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PRINCESS KATHERINE KARADJORDJEVIC

GOD GAVE ME A WONDERFUL HUSBAND

Princess Katarina Karađorđević

The wife of the Crown Prince Alexander II talks about her childhood, her parents, her children, about how she fell in love for the first time in her life with her present husband and what is the only sacrifice in that marriage.

Easter preparations at The White Palace are in progress, which means hustle. Crown Prince Alexander II and Crown Princess Katherine are going to host over 1,000 young ones from orphanages and the children challenged in their development. They are going to bring joy to those who don’t have much joy in life.

Alongside the Church dignitaries, Easter celebration will be attended by HRH Prince Philip as well as Princess Katherine’s daughter of her first marriage Alison, with her son Michael (one of her four children). For Princess Katherine that means a lot of phone calls, a lot of work with about 50 people who work at The Palace and frequent changes in the daily schedule.

- You must be very patient to wait for me so long – explained the Princess the cause of her half an hour long delay of the scheduled interview. Please excuse me and thank you.

The Princess is ready for the photo session inside and outside (regardless of the cold) and she minds only one thing: why aren’t there any flowers on the tables? “Where are my roses?”- she asks one of the maids who shrugs her shoulders. Not waiting for the answer the Princess takes upon herself to bring the flowers, criticizing along the way: “How many times have I told you that the flowers must be on the table every morning?”

- It’s not easy with the help, there is so much to do... - we note.

- We must learn discipline – replies the Princess without any excitement, quite ready to take photographs in front of the Palace, at the spot from which there is a view of Serbia. If it is necessary we can repeat it. We have lived in communist system without any responsibilities for too long.

A smile does not cost anything

Inside in the great salon it is already different. Not only because of the flowers or the presence of the Crown Prince (who had also finished important phone calls) but because of the well known broad smile of our host. The smile which is, as it is believed, one of the strongest “weapons” of Princess Katherine.

- When I was young my mother told me that two things don’t cost anything: a smile and kind word – says the Princess. – You don’t have to be rich to do those things. I love seeing happy people and contributing to their happiness. My mother also told me that when she wakes up in the morning, she looks in the mirror and smiles, for in that way she can’t complain how she didn’t get a smile the whole day. That is how I learned to smile and to believe in the power of smile.

The Princess believes that kindness and warm words can achieve much more than anger and ugly words. Some might try to explain the character of Princess Katherine in her zodiac sign (born on 13 November 1943 in Athens). She has no particular opinion on astrology:

- It’s not that I don’t believe in it, I only don’t have the time for it. I believe that we all have our destiny and if God had wanted us to know it, he would have sent us some kind of catalogue in which we could see what our life would be like. Since we don’t know that, it means that we are not supposed to know it. God knows when the right time is for us to know something, and I prefer to be in God’s hands to being a goddess. We should try to get the best of our lives. But I also believe in democracy and free world, so if people believe in horoscope, they are free to read it, if they want to see a soothsayer - let them go, but I believe that happiness comes from the inside.

Some people, the Princess believes, are running away from themselves, there are not their own friends and do not appreciate themselves enough:

- You will have what you believe in. If you appreciate yourself, others will appreciate you as well, if you like yourself, others will like you too. That is why we must teach our children to believe in themselves, to feel important in this world, each human being has a mission, not only because of oneself, but because of the ones around us. Everyone can do something, less or more, it doesn’t matter.

That is why the Princess, while she was living in London, started organizing humanitarian aid for Yugoslavia when its disintegration had started. Above all, help for the children:

- My motto is “children are helping children”. The children who have more, who live happier lives, should help those children who don’t. When they grow up, such way of thinking will seem normal to them. That happened to me, too. My parents are great philanthropists. All the time when I was growing up in Athens I knew there where people who weren’t so lucky as we were. My father’s business went well and we had a comfortable life. My mother was a very generous person and she tried to help at least one person every day.

The Princess’s father, Robert Batis, is a very dynamic man, who is 87 today.

He is very bright and analytical. A great philosopher. But my mother is even a greater philosopher. She is very kind, humble, and grateful to God. I remember I called her from London one day, while she was living in New York. I had a bad day and I started complaining. She interrupted me and asked if I had said my prayers that day. My prayers? Today ? – I replied and said I didn’t. “Then say your prayers, call me again and say what you have to say”. She is very strong person and I used to listen to her a lot. She had so much to teach me. When I called her again, I had already forgotten my bad mood.

Cards on the table

Everyday prayers are usual for Princess Katherine.

- Because I believe God gave me a wonderful husband, wonderful children and wonderful country, as well as the possibility to show my devotion – adds the Princess. We asked her what her mother Ana does, and she replied:

- My mother’s job was to be a good mother, she believed she could use her time in the best possible way by staying at home with her children. She gave a lot of love and courage to me and my sister. My elder sister went to an English boarding school when she was ten, because my father believed that international education is a good thing. However, my mother did not want to send me to the world so early, so I went to a secondary school in Switzerland when I was fifteen. My sister who is three years older had already transferred to Switzerland, so that we lived together.

Katherine’s father’s business went well, so he established a foundation in cooperation with the Greek King for the widows who had daughters, providing them with saving accounts, so that they could have dowry when the time for their marriage came, which is very important in Greece.

- He also founded a football team made up of factory workers and they did well – says the Princess. – I often went to watch their matches when I was young. I think my dad wanted to have a son, since he already had a girl. I think he gave me a brain that can work both as male and female. I can connect and understand what I see, I’m very realistic and honest, which are all the qualities I share with my husband. Our motto is “cards on the table”. We don’t play games with people. Promises, especially in this country must be fulfilled. There have been enough false promises from all sides, particularly from the international community. Our people deserve to know where they are, to know they are in Europe and deserve to be treated in that way. Our people are too tolerant, they don’t know how to complain, and that can be dangerous.

It is dangerous because many people abroad do not believe the situation here is difficult because people don’t complain. That is why Princess Katherine is always ready to persuade and ask favors from the people who can help. She writes letters to them herself and sends them by fax or e-mail. She does not get excited when she feels that someone is trying to ignore her appeal:

- I give them options to do something good, to feel better themselves, and it’s up to their conscience to decide. I hope my friends will not let me down. I have no illusions, but I always have positive thoughts first. I thank everybody for their help even before it arrives.

The greatest part of the aid that Princess Katherine rallies comes from the country where she was born. Her parents are still living in Athens:

- They are unfortunately divorced, but they remained friends and they are often together. I had already married when they divorced and I said that what happened was between them and they would always be my father and mother. I did not let them make me sad or stop seeing each other. We still have lunches together, have fun together, and at night if I’m staying at my mother’s, dad goes to his place. That is the only difference. I think it should be like that, this is a modern world.

Our Princess’s sister also lives in Athens with her husband, her five children and four grandchildren.

- It might be odd, but our family house in Athens is right behind the Royal Palace – Princess Katherine remembers her childhood. – It was a neighborhood with a lot of nice houses and yards where important people of various professions used to live. We had a lot of friends.

The Princess points out how she volunteered at the institutes for abandoned children and orphans when she was a teenager and was coming back home from Switzerland for holydays:

- I used to take care of them, make them laugh and then my mother told me to stop, for I had brought one child home and wanted to adopt him. My mother said that was enough and that I had gone too far. I attached myself too much and I had to leave that job.

Various people were friends of young Katherine at that time.

One of them was the daughter of the doorman in the building where we used to live, a very nice person and not at all a snob. At the same time the daughter of Aristotle Onasis’s sister used to live nearby and we were good friends. When I went to school in Switzerland, I was sad to depart with them, for we were very loyal to each other. We used to spend summers together, do the things that the young do... I used to ride a bicycle with no hands, dance rock and roll, watch movies in the open air theatres, have fun...We didn’t go far from Athens, for my father is a workaholic, he likes to work hard, and my mom did not want to be away from him for a long time, so we spent our summer in the mountains near Glifada. When we wanted to have a swim, we used to go down to Glifada, Kavuri, Vuliagmeni and, not so often, to the islands.

Arranged marriage

At school, admits the Princess, she wasn’t particularly good, because she didn’t like to learn. Practical things were closer to her. While in the most of the subjects she was average, she was much better at maths and psychology, as well as anything that is done by hands, like Gobelins. She also liked PE.

She knew about Yugoslavia a lot, unlike students from Western Europe.

That was our neighboring country which had a lot of similarities with Greece. And a lot of Yugoslav people used to come during the summer, especially to Thessalonica Region. I felt we were closer to them than to the Romanians or the Bulgarians. I didn’t know much about politics then, I’m talking about people. I was never interested in political leaders, because politics is a king of an arena in which there are those who take care of their people and those who put themselves above everybody. Such is the world.

Great political changes that happened at that time in Greece were in Katherine’s opinion unhealthy.

I did not feel it personally, for I have already lived abroad, but I know that my parents were uncomfortable, explains Katherine. – Political instability reflected badly on the business used to talk about it a lot. I was sad because the things did not go well for Monarchy, although at that time I was living far away from Greece. People loved the King and his family, they loved the tradition.

After school she got married immediately, to avoid arranged marriage which was a common thing in Greece at that time:

I arranged my marriage myself, not to the best as it turned out, but I did it on my own. He was a very nice man, an American. I have no regrets that the marriage had failed, for I believe there are bridges in our lives that we must cross. One such bridge led me to my husband and gave me my children.

When love was over in that marriage (that lasted for 20 years), they decided to go their own ways, in a friendly way. Is the Princess in touch with her ex husband?

Of course, we are civilized, we have children. He is still living in America.

Unlike Katherine’s children from that marriage.

David has just moved to Greece and for the last 6 months he has been living there. He works as a banker. Alison is into communications and computers, she has four children. My grandchildren are 16, 15, 13 and 10. Alison is a very honest and kind person. Unfortunately she has divorced recently. I am sad for it, but that is a part of her life. She might live in Greece too, with my parents who are already very old. My father is 87 and my mother ... I am not sure, she never wanted to tell us, but I think she is 82 or 83. It will do them good to have somebody from the family by their side.

Alison has left her job in New York.

She is so successful that she can run her business from anywhere. She has a brilliant mind. Her patent in the field of telecommunications, which is used to prevent unwanted phone calls, sells excellent in America.

In love for the first time

When she became a mother herself, Katherine was at University: she used to change her baby’s diapers and take exams. She realized then what responsibility meant and how her mother must have felt:

I managed to do everything for I did not underestimate my capabilities and I knew what my priorities were, which is very important. My priorities are my husband, my parents, my children. I might put my parents in the first place... and then my husband, my children and my country.

Katherine met Prince Alexander a month after she had divorced. He was divorced too, with young children. They were sitting next to each other at a private dinner in Washington. A year later, on 21 September 1985 they got married in London. What did she like most about the Prince?

The fact that he is a very modest, realistic, intelligent, honest, emotional and at the same time with both feet on the ground. That was the first time in my life that I truly fell in love. I knew it from the very beginning. He got hold of my mind and my heart and I couldn’t think of anything except to be with him. That is how I knew it was love. My children worried about me very much, they knew I was vulnerable. Alison explained to me how it feels to be in love and I realized I was not sick, but in love. I didn’t need an aspirin.

With her new husband Katherine got 3 more children: Peter, Philip and Alexander, who were practically just babies. Did she get afraid of such great commitments?

No, for I believe in God and that God would not give us something we couldn’t cope with. I have always loved children and I believe I was blessed to have three more sons. I knew there would be no happiness in our marriage if the boys did not stay with us, they were his life. The biggest sacrifice on my side is the fact I didn’t have children with Alexander. That was my choice, for I wanted the boys to feel at home and not to have a sense of competing with anybody. The first wife of my husband later had two daughters, and when the boys go there on holiday, they get along fine, but they are the guests. When they return, they are at home. I had raised two children and I knew I could raise three more. Peter was a little older, and the twins were still in diapers. It was a huge responsibility, but I am a responsible person and I have no regrets, for they are great children. Six months later they started calling my “Mom”. At first I was uncomfortable, because I believed that wasn’t proper, but then it all fell into place.

Katherine and Alexander are on good terms with the first wife of the Crown Prince, Prince Maria da Gloria of Orleans and Braganza and her new family. It has always been like that. Three boys have realized the situation in which they have two mothers very quickly.

All the time Princess Katherine was into humanitarian work. It is amazing that among all her activities was sending cows to India! She explains:

Children got sick and died because of polluted water and in that way they had a chance to drink milk!

I love animals – adds the Princess. – We are going to try to bring two elephants to the Belgrade zoo, most likely from Thailand. We are also planning to bring tigers and medical equipment to the zoo. Animals are God’s creatures too.

There used to be animals, watch dogs at the park of the White Palace too, but ...

The used to bite, they were too destructive and we could not keep them because many people are coming here. The Palace is national treasure and heritage. My husband is very proud of that fact.

No time for going out

Before the fall of communism neither the Prince nor the Princess even though about this Palace becoming their home one day.

No, for Alexander is realistic and he believed that his children might see that one day, but not himself. When the wars had started, we joined organizing aid for our people because we wanted to come and look them in the eyes feeling no shame or guilt, but with our heads high, with integrity and confidence in what we were doing. My husband is famous in the world, he can call anyone on the phone, everybody appreciates him because he is a person with integrity. When he was celebrating his fiftieth birthday in London, more than 400 of world leaders and members of Royal families came to see him and greet him. He could not believe they all came because of him. The Queen of England was wonderful to him. The Swedish and the Spanish King were there and also the Norwegian, everybody. We have support from all Royal families. The assistant to Prince Charles has been our guest recently.

The Princess is quite certain that the time of communism has gone forever and she has much confidence in the new young government that is expected to bring back democracy and the life that people deserve to have.

I have never had illusions that everything could be solved overnight, for no one can predict what is going to happen, a new war or the terrorist assault of 11th September – says the Princess. – We all live on the same planet and what happens on one side influences everybody else. It influences us perhaps even more because of everything that we had gone through. Our problem is that we are not organized well, we don’t have marketing and strategy... how many documentaries depicting our tragedy have you seen broadcasted in the world? None! So how can anybody help us if they don’t know about our problems? We must all help our politicians and institutions. That is the reason why we organize the meetings of NGOs once a months at the Palace in which we discuss various issues, from refugees to environment protection. We talk about everything, and the ways how to solve problems. We must all work together.

Princess Katherine cooperates most with hospitals, always delivering new equipment to them. She is not satisfied with the conditions in our health care system yet, but nothing will stop her from continuing her mission. She has no time to go out to the cinema or theatre, for as she says, she is “preoccupied by helping our people”. She definitely thinks of Belgrade and Serbia as her home and her place of work.

A familiar face – of Crown Prince Alexander – emerges behind the door of the next salon.

You two must be writing a book? - he asks smiling.

Of course it was the time to bring to an end our two hours long conversation with Princess Katherine. Seeing us off to the Palace door, she asked one thing only from us: to publish the internet addresses of Serbian Royal House and her Foundation through which people can inquire and learn about all the activities organized by them, particularly humanitarian ones. Therefore we conclude this text in a somewhat unusual way: www.royalfamily.org and www.pkfond.org .

Text by Srdjan Jokanovic

Photos by Vladimir Markovic