Meet the Hong Kong-raised Princess of Greece: Marie-Chantal Miller is the daughter of DFS billionaire Robert Miller, interned for Andy Warhol and married Prince Pavlos
Hong Kong isn’t exactly the first place we think of when it comes to royalty, but that is exactly where a European princess spent most of her formative years.
Meet Marie-Chantal Claire Miller, 53, the Crown Princess of Greece and wife of Prince Pavlos, 54.
A princess raised in Hong Kong
Marie-Chantal is the daughter of Hong Kong-based billionaire Robert Warren Miller, an entrepreneur and co-founder of DFS (Duty Free Shops), and his Ecuadorean wife Maria Clara Pesantes Becerra.
Her father is still based in Hong Kong where he’s one of the city’s, and world’s, richest men.
Marie-Chantal was born in London in 1968, but raised in Hong Kong where she attended The Peak School until the age of nine. After that, she went off to boarding school at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland.
Marie-Chantal and her sisters Alexandra and Pia spent most of their formative years in the former British colony. As they grew up, they eventually split their time between Hong Kong, Paris and New York, according to Australian women’s network 9Honey.
Married into the royal family of Greece
In 1995, Marie-Chantal became engaged to Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, son of the deposed King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. Her heart-shaped engagement ring was a cabochon-cut sapphire and diamond.
The royal wedding took place on July 1, 1995, at St Sophia’s Cathedral in London, and it was attended by many members from the European royal families. She is known as Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece, Princess of Denmark.
The couple have five children, Princess Maria-Olympia born in 1996, Prince Constantine-Alexios born in 1998, Prince Achileas-Andreas born in 2000, Prince Odysseas-Kimon born in 2004 and Prince Aristidis-Stavros born in 2008.
She’s got her own fashion brand
Marie-Chantal is the founder and creative director of Marie-Chantal, an international childrenswear brand founded in 2000.
The eponymous childrenswear company has grown over the years and now counts Victoria Beckham and Kim Kardashian among its famous clientele.
“It’s so important to adapt, think outside the box and stay ahead if you want to grow,” she told Hello! “It’s important to dress our children well. I have some wonderful memories from my childhood and so much is associated with what I was wearing. If you look good, you feel good – simple.”
She wrote a breakfast manners book
As a little girl in Hong Kong with a busy father becoming the “duty-free shopping king”, Marie-Chantal learned to enjoy breakfast together as a family.
“With my father building his career and working very hard, he insisted we all have breakfast together,” she told The Tot. “It’s so important to have healthy role models. I have very much leaned on my own parents’ parenting style. My children have been raised pretty much the same way as my sisters and I were, and with my husband’s influence as well.”
She also launched her first book, Manners Begin at Breakfast: Modern Etiquette for Families, in 2019.
She once interned for Andy Warhol
Marie-Chantal studied various artistic disciplines in Europe and New York. As a teenager, she famously interned for the legendary Andy Warhol.
“Working for Warhol was one of the best experiences I could ever have had,” she told St. Regis Magazine. “It was so much fun. It was the 1980s and the art world was booming, and he’d have me do everything: mix paint, serve lunch, run errands, go with him to openings and exhibits and hang out with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I can’t believe my parents let me, to be honest – although I did have a 10pm curfew.”
If that is not impressive enough, she even sat for the artist himself. “He said to me one day, ‘Scarlett, would you like to sit for me?’ I called myself Scarlett then – who knows why. I didn’t like Marie-Chantal. I was 16 and trying to invent myself. Maybe it was after Gone with the Wind – I can’t remember. So I sat for him. My father, thankfully, bought the works, which was a good investment.”
Her sister Alexandra also married a royal
Marie-Chantal’s younger sister Alexandra von Furstenberg also grew up between Hong Kong, Paris and New York but unlike her sisters, she was born in Hong Kong.
In an interesting coincidence, she also married a prince the exact same year as her sister. On October 28, 1995, Alexandra walked down the aisle with Prince Alexander von Furstenberg, the son of legendary fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and Prince Egon von Furstenberg. The royal lineage originates from southern Germany, modern-day Baden-Württemberg, and the star-studded wedding took place in New York City.
She’s a New Yorker now
Marie-Chantal and Prince Pavlos are still happily married and live together in an Upper East Side town house in New York with their five children and two dogs, Akila and Storm.
Although Greece’s monarchy officially ended in the 1970s, the couple kept their titles and still occasionally perform official duties.
