Princess Michael of Kent Laments Royal Finances
Princess Michael (right) with son Lord Freddie and daughter Ella.
What is it like to be Royal and have every facet of your life examined by the media? Prince and Princess Michael of Kent must know the feeling well.
Yesterday, the UK Sunday Times ran an article on the level of debt charged against their country home, Nether Lypiatt, which has been on the market for nearly a year. It seems that Land Registry documents reveal the couple remortgaged the house in Bisley, Gloucestershire, a few months before putting it on sale for £6m in May last year.
In February the couple were forced to drop their asking price by £500,000 to £5.5m after failing to attract a buyer. The mortgage, says the paper, taken out with Coutts in September 2004, is clocking up interest charges of at least £100,000 a year, even if it is at a highly competitive rate of 5%.
“The couple decided to sell Nether Lypiatt — which they bought in February 1981 for £259,745 — after the Queen told them she would not pay the reported £125,000-a-year rent on their London apartment at Kensington Palace beyond 2009.”
In an interview last year Princess Michael spoke of her distress following parliamentary criticism. Labour MPs described the couple as “squatters†after it emerged that the Queen was allowing them to live in the apartment for a peppercorn rent.
Princess Michael said: “Having been given the Kensington Palace apartment for life, I assumed we would live the rest of our days there and I thought we would sell [Nether Lypiatt] and that would be our income. The shock is that we’ve lost our old-age pension because we can’t do that any more.â€
To top all that, they can’t sell the house either. As we reported earlier, various celebrities have turned it down because of the lack of privacy. Estate agents have advised them to drop the price to £4.5m, matching an offer made by artist Damien Hirst which was rejected. But that would only leave £2 million for the pension pot — chicken-feed for a family of Royals.
The betting, though, must be that a lower asking price will eventually be inevitable.
Perhaps if the Kents stopped trying to live up to the major royals instead of within their own means as minor royals they would not be in such dire straights. Princess Michael from day one tried pushing to get on the civil list and seems quite demanding. Try living in the real world and your life will be much easier.
By Trudie on April 3rd, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Yes, Trudie, people do find it hard to feel sorry for her. Their daughter seems to be the most sensible one.
By John on April 4th, 2006 at 7:20 am