The 80th Birthday of Princess Béatrice d'Orléans

Today, Princess Béatrice d'Orléans celebrates her eightieth birthday!

Béatrice.

Born on 24 October 1941 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, Béatrice Marie Guillemine Huguette Pasquier de Franclieu was the second of the three daughters of Bruno Pasquier de Franclieu (1914-1944) and his wife Jacqueline Térisse (1918-1999), who married in 1938. Béatrice studied political science at the Sorbonne and then received a masters in marketing. She went on to carve out a career in fashion and worked for Dior.

Prince Michel d'Orléans and Béatrice Pasquier de Franclieu.
Photo (c) Getty Images / Jean Claude Deutsch.

In 1967, Béatrice Pasquier de Franclieu and Prince Michel d'Orléans married at Casablanca, Morocco. The pair had initially met in 1964. Michel was the son of the Count and Countess of Paris. Béatrice and Michel had four children: Princess Clotilde (b.1968; married Édouard Crépy), Princess Adélaïde (b.1971; married Pierre-Louis Dailly), Prince Charles-Philippe (b.1973; married Diana Álvares Pereira de Melo, Duchess of Cadaval), and Prince François (b.1982; married Theresa von Einsiedel). As the marriage was not approved by the Count of Paris, Prince Michel received the title Count d’Évreux; after the passing of his father, Michel's brother Henri recognised his marriage as dynastic. The marriage of Prince Michel and Princess Béatrice, Count and Countess d’Évreux, ended in divorce in 2012; the couple had separated in 1994.