Princess Tessy of Luxembourg has told for the first time how she broke a UN peacekeeper’s nose when he tried to sexually assault her.
The princess was working with the peacekeeping force in Kosovo when a colleague forced himself into her room and pushed her onto the bed.
Recalling the moment she broke his nose while fighting him off, the mother-of-two, said: ‘I still don’t know how I had the strength. It literally was a reflex.’
She told MailOnline: ‘It was one evening and I went into my room and someone knocked very obnoxiously on my door. I kept the door shut and shouted: ‘What is going on?’
Princess Tessy of Luxembourg (pictured) has told for the first time how she broke a UN peacekeeper’s nose when he tried to sexually assault her
The princess (pictured with her two sons) was working with the peacekeeping force in Kosovo when a colleague forced himself into her room and pushed her onto the bed
Tessy also told of her sadness at divorcing the father of her two sons, Prince Louis, third son of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (pictured on their wedding day in 2006)
Tessy was serving for the UN when she met Prince Louis, who was visiting the troops in Kosovo. It was while working for the UN that a colleague (not pictured here) tried to assault her
‘Finally, I open the door, because I knew the person, and he pushed me in on the bed. I pushed him out straight back. I broke his nose.
‘I didn’t tell anyone about it, for me it was done and dusted. But the day afterwards everybody knew about it. As I went for breakfast everyone stood up and clapped.
‘I didn’t understand why at first but then my supervisor came to me and said: “I knew I would have no problems with you. I knew you would be fine.”
‘And that was fantastic. Just to know I could defend myself in such terrible situations.
‘Nothing happened because I could defend myself, but millions of other women are taken advantage of from time to time.
‘A couple of days afterwards he got sent home for having sex with a local woman. Obviously, he had issues controlling himself.
Princess Tessy, 33, spoke in a frank and emotional interview as she opened up for the first time on her sadness at the end of her marriage to Prince Louis, third son of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
‘It is a very, very, very, very sad reality for me, obviously,’ she says. ‘No one wants to get divorced. You don’t get married to get divorced. It’s a difficult time for both of us equally. There’s not me or not him who suffers more.
‘But we try to make the best out of it. We have lunches together and dinners. We hang out and call each other every day. The kids call me every day, so I brief him on that.’
Hinting at the reason for the break-up, she added: ‘Divorce nowadays what does that mean to me? It means to me you should always follow your heart and if it doesn’t work anymore you need to accept the reality and do what is necessary to find your own happiness.
Recalling the moment she broke his nose while fighting her attacker off after he had barged his way into her room Tessy said: ‘I still don’t know how I had the strength. It literally was a reflex’
Princess Tessy married Prince Louis in 2006 but their lives took different paths – while Louis struggled to find work, Tessy’s career soared as she joined security company DS-48, juggling her job with her work as a UNAIDS global advocate for young women and her charity work
Tessy said that the couple had to tell their children the truth about their unhappy marriage to be proper roles models to the boys. She added: ‘What we wanted them to understand from our situation is that first of all it was not their fault, we made sure they understood that’
‘Having young children, it’s not OK to lie to them. What role model would we be if we pretend?
‘Every parent has a duty to raise our children with integrity and love and truth because that sets out how they will be when they are older.
‘What we wanted them to understand from our situation is that first of all it was not their fault, we made sure they understood that, because children often think it’s their fault.
‘Secondly, we made clear that they understand that love changes. Just because you get divorced, it doesn’t mean you don’t love each other anymore. It’s just different and that’s OK.’
Tessy was serving for the UN when she met Prince Louis, who was visiting the troops in Kosovo. They got married in September 2006, six months after the birth of their son, Gabriel.
Their second son Noah arrived within a year. But it was only two years later, that she was recognised as a member of the Royal family, which was granted by decree.
Now her marriage has broken down and she has been forced to battle for a financial settlement for herself and her two sons.
She has been reduced to representing herself rather than employing a top QC like her ex-husband. In fact, she studied law two years in order to become a litigant in person.
‘I know my case better than anyone else,’ she said. ‘And I guess, as a woman, I felt quite empowered to do so. It’s very complex. I felt very empowered. I learnt a lot about law. I studied law for the last two years and I loved it.
‘Obviously for sad reasons I needed to do that, but I always try to look at every situation in a positive way, a constructive way, and as such I have learnt so much.’
She is battling Prince Louis in the English courts as they settled in London after their marriage. She still lives in the martial home while he has moved to France.
She was granted a degree nisi last February, on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour, but is unable to talk about the divorce hearing, as there are reporting restrictions.
Opening up about her marriage ending and how it affected her boys, Tessy said: ‘We made clear that they understand that love changes. Just because you get divorced, it doesn’t mean you don’t love each other anymore. It’s just different and that’s OK’
The princess is battling Prince Louis in the English courts as they settled in London after their marriage. She still lives in the martial home while he has moved to France
Tessy was granted a degree nisi last February, on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour, but is unable to talk about the divorce hearing, as there are reporting restrictions
Tessy spoke about her ordeal and divorce to raise awareness of the domestic violence charity Refuge.
She is spearheading the Great Dress Giveaway initiative by littleblackdress.co.uk along with Alesha Dixon to offer 1,000 £10 dresses to vulnerable women ‘to make them feel more empowered’.
‘As a mother, it’s nice to feel beautiful in a dress – it gives oneself the feeling of being a woman, other than just being a Mum. If we can, even just for a moment, give back that feeling of being a stunning, beautiful confident woman, it will be incredible.’
Click here to apply for the Great Dress Giveaway.