Prince Ernst August of Hanover and his Russian fashion designer wife Ekaterina Malysheva are expecting their third child, according to German magazine Bunte.
The couple, who were married in a lavish ceremony in July 2017 and are thought to live in London together, are already parents to three-year-old Elisabeth and two-year-old August.
Two days after their civil ceremony, the pair enjoyed a glamorous, headline-grabbing church wedding, followed by two very luxurious receptions for their 600 guests: a luncheon at the historic Herrenhausen Gardens and an evening reception at Marienburg Castle.
One notable absentee was the groom’s father, also named Prince Ernst August, who did not attend the event due to a dispute with his son.
Last month, it was revealed father Prince Ernst August, head of the House of Hanover and a distant cousin of the Queen, is suing his ‘ungrateful’ son for selling the family’s run-down castle he inherited to the government for one euro.
Prince Ernst August of Hanover and his Russion fashion designer wife Ekaterina Malysheva (pictured on their wedding day) are expecting their third child, according to German magazine Bunte
Prince Ernst, whose mother was a descendant of Queen Victoria, is thought to work in banking, while Ekaterina runs her own clothing line EKAT, which she founded in 2013.
The talented creative was born in Russia but grew up in Prague. She moved to the UK at just 19 years old to study at the London College of Fashion.
Meanwhile, senior Prince Ernst August, head of the House of Hanover and a distant cousin of the Queen, accused his son of ‘going behind his back’ in court papers filed last month.
The couple (pictured centre at their civil ceremony), who were married in a lavish ceremony in July 2017, are already parents to three-year-old Elisabeth and two-year-old August
The 66-year-old – whose estranged wife Caroline, 63, is the eldest daughter of the Prince of Monaco Rainier III – transferred Marienburg castle and the neighbouring Calenburg estate to his son Ernst August in the mid-2000s.
Who is Prince Ernst August of Hanover? German-born royal has connections to the British royal family
Prince Ernst August of Hanover was born on 19 July 1983 in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, West Germany.
His father Ernst August, Prince of Hanover, married Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1999, after divorcing his mother Chantal (née Hochuli), the heiress to a Swiss chocolate fortune, in 1997.
Ernst August and Princess Caroline are currently separated.
Through his father, Hanover is a descendant of George III of the United Kingdom, William II, German Emperor, Christian IX of Denmark and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and is related to most members of present European royal families in the United Kingdom, Spain, Denmark and Norway.
He is the first in the line of succession to the former Hanoverian throne.
As a descendant of Queen Victoria, through her daughter, the Empress Frederick, Hanover is also in the line of succession to the British throne.
As the kingdom of Hanover no longer exists, the title is not legally recognised – after the establishment of the Weimar Republic in 1919, legal recognition of hereditary titles was abolished.
He has a half sister, Princess Alexandra of Hanover through his father’s second marriage and two stepbrothers and one stepsister — Andrea, Pierre and Charlotte Casiraghi — from Princess Caroline’s previous marriage.
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The Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneberg then flogged the land and in 2018 announced that Marienburg would be sold to the government for a nominal fee.
This may have been more economic than benevolent: the castle required renovations estimated at more than £23million and had been costing a fortune to keep open to 200,000 visitors each year.
The younger Ernst said it marked a ‘historic turning point’ for the family and would help preserve the Gothic palace for the public.
The Bundestag – Germany’s federal parliament – has already voted in favour of contributing £12million towards the renovations, while around 100 paintings and other artefacts from the castle have been handed to Hanover’s state museum.
These were worth a total of £2million, while a further £5million worth of treasures have been given to an art foundation.
In court papers filed in Hanover, Prince Ernst seeks to regain the properties and accuses his son of ‘gravely violating the rights, legal entitlements and interests.’
It further accuses the son of illegally appropriating some of the family’s paintings, sculptures and antique coaches from a library and a museum, The Times reported.
Prince Ernst also alleged that he has been cut off and left to live in an Austrian ‘forest lodge’ without financial help despite illness.
The younger Ernst said his father’s claims were without merit and was confident they would be dismissed.
‘All the arguments in this lawsuit have already been refuted in an out-of-court settlement,’ the duke told German newspaper Der Spiegel. ‘Against this background we are relaxed about any dispute in court.’
The Hanoverians trace their lineage to the Welfs, also known as the Guelphs, who were once one of the foremost medieval dynasties in Europe.
They ruled over large swathes of what became southern Germany and northern Italy, including Tuscany, Bavaria and Saxony.
Later, they were the electors and kings of Hanover and ruled Britain and Ireland from when George I ascended to the throne in 1714 to the start of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1837, at which point the personal union with the United Kingdom ended.
Last month, it was revealed senior Prince Ernst August, head of the House of Hanover and a distant cousin of the Queen, is suing his ‘ungrateful’ son for selling the family’s run-down castle (pictured) he inherited to the government for one euro
Ernst August, prince of Hanover (left) is suing his son – the younger Ernst August, the Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneberg – after he sold off the family’s property, art and artefacts
In 1866 they lost their last German royal title, but held on to a large portfolio of properties, with the 135-room Marienburg castle near Hanover, built in 1867, being the best-known property under their stewardship.
The castle was built between 1858 and 1867 as a birthday present by King George V of Hanover (reigned 1851–1866) to his wife, Marie of Saxe-Altenburg.
It has been likened to the famous Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria, which was built two years later in 1869, which famously served as the inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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