Emanuele Filiberto Umberto Reza Ciro René Maria di Savoia (born 22 June 1972)''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser'' XIV. "Haus Italien". C.A. Starke Verlag, 1997, pp. 33, 38–39. .Willis, Daniel, ''The Descendants of Louis XIII'', Clearfield Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1999, p. 673. . is a member of the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy (, ) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern F ...

. He is the son of Vittorio Emanuele of Savoyde Badts de Cugnac, Chantal. Coutant de Saisseval, Guy. ''Le Petit Gotha''. Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery, Paris 2002, pp. 602, 604, 622-623 (French) and only male-line grandson of Umberto II, the last

King of Italy King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by ...

. In 2024, Emanuele Filiberto became one of two claimants to the headship of the

after the death of his father. Emanuele Filiberto grew up in

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

since the Italian constitution at the time prohibited the male issue of the Savoy

kings of Italy Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

from entering or staying on Italian territory.C.E.D.R.E. ''Les Manuscrits du C.E.D.R.E.: Le Royaume d'Italie, volume I.'' Paris, 1992, pp. 89-93. French. ISSN 0993-3964. Since returning to Italy following the lifting of the ban in 2002, he has made many appearances on national television, including his participation as a contestant in '' Ballando con le stelle'' (the Italian version of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

''), and the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria, organized and broadcast by (RAI). It is the longest-running ...

. In 2003, he married French actress Clotilde Courau. In March 2025, he announced that the couple has been separated since 2021.

Early life and family

Emanuele Filiberto was born in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Switzerland, the only child of Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, a claimant to the headship of the House of Savoy, and his wife, Marina Doria, a Swiss former water ski champion.Enache, Nicolas. ''La Descendance de Marie-Therese de Habsburg''. ICC, Paris, 1996. p. 204. Through his paternal grandmother, Marie-José of Belgium, Emanuele Filiberto is a second cousin of King Philippe of Belgium and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and a third cousin to Franz, Duke of Bavaria. Through his paternal grandfather,

Umberto II of Italy Umberto II (; 15 September 190418 March 1983) was the last King of Italy. Umberto's reign lasted for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 until his formal deposition on 12 June 1946, although he had been the ''de facto'' head of state since 1944. Due to hi ...

, Filiberto is a first cousin once removed of former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria. On 10 November 2002, he accompanied his father and mother to Italy, following revocation of the provision in the Italian constitution that forbade the male Savoy descendants of kings of Italy from setting foot in the country. On the three-day trip, he accompanied his parents on a visit to the

Vatican City Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became inde ...

for a twenty-minute audience with

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

. He also appeared in a television commercial for a brand of olives, in which he said they made you "feel like a king". On 25 September 2003, he married Clotilde Courau, a French actress, in Rome. The best man was

Albert II, Prince of Monaco Albert II (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is Prince of Monaco, reigning since 2005. Born at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, Albert is the second child and only son of Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace. He attend ...

; among the 1,200 guests were Valentino Garavani – who had designed the wedding dress – and Pierre Cardin. In 2007, Filiberto formally requested that the Italian Republic pay him financial damages of 90 million euros. The claim is based on suffering moral injustice during the exile, and was filed along with his father's request for 170 million euros. The government of Italy rejected the demand and, in response, indicated that it may seek damages for historic grievances. As of 2022, Emanuele Filiberto has been leading an effort to gain ownership of the Savoyard Royal Regalia as the private property of the House of Savoy. However, he has said that he will not make a similar claim to the Italian Crown Jewels, as "they are no longer ours". The jewels are estimated to be worth $335 million and have been held by the Italian government since the abolition of the monarchy in 1946. In 2025, '' Vanity Fair'' magazine reported gossip that he was dating Mexican

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

Adriana Abascal.

Controversies

In October 2009, the Italian news agency ANSA reported that Filiberto had stated that he had abused drugs in his youth. In 2015, Emanuele Filiberto engaged in a public spat on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

with aristocratic journalist Beatrice Borromeo who broke the story of his father's confession on a video regarding the death of Dirk Hamer. Vittorio Emanuele had sued the newspaper for defamation, but in 2015 after it won the case, Borromeo tweeted ''Vincere una causa è sempre piacevole, ma contro Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia la goduria è doppia! ("Winning a case is always nice, but against Victor Emmanuel of Savoy there is double the pleasure"), and "caro @efsavoia goditi questa sentenza" ("dear @efsavoia enjoy this judgement") which provoked Emanuele Filiberto to defend his father. She had earlier confronted him on camera with a copy of a book on the murder by Hamer's sister, whose preface she had written. In 2018, following the release of polling data by the ''Istituto Piepoli'' that showed fifteen per cent of Italians favoured the formation of a royalist party and eight per cent supported him as future king, Emanuele Filiberto said he was contemplating the launch of a political party to advocate for the restoration of the monarchy in Italy.Mole24. 16 August 2018
Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia Pensa a un Partito Monarchico in Italia
Retrieved 18 July 2018. Italian

Titles, styles and honours

Emanuele Filiberto is, by strict

primogeniture Primogeniture () is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn Legitimacy (family law), legitimate child to inheritance, inherit all or most of their parent's estate (law), estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some childre ...

in the male-line, the

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

of the

, Italy's former ruling

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

. In June 2006 his distant cousin Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta, declared himself to be head of the house and rightful Duke of Savoy, maintaining that Vittorio Emanuele had forfeited his dynastic rights when he married Emanuele Filiberto's mother, Marina Ricolfi Doria, in 1971 without the legally required permission of his father and sovereign-in-exile, Umberto II.Enache, Nicolas. ''La Descendance de Marie-Therese de Habsburg''. ICC, Paris, 1996. p.213 Emanuele Filiberto and his father applied for judicial intervention to forbid Amedeo from using the title ''Duke of Savoy''. In February 2010, the court of Arezzo ruled that the Duke of Aosta and his son must pay damages totalling 50,000 euros to their cousins and cease using the surname ''Savoy'' instead of ''Savoy-Aosta''. The Duke of Aosta appealed the ruling and the dynastic dispute was still unresolved .

Succession

In June 2023, Emanuele Filiberto announced his intention to abdicate his claim to the throne in favour of his daughter, Princess Vittoria of Savoy, when he felt she was ready to succeed. On 3 February 2024, Emanuele Filiberto became one of two claimants to the headship of the

, after the death of his father, Vittorio Emanuele.

Dynastic honours

: Royal Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation *

: Royal Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus *

: Royal Order of the Crown *

: Royal Civil Order of Savoy *

: Royal Military Order of Savoy *

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious ...

: Knight of the Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion *

House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon that ruled Southern Italy and Sicily for more than a century in the 18th and 19th centuries. It descends from the Capetian dynasty in legitimate male line through Phili ...

(Franco-Neapolitan branch): Bailiff Knight Grand Cross of Justice of the

Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George The Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (; ), also historically referred to as the Imperial Constantinian Order of Saint George and the Order of the Constantinian Angelic Knights of Saint George, is a dynastic order of knighthood ...

Russian Imperial Family: Knight of the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky

Honorary title

* Kentucky Colonel

References

External links

Official website of Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Emanuele Filiberto 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century Roman Catholics Grand Officers of the Order of Saint-Charles Dancing with the Stars winners 1972 births Living people People from Geneva Princes of Piedmont Alumni of Institut Le Rosey Princes of Savoy Italian Roman Catholics Italian exiles Italian people of Swiss descent Swiss people of Italian descent