The estranged British grandson of Romania’s last monarch has won the hearts of people Bucharest despite being cut out of the family following a sex scandal.
All eyes were on Nicholas Medforth-Mills, 32, as he attended a funeral for his grandfather, the Romania’s late King Michael I, on Saturday.
King Michael I, who led Romania through World War II and lost his throne to communist rule in 1947, died in Switzerland aged 96 earlier this month.
Michael’s five daughters and his Medforth-Mills, who was stripped of his title for allegedly fathering a child out of wedlock, walked behind the coffin.
Nicholas Medforth-Mills, 32, and his glamourous fiancée Alina-Maria Binder, have won hearts across Bucharest and are seen as Romania’s answer to the UK’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
All eyes were on Medforth-Mills (pictured with Princess Margaret of Hohenzollern, daughter of former Romanian King Michael I), as he attended a funeral for his grandfather, the Romania’s late King Michael I, on Saturday.
In August 2015 King Michael (left) suddenly stripped Medforth-Mills of his title and his position as third in line to the throne behind his aunt and his mother over a sex scandal
Romania is a republic and the monarch no longer has any constitutional powers, but Romanians associate their royal family with an elegance and dignity that they say their politicians lack.
The head of the royal house looks after the family’s properties and bestows honors.
Medforth-Mills is King Michael’s only grandson and would have been third in line for the Romanian throne if it still existed.
His mother was King Michael’s second daughter, Princess Elena, who wed the late Robin Medforth-Mills, who was a geography professor at Durham University.
The former English public schoolboy, who lived in Britain after the age of five, is a graduate of Royal Holloway, University of London.
But in Bucharest, he and his glamourous fiancée, Alina-Maria Binder, have become Romania’s answer to the UK’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Medforth-Mills’s good looks, down-to-earth manner and love of cycling and ecology endeared him to Romanians.
Soldiers carry the coffin of late Romanian King Michael during a funeral ceremony in Bucharest
Prince Charles, left, former Spanish royals, Queen Sofia, center, and King Juan Carlos I attend the funeral ceremony for King Michael on Saturday
Honor guard soldiers carry the coffin of the late Romanian King Michael during the funeral ceremony outside the former royal palace in Bucharest
A surge of popularity for he and Miss Binder, who plan to marry next year, has appeared to force Medforth-Mills’s relatives to welcome him back into the family.
‘Nicholas has become very popular,’ Marlene Eilers Koenig, an American historian who knew King Michael and has written about his family, told The Sunday Times. ‘But there have been signs that other members of the family resented his popularity.’
In August 2015 King Michael suddenly stripped Medforth-Mills of his title and his position as third in line to the throne behind his aunt and his mother.
Shocked Romanians speculated that a jealous relative had sought to edge him out of the succession.
It later emerged that Nicholas may have fathered a child with a Romanian woman, a situation that was said to have affected Michael badly as an echo of his own unhappy childhood.
King Michael’s father, Carol II, married three times and was forced to give up the succession to the throne over an affair while he was still married to Michael’s mother, leaving Michael to be king when he was only 5. Carol later did become king.
Medforth-Mills is King Michael’s only grandson and would have been third in line for the Romanian throne if it still existed. His mother was King Michael’s second daughter, Princess Elena, who wed the late Robin Medforth-Mills, who was a geography professor at Durham University. He’s pictured above left with Princess Elizabeth Biarnex
A surge of popularity for Medforth-Mills and Miss Binder (pictured above), who plan to marry next year, has appeared to force Medforth-Mills’s relatives to welcome him back into the family
Last month, Princess Elena accused Medforth Mills disregarding ‘the privacy, suffering and dignity’ of King Michael, who had leukemia and skin cancer at the time.
Her comments came after the royal house filed a complaint to Swiss police alleging Medforth-Mills had tried to force his way in to his grandfather’s home in Aubonne, Switzerland, and had ‘physically and verbally aggressed’ three staff members.
Medforth-Mills accused his relatives of trying to discredit him and playing ‘a dirty game.’
‘These statements gravely harm the image of what the Royal House should be, its history, its values and its dignified stance which my grandfather and his forebears tried to live by and keep,’ Medforth-Mills said in a statement on Facebook.
‘I, Nicholas, just wanted to see my grandfather and say goodbye to him in a peaceful, respectful and Christian way.’
Princess Elena said last month that Michael was refusing to see his grandson over his failure to clarify the paternity of the child, now two.
Many Romanians took to social media to defend him, saying as the ex-king’s only grandson he should have been permitted to see his dying grandfather and have the opportunity to reconcile.