kira Lane. She is the natural daughter of Princess Kira of Leiningen and Prince Andrej of Yugoslavia and acknowledged as Prince Andrej's daughter. After the couple's marriage, Lavinia was adopted by her natural parents to avoid a scandal within the family. The adoption became official on November 15, 1965. Kira Karageorgevich, late Lane, formerly Leiningen is the name listed on Prince Dimitri's birth certificate. Both Dimitri and Lavinia were born at l2 Avenue Road, while Prince Karl Wladimir was born at the Royal Northern Hospital, Islington. HRH Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, as Head of the Family, has confirmed that Lavinia Marie (the middle name was changed from Maria to Marie in the adoption because of a misprint on the original certificate) is entitled to the style and title of HRH Princess of Yugoslavia.

Thus, Lavinia is recognized as a member of the Serbian royal family as HRH Princess Lavinia.

4 comments:

Bea said...

Marlene, I know you have much better knowledge of this than me but I have read that she is the daughter of a relationship Kira had with a doctor. Her son Karl Wladimir said his mother worked as a nurse so I assumed that this was right. I only have seen a very small picture of her online and didn't see a resemblance. Did someone in the family confirm her actual heritage? Bea

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

Bea

Lavinia is Andrej's daughter. Yes, Prncess Kira confirmed to me (as did Lavinia) about Andrej being the father. He was having an affair with Kira at the time he was charging his first wife with adultry.
Kira did work as a nurse, but being a nurse does not mean you sleep with the doctors. I was the first to clarify Lavinia's situation as I obtained her original birth certificate, plus extensive correspondence with the family, including Kira.

Bea said...

Thank you for clarifying, there are many inaccuracies on these subjects. I do think it is funny as you pointed out Andrej accused his first wife of adultery.

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