HRH Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark (1942-2026)

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Various sources are reporting the death of HRH Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, today, January 15th, 2026.  She was 83.

According to the official announcement on the Greek Royal Family website, she died at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid.

https://www.greekroyalfamily.gr/en/press-releases/157-announcement-of-the-passing-of-hrh-princess-irene.html

Princess Irene was born on May 11, 1942 in Cape Town, South Africa, where the Greek Royal Family was in exile.   She was the  youngest of the three children born to King Paul I of Greece (1901-1964) and his wife, Princess Fredericka of Hanover (1917-1981).

Her  older siblings were   Queen Sofia of Spain (b. 1938) , who survives her, and the late exiled King, Constantine II of Greece (1940-2023).  She was unmarried.

Princess Irene was a 2x great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria through her mother's line.    Her great-grandmother, Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal, was the eldest child of the Queen.

The princess was connected to most of the European Royal Houses, including that of the United Kingdom.  

Her grandfather, King Constantine I of Greece, was the older brother of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, the father of Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later the  Duke of Edinburgh.  This made her father, King Paul I, a first cousin of the Duke.  It also made her a second cousin of the present monarch, King Charles III.

Brooke

[BREMENMURRAY]

The Daily Telegraph have an online obit

[Richard R]

Obit in the Times of 17 Jan 2026:

E X T R A C T

Princess Irene of Greece obituary: reserved royal and humanitarian

Publicity-scorning concert pianist and loyal sister to Queen Sofía of Spain and King Constantine of Greece, dies aged 83

When Princess Irene of Greece was awarded more than half a million pounds in compensation by the European Court of Human Rights for property confiscated by the Greek government from her family, she responded in a manner that surprised no one who knew her well. The money was quietly given away in its entirety to charitable causes and then forgotten about.

Born a princess of the House of Glücksburg, the same European dynasty as Prince Philip, she had long been indifferent to possessions, sceptical of entitlement and instinctively drawn to the belief that privilege carried obligations rather than rewards. In this, as in much else, she lived according to a private code that owed little to convention and nothing at all to display.

Her early years were shaped not only by war and exile but by the moral complications that haunted other European royal families of the period…

… Although born into one of Europe’s most prominent royal houses, she consistently resisted public definition… In a royal family where marriage was long regarded as an obligation as much as a personal desire, Irene chose a different path, remaining unmarried and refusing to offer a reason. She was at various times the subject of discreet dynastic speculation.

Among those occasionally mentioned as possible suitors was Prince Michel d’Orléans, Count of Évreux, a son of Henri, Count of Paris, the Orléanist claimant to the French throne, but no attachment was ever formalised. It was rumoured that she had also been singled out to become Queen of Norway.

… The youngest of three siblings, she was closest to her brother, Constantine, with whom she shared a strong bond…

… The final collapse of the Greek monarchy in 1967 sharpened the contrast between Irene’s path and her brother’s. Constantine’s life in exile became unavoidably public and contested, marked by litigation, interviews and continuing argument over legitimacy and historical judgment…

… In later years, she lived quietly, dividing her time between Spain and India, where she studied philosophy with the distinguished Indian scholar TMP Mahadevan. She remained close to her family, particularly to her sister, Queen Sofía of Spain. To her nieces and nephews, she was known as Aunt Pecu…

… Her brother, King Constantine II, had predeceased her... She is survived by Queen Sofía, by her nephew, King Felipe VI of Spain, by her second cousin King Charles, and by members of the Greek royal family, including Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece… In an age that rewarded visibility, she chose marginality; in a family accustomed to ceremony, she preferred service. It was a quiet choice, sustained over decades, and it is there that her distinction ultimately lay.

Princess Irene of Greece was born on May 11, 1942. She died following a cognitive illness on January 15, 2026, aged 83

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/princess-irene-of-greece-obituary-death-reserved-royal-humanitarian-lcz95z2x3

[BREMENMURRAY]

Pleased the Times published this timeously not weeks later as is often the case these days

[sven_me...@web.de]

What cognitive illness she suffered from?