King Charles sensationally strips Austrian Princess Marie

Aug 12, 2023

King Charles has made the rare decision to strip a prominent princess’s ex-husband of his honours.

King Charles has sensationally stripped a princess’s ex-husband of his OBE after his actions during their hostile divorce.

An official notice which was circulated this week announced that Anthony Bailey’s appointment "to be an Officer of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire" is to be "cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order".

The British PR guru was married to Austrian Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg since 2007 until their messy separation in 2016.

Her Serene Highness Marie -Therese Von Hohenberg Mrs Anthony Bailey and Mayor of Richmond Councillor Jane Boulton pic.twitter.com/7wAWZBfQUX

Princess Marie-Therese is the great-granddaughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian royal whose 1914 assassination triggered WWI.

He had been awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth in 2008 for services to inter-religious relations and charity.

She launched litigation in English courts in 2016 which ultimately ruled her ex-husband had to pay her over £2m in financial settlement through the sale of their home in England and a villa in Portugal.

His ex-wife then accused him of refusing to hand over the funds owed to her after their divorce, which Mr Bailey disputed, saying he was saddled with a multimillion-pound debt.

Mr Bailey refuses to sell the Portuguese villa and has so far given his ex-wife just half of her financial settlement.

He was found in contempt of court and handed a 12-month prison sentence in February last year, after the judge found he had falsified documents and obstructed the court repeatedly.

He currently lives in Portugal with a new fiancé and will face jail if he returns to Britain.

Mr Bailey was a PR maverick active in the early 2000s, playing an active role in Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s re-elections in 2001 and 2005.

The 53-year-old was once close with then-Prince Charles but had fallen on the wrong side of the family when he was spotted at Royal Ascot wearing a badge saying ‘Sir Anthony Bailey’.

He was awarded a knighthood in Antigua in 2014 but chose to refer to himself as a Sir in the UK, flouting convention.

He told the Daily Mail that the divorce proceedings had seen him lose “everything I’ve ever had in Britain”.

“From my home, my job and even access to my beloved son,” Mr Bailey said.

“This latest news will no doubt bring great joy to my ex-wife. It is yet another illustration of what is fundamentally wrong with the deeply flawed divorce process in Britain and why its overhaul is long overdue.”

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