Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece – Olympia to her friends – is recalling one of her favourite childhood memories of hanging out with her godfather: ‘[I remember] having bacon and scrambled eggs with him before he took me to see Shrek The Musical at the theatre. I think I was 11.’
So far, so normal. Except the godfather in question is King Charles and the scrambled eggs were served at Highgrove House, where she still takes tea with him from time to time. ‘We talk about his rewilding, which I admire –but honestly, I don’t know how to garden,’ she tells me over Zoom from the New York apartment she shares with two of her younger brothers. ‘We don’t speak all the time, of course. But I used to see him a lot when I was younger, which was more special.’
Aged 29, Olympia is the eldest of five and the only daughter of Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, and his wife, Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece. Although she was born on Corfu, Olympia has spent most of her life in London where the family migrated after her grandfather King Constantine II (a relation of the late Prince Philip, also born on Corfu) lost the crown following the abolition of the Greek monarchy in 1973. While they have now regained citizenship, Olympia’s family has no legal status or claim to the throne in the Hellenic Republic.
Olympia wears jewellery by Tiffany*.
‘I have no royal duties, and we only just got our Greek passports this year!’ she says. ‘The family joke is that my dog, Eccho, got a passport before the rest of us.’
Despite the royal title, Olympia doesn’t spend each day dripping in diamonds. ‘I’ve borrowed couture jewellery for events. It’s a novelty to have bodyguards follow you about for an evening. But I don’t walk around in one of the Greek family tiaras,’ she says.
Her Instagram account, which has 308K followers, is a glossy showreel of modelling for Dolce & Gabbana, Bulgari and Louis Vuitton, plus behind-the-scenes shots of her job as contributing editor at online luxury fashion retailer Moda Operandi, yachting around the Greek islands and glamorous fashion parties.
A recent highlight was the 30th birthday of Electra Niarchos (one of Greece’s renowned Niarchos family), which was held in Scotland. ‘That’s one of the best parties I have ever been to. We all dressed in the theme of “tartan punk”, and we only sat down for 45 minutes to eat family style, instead of three boring courses, before everyone was up dancing,’ she says.
Olympia with her godfather King Charles at her 1996 christening
Had she been born a few decades earlier, this socialite would have fitted nicely among the stars and politicians who frequented the Bunny Mellon mansion, the setting for a new Tiffany ad campaign starring Olympia. Rachel Lambert, better known as ‘Bunny’ Mellon, was an American socialite, philanthropist and horticulturist who lived on the 4,000-acre Oak Spring farm estate in Virginia’s horse country until March 2014, when she died aged 103. She also happened to be an avid jewellery collector; she left 142 Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co treasures to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
‘When Bunny passed away, the housekeeper found some of her necklaces secretly stowed away in the walls for safekeeping. Can you imagine hiding your diamonds in the foundations of your house? It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard,’ says Olympia.
Bunny lived a long, wealthy life – famously, she designed the White House Rose Garden. Her grandfather, Jordan W Lambert, was a chemist who co-founded the company that made Listerine, while her father Gerald’s business was sold in 2000 to Pfizer for $90 billion.
Truman Capote, Lee Radziwill and Rachel ‘Bunny’ Mellon, New York, 1965
Bunny was also a close friend and confidante of the novelist Truman Capote and featured in his inner circle of ‘Swans’ – glamorous socialites he famously wrote about in a scandalous, thinly veiled short story La Côte Basque, 1965, which was published in Esquire magazine in 1975. Other Swans included the Italian noblewoman Marella Agnelli, the magazine editor Babe Paley, and the interior designer Lee Radziwill, the younger sister of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Much like Olympia’s social-media feed, their lives were also a parade of fashion, wealth and social events.
Olympia’s love of glamour comes from her fashion-forward mother, Marie-Chantal. ‘Five years ago, I found out she had been hoarding all her archival pieces in the attic of our house in Gloucestershire,’ she says. ‘For my whole childhood, I slept underneath a designer wardrobe of Valentino dresses and black-tie gowns! Now I borrow them for events.’
As for her family crown jewels? ‘I don’t know. Maybe you’ll eventually find them in my walls,’ she says.
*Bird on a Rock by Tiffany Earrings, £8,750, Pendant, £18,400, and Ring, £32,200, tiffany.co.uk.
