Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark has died at the age of 83.
Princess Irene passed away peacefully at her home in Madrid with her sister, Queen Sofia of Spain, at her side.
The princess had been ill for some time and her condition had deteriorated in the past few weeks.
Her death was announced by her nephew, King Felipe VI of Spain, in a brief statement.
It said ”Their Majesties the King and Queen and Her Majesty Queen Sofia are saddened to announce the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Irene of Greece at 11.40 this morning at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid.”
Queen Sofia and her sister had lived together at the palace for several years and Spain had been Irene’s home since the 1980s.
She was close to all her family and was often seen with her nephew and nieces as well as their children. Sofia’s younger daughter, Infanta Cristina, named her only daughter Irene in honour of her aunt.
Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark was born on May 11 1942 in Cape Town in South Africa where her parents were living after being forced to flee Greece with other members of the royal family after the Nazi invasion.
She was the youngest child of Paul and Federica who became King and Queen of the Hellenes in 1947. Irene spent much of her childhood in Greece and also attended school in Germany.
Irene grew up alongside her older sister, Sofie, and their brother, Constantine, who had become Crown Prince of Greece on their father’s accession to the throne.
King Paul would prove a popular monarch although Greece was going through political difficulties for much of his time on the throne.
In 1962, Irene was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her sister to Juan Carlos of Spain and the newly renamed Sofia relied on her sibling for support as she had her own family. Constantine married Anne-Marie of Denmark in 1964, soon after his own succession to the Greek throne. Irene didn’t marry – she was briefly linked to Prince Michael of Orleans in the 1960s.
Following the death of King Paul, Princess Irene also became a great support to her mother, Queen Frederica, and the two lived for a while in India.
Queen Frederica’s death, in 1981, was followed by a move to Madrid for Irene and she lived for most of the following 45 years at the Zarzuela Palace, the family home of the Spanish royals.
She was very close to her sister, Sofia, who doted on her and the two were often seen together, especially during the Spanish royal holidays on the island of Mallorca.
In recent years, Irene had suffered cognitive issues and her health had begun to fail. She was last seen at a public event in 2025 when she attended the wedding of her nephew, Prince Nikolaos of Greece, to Chrysi Vardinogianni.
Even though she had given up her Greek citizenship, having spent just a few decades of her life in the country, it was perhaps a fitting final appearance for a Princess of Greece who found her life dominated by change, exile and turmoil.
