Princess Tania Sophie of Bourbon-Parma (born 13 November 1961) is a French designer, businesswoman, and member of the

House of Bourbon-Parma The House of Bourbon-Parma ( it, Casa di Borbone di Parma) is a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family, whose members once ruled as King of Etruria and as Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Guastalla, and Lucca. The House descended from the Fren ...

. She designs luxury goods, jewelry, and tableware. She has worked as a partner with the French luxury company

S. T. Dupont S.T. Dupont is a French manufacturing company based in Paris, which has been making luxury goods since its founding in 1872. Products commercialised include handbags, lighters, collectible pens, perfumes (produced under license by ''Interparfums ...

and served as an advisor to Stephen Hung for his company The 13 Holdings Limited. One of her designs, the Louis XIII Fleur de Parme, was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most expensive

lighter A lighter is a portable device which creates a flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of items, such as cigarettes, gas lighter, fireworks, candles or campfires. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable liquid or ...

. Princess Tania is the founder and chairwoman of L’Art Autrement Dit, an organization that promotes French art to international buyers.

Early life and family

Tania was born on 13 November 1961 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

to Prince André of Bourbon-Parma and Marina Gacry. Her father, the son of

Prince René of Bourbon-Parma Prince René of Bourbon-Parma (17 October 1894 – 30 July 1962) was the seventh surviving son of Robert I, Duke of Parma, and his second wife, Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal. In 1921, he married Princess Margaret of Denmark. They had four chil ...

and

Princess Margaret of Denmark Princess Margaret of Denmark (Margrethe Françoise Louise Marie Helene; 17 September 1895 – 18 September 1992) was a Danish princess by birth and a princess of Bourbon-Parma as the wife of Prince René of Bourbon-Parma. She was the youngest g ...

, was a younger brother of

Queen Anne of Romania Princess Anne Antoinette Françoise Charlotte Zita Marguerite of Bourbon-Parma (18 September 1923 – 1 August 2016) was the wife of King Michael I of Romania. Michael abdicated the throne in 1947, and he and Anne married the next year. Nonethe ...

. A member of the

, she is a distant relative of the Spanish royal family and a descendant of the Capetian dynasty. She is a great-granddaughter of

Robert I, Duke of Parma Robert I (Italian: ''Roberto Carlo Luigi Maria''; 9 July 1848 – 16 November 1907) was the last sovereign Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1854 until 1859, when the duchy was annexed to Sardinia-Piedmont during the ''Risorgimento''. He was a m ...

and a grandniece of

Zita of Bourbon-Parma Zita of Bourbon-Parma (''Zita Maria delle Grazie Adelgonda Micaela Raffaela Gabriella Giuseppina Antonia Luisa Agnese''; 9 May 1892 – 14 March 1989) was the wife of Charles, the last monarch of Austria-Hungary. As such, she was the last Empres ...

, the last Austrian empress. When she was a child, her parents moved into her grandmother's house. Her grandmother, Princess Margaret, was a granddaughter of

Christian IX of Denmark Christian IX (8 April 181829 January 1906) was King of Denmark from 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. A younger son of Frederick William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein- ...

. Her grandmother taught her etiquette, royal protocol, and family history, particularly the family connections to the House of Bourbon. She studied graphic design, art, and interior decorating at the Penninghen School of Arts in Paris.

Career

Princess Tania works as a jewelry, tableware, and fashion accessories designer. Stephen Hung appointed Princess Tania as a special adviser for his hotel project in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...

. The real estate project was created through Louis XIII Holdings, later renamed The 13 Holdings Limited. Since 2008 she has served as the chairwoman of L’Art Autrement Dit, an organization she founded that promotes French art to foreign buyers. She has partnered with

, a French luxury brands company, to create luxury accessories. One of her designs from this partnership was the world's most expensive

, the Louis XIII Fleur de Parme, which was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. In May 2010 she hired the law firm Jones Day to provide legal assistance in a pre-litigation matter concerning another member of her family using a similar trademark and the family name for their business.

Personal life

Princess Tania married Gilbert Jacques Marcel Bécaud, the son of

Gilbert Bécaud Gilbert Bécaud (, 24 October 1927 – 18 December 2001) was a French singer, composer, pianist and actor, known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances. His best-known hits are " Nathalie" and "Et maintenant", a 1961 release ...

, in 1988. They had a civil ceremony on 8 July in La Bussière, Vienne and a Catholic ceremony on 9 August in Le Buisson, Lozère. They have three children, Marguerite, Helena, and Dagmar. The couple divorced in 2007. Later that year she married a second time, to Louis-Arnaud L'Herbier. On 2 June 2017 Princess Tania attended a charity ball to raise money for children with visual impairments. In 2019 she attended the Rallye des Grâces, a women's empowerment event in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tania de Bourbon Parme Businesspeople from Paris Guinness World Records French designers French people of Danish descent French people of Italian descent 21st-century French businesswomen Princesses of Bourbon-Parma Living people 1961 births