by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2020
Zizi with then-Prince Carol, c1918. source: Wikipedia
Zizi Lambrino was the first wife of the future King Carol II of Romania. The couple married in 1918, but by the following year, the Romanian government had deemed the marriage unconstitutional and it was annulled. Joanna Marie Valentina “Zizi” Lambrino was born October 3, 1898, in Romania, the daughter of Colonel Constantin Lambrino and Euphrosine Alcaz. She was educated in a Catholic school in France before returning to her native Romania.
Zizi met the then-Crown Prince Carol in 1918, and the two quickly began a romance. Despite the opposition of the Royal Family, Carol insisted on pursuing Zizi and made clear his intentions to marry her. On August 18, 1918, Carol and Zizi crossed the border into Ukraine and were married in the Orthodox Cathedral of Odesa. When his father King Ferdinand found out he ordered that Carol be confined in the Bistrita Monastery for 75 days. Carol threatened to renounce his right to the throne if his marriage was not allowed to remain intact. In August 1919, when the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional and had the marriage annulled, Carol formally renounced his rights to the throne.
On August 8, 1920, in Bucharest, Zizi gave birth to the couple’s only child, a son named Mircea Gregor Carol Lambrino. As Zizi and Carol’s marriage had been legally annulled, the child was considered illegitimate and was given his mother’s surname.
Soon after the birth, Carol ended his relationship with Zizi, choosing instead to remain in line for the Romanian throne. Zizi and her son were forced to leave the country and were financially supported by the Romanian government. A villa was purchased for her in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside of Paris, and Zizi was granted an annual pension of 110,000 Francs.
Zizi with her son. photo: De la Sursa, Utilizare cinstită, https://ro.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=792858
Carol Lambrino later claimed he was entitled to some of his father’s estate, and pursued legal action. In 1955, a Portuguese court decreed that he was King Carol II’s legitimate son and he was permitted to take Hohenzollern as his surname. Two years later, a similar ruling in France allowed young Carol to claim his inheritance rights to his father’s French properties. King Mihai I of Romania, his half-brother, unsuccessfully appealed the ruling. Finally, in 1995, a Romanian court ruled that Carol was the former king’s legitimate son. King Mihai once again appealed several times, each time unsuccessfully.
Carol Lambrino. photo: By Prince Paul of Romania – Flickr: HRH Prince Carol Mircea/ ASR Printul Carol Mircea al Romaniei, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18516938
Young Carol was married three times and had two sons. His elder son Paul-Philippe Hohenzollern (born 1948) claims he is the rightful head of the Royal House.
Having lived a relatively quiet life in France for over 30 years, Zizi Lambrino died in near poverty on March 11, 1953, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just three weeks before the death of her former husband, Carol II.
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