Romania’s former King Michael will miss the funeral of his wife, Queen Anne, this week due to ill health.
Romania’s Royal House announced the news following the death of The Queen last week, who was married to Michael for 68 years.
King Michael, who is currently in hospital in Switzerland, has been advised by medics not to travel to Romania on August 13th for the funeral.
Queen Anne died at the age of 92 on August 1st in Switzerland surrounded by her family.
The King has been suffering will ill health for some time, having been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.
He is currently undergoing a complex and demanding treatment for chronic leukemia and epidermoid carcinoma and he has undergone surgery in Switzerland.
Queen Anne met her future husband in November 1947 in London. King Michael was visiting London for the wedding of the then Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten. She hadn’t planned to meet the King in an official capacity and went alone to the railstation to observe him as he boarded his train to London. She was persuaded by a cousin to also come to London and it was there that she was unexpectedly introduced to him. They were engaged 16 days after their first meeting.
It was an unfortunate timing for an engagement. King Michael was deposed by the communists on 30 December 1947 and he and Anne were not reunited until 30 January 1948. The wedding ceremony was held on 10 June 1948 in Athens, Greece. They went on to have five daughters. On 30 December 2007 King Michael designated his eldest daughter as Crown Princess as previously women could not succeed to the throne.
As Michael had been deposed it would take until 1992 for Anne to visit the country. They visited for three days but were later denied entry from 1993 until 1997.
I do not believe anyone could advise me to not being present on the funeral of my wife. Even people in terminal stage can be transported, even not royals, so between Switzerland is an hour or an hour and half on a plane, and he has enough money to provide himself a 1-class flight. Very, very strange. A wife deserved better.
You are in no position to judge because you don’t know his situation and the full reason for his non-attendance, do you? He’s 94 with a number of serious health issues, including leukemia. Nothing strange about it and it’s their family business.
His being present will not bring her back to life, she’s dead – her body is being buried.