June Rose Bellamy, also Yadana Nat-Mei ( my, ရတနာနတ်မယ်; lit. Goddess of the Nine Jewels, 1 June 1932 – 1 December 2020) was the

First Lady of Myanmar First Lady of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar is the title held by the wife of the president or the head of the state. The first lady is also the patron of the Myanmar Women Affairs. The current first lady Khin Thet Htay (spouse of presiden ...

as the fourth wife of the 4th President of Burma

Ne Win Ne Win ( my, နေဝင်း ; 10 July 1910, or 14 or 24 May 1911 – 5 December 2002) was a Burmese politician and military commander who served as Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974, and also President of Burma ...

. She was a Burmese royal princess of Australian descent and the great-granddaughter of Prince Kanaung.

Early life and career

June Rose was born on 1 June 1932 in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

, British Burma. She was the great-granddaughter of Prince

Kanaung Mintha Kanaung Mintha ( my, ကနောင်မင်းသား; 31 January 1820 – 2 August 1866) was crown prince of Burma and son of King Tharrawaddy Min, Tharrawaddy and younger brother of King Mindon Min, Mindon of Burma. Towards the end of t ...

and granddaughter of Prince Limbin. She was the only daughter of Princess

Hteiktin Ma Lat Princess Limbin Hteiktin Ma Lat ( my, ထိပ်တင်မလတ်; 13 October 1894 – 1965), also Tin Tin Ma Lat, was a princess of Burma and one of the senior members of the Royal House of Konbaung. Biography Hteiktin Ma Lat was born o ...

Konbaung The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...

, and Herbert Bellamy, an Australian orchid collector long settled in Burma. She was educated at St Joseph's Convent School, Kalimpong, India, also educated in

, Burma. After the war, as a teenager, she wrote an essay for a competition called "The World We Want", sponsored by the New York Herald Tribune, which won a prize to visit the US along with 30 international students. She became a TV host in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and took up painting. June Rose was offered a female lead role in the war film ''

The Purple Plain ''The Purple Plain'' is a 1954 British war film directed by Robert Parrish, with Gregory Peck playing a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot serving in the Royal Air Force in the Burma campaign in the closing months of the Second World War, who is b ...

'', as the young Burmese nurse who gives a suicidal pilot (played by Gregory Peck) an interest in life, but says she pulled out during the shooting in

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. "It was so Hollywood, it was ridiculous; it was an insult to anything that had to do with Burma," she said.

Marriage

First

June Rose was first married to Mario Postiglione, a physician and Senior Malaria advisor of

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

and

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. The couple divorced in 1954, after having two sons, Michael Bellamy Postiglione and Maurice Postiglione.

Second

In 1963 June Rose met

, Burma's new military ruler, in Europe, where she was living. Ne Win suggested she come back to Burma, but she was unwilling to leave Italy. On a later visit he proposed. They married in 1976, but the marriage lasted only five months. Ne Win accused her of being a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

spy and divorced her. Hamish McDonald, "Between two worlds", ''Griffith REVIEW Edition 27: Food Chain''
/ref>

Later life and death

After she returned to Italy, June Rose taught International and Italian cooking in Florence, as well as carrying on charitable work, through Rangoon-based doctors, putting young Burmese students through medical school. She has since written cookbooks, including ''The Soul of Spice'', featured at the 2017 Turin Book Fair. June Rose died on 1 December 2020 at the age of 88.

In popular culture

*Yadana Nat-Mei is the subject of Than Win Hlaing's historic book ''Yadana Nat-Mei or once First Lady'', first published in 2015. *According to her son Michele Postiglione Bellamy, June Rose completed her memoirs before her death which is expected to be published in June 2021. *A documentary film about her life called ''Rhapsody in June'' is in the works.

References

External links

Studio June Bellamy, Oriental and Italian cuisine school
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, June Rose Konbaung dynasty Burmese people of English descent 1932 births 2020 deaths