Princess Olga Isabelle of Greece, Duchess of Aosta (; born 11 November 1971), is the younger daughter of author

Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark ( 7 January 1939 – 28 July 2024) was a Greek historian, author, and member of the Greek royal family. He wrote several historical books and biographies of Greek and other European figures, Montgomery-Massin ...

and

Marina Karella Marína Karélla (; born 17 July 1940) is a Greek artist and the widow of Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark. Life Marína Karélla was born in Athens on 17 July 1940 to industrialist Theódoros Karéllas and Élli Chalikiopoúlou. In 1960 ...

, an

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

and daughter of the Greek

business magnate A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

Theódoros Karéllas. Olga is married to her second cousin

Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta (''Aimone Roberto Margherita Maria Giuseppe Torino''; 9 March 1900 – 29 January 1948), was a prince of Italy's reigning House of Savoy and an officer of the Royal Italian Navy. The second son of Prince Eman ...

Early life

Princess Olga was born on 11 November 1971 in Athens, Greece. She is the younger sister of Princess Alexandra and grew up in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, spending summers at the family's island retreat at

Patmos Patmos (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the location where, according to Christian belief, John of Patmos received the vision found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written. ...

, Greece. She chose to attend

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

in England, studied history in Rome, and is a graduate of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. She also holds a degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Although Olga worked for a while in

interior decoration Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. With a keen eye for detail and a creative flair, an interior d ...

, she went to

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

to photograph and study

phalaena ''Phalaena'' is an obsolete genus of Lepidoptera used by Carl Linnaeus to house most moths. ''Phalaena'' was one of three genera used by Linnaeus to cover all Lepidoptera. ''Papilio'' included all butterflies at that time, ''Sphinx'' included al ...

. Later, as a

lepidopterist Lepidopterology ()) is a branch of entomology concerning the scientific study of moths and the two superfamilies of butterflies. Someone who studies in this field is a lepidopterist or, archaically, an aurelian. Origins Post-Renaissance, the r ...

, she helped to set up and then worked in the Liquid Jungle Lab in

in co-operation with the

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI, ) is located in Panama and is the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States. It is dedicated to understanding the past, present, and future of tropical ecosyst ...

and the

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

. She is also a journalist and filmmaker. As Princess Olga's parents' marriage is

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

, and therefore non-dynastic, she is a Greek princess by birth but not a Danish princess, used the style ''

Her Highness Highness (abbreviation HH, oral address Your Highness) is a formal style used to address (in second person) or refer to (in third person) certain members of a reigning or formerly reigning dynasty. It is typically used with a possessive adjec ...

'' instead of ''

Her Royal Highness Royal Highness is a style used to address or refer to some members of royal families, usually princes or princesses. Kings and their female consorts, as well as queens regnant, are usually styled ''Majesty''. When used as a direct form of add ...

'' (until her marriage), and is excluded from the line of succession to the former Greek throne.

Engagement, marriage and children

Olga's engagement to Prince Aimone of Savoy, son of Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta, was announced in May 2005. Aimone and Olga are second cousins; both being great-grandchildren of the French pretender Jean d'Orléans, duc de Guise. They are also second cousins once removed as

George I of Greece George I ( Greek: Γεώργιος Α΄, romanized: ''Geórgios I''; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination on 18 March 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was born in Copenhage ...

is Aimone's great-great-grandfather and Olga's great-grandfather. Olga's father,

, Aimone's late paternal grandmother, Princess Irene, Duchess of Aosta (née Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark), and

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...

(born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark), were all first cousins. The couple were married, after a three-year engagement, on 16 September 2008 at the Italian

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, the city in which Aimone was employed. Their religious marriage took place on 27 September at

, where it was expected that the Patriarchal

Exarch An exarch (; from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'') was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical. In the late Roman Empire and early Byzantine Empire, ...

of Patmos,

Archimandrite The title archimandrite (; ), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', , present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") whom a bishop appointed to supervise several "ordinary" abbots and monaste ...

Andipas Nikitaras, would preside at the Church of the Evangelismos of the Virgin Mary at Pano Kambos, with a reception following on the site of a former school. Since the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

, marriages celebrated according to the rite of the

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is heade ...

, to which the exarchate belongs, may be recognized as canonically valid. A canonical dispensation was obtained from the Catholic Archbishop of Moscow, ''

Monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

Paolo Pezzi Paolo Pezzi, Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St.Charles Borromeo, FSCB (; born 8 August 1960), also known as Pavel Pezzi, is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, currently serving as the Latin Church archbishop of the Roman Cath ...

, who was the

local Ordinary An ordinary (from Latin ''ordinarius'') is an officer of a church or civic authority who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute laws. Such officers are found in hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ...

of prince Aimone. On 7 March 2009, Princess Olga gave birth to a son named Umberto in Paris, France. On 24 May 2011 in Paris, Olga gave birth to another son, named Amedeo Michele. A day after his birth, Amedeo was granted the title ''

Duke of the Abruzzi Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ...

'' by his paternal grandfather. On 14 December 2012, Olga gave birth to a baby daughter, Isabella Vita Marina, in Paris, France.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olga of Greece, Princess 1971 births Living people Nobility from Athens Princesses of Greece Princesses in Italy House of Glücksburg (Greece) Greek people of Danish descent Princesses of Savoy Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation alumni Princeton University alumni