Saturday, July 6, 2019

Seventy-Fifth Birthday of Crown Prince Nikola of Montenegro

Prince Mihailo and Princess Geneviève of Montenegro
On 7 July 1944, Prince Nicholas (Nikola) Michael Francis of Montenegro was born at Saint-Nicolas-du-Pelem, as the only child of Prince Michael (Mihailo) of Montenegro and his wife Geneviève. Prince Mihailo (1908-1986) and Geneviève Prigent (1919-1990) had married at Paris on 27 January 1941. The pair were interned in Germany from 1941 until 1943 by the Nazis; when they were released, they returned to France, where their son was born. In 1947, Mihailo, Geneviève, and Nikola moved to Yugoslavia as Mihailo had accepted a position in Tito's Foreign Ministry - a position he left  in 1948. The family then returned to Paris, where Mihailo and Geneviève's marriage ended. 
Crown Prince Nikola of Montenegro
Upon the couple's divorce in 1949, their son Nikola was raised by his mother and rarely saw his father. Geneviève worked as an orthoptist and raised Nikola as a single mother at Trebeurden. In 1964, Nikola became a student at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris; in 1971, he obtained a diploma in Architecture and admitted to the Société Française des Architectes.
Crown Princess Francine of Montenegro
Crown Prince Nikola and Crown Princess Francine of Montenegro
Nikola and Francine of Montenegro with their children Altinaï and Boris
On 27 November 1976, Prince Nikola of Montenegro married Francine Navarro (b.Casablanca 27 January 1950), daughter of Antoine Navarro (1922-1989) and Rachel Wazana (1930-2011). Francine studied law and later worked for many decades as a designer at the fashion house that she co-founded, Petrovitch & Robinson. Nikola forged his career as an architect. Nikola and Francine have two children: Princess Altinaï (b.1977; married to Anton Martynov) and Prince Boris (b.1980; married to Véronique Haillot Canas da Silva). Crown Princess Francine passed away in 2008, aged fifty-eight.
Hereditary Prince Boris and Hereditary Princess Véronique of Montenegro with eldest daughter Princess Milena
Crown Prince Nikola of Montenegro with his daughter Princess Altinaï
The family returned to Montenegro in 1989 for the reburial of Nikola's great-grandfather and great-grandmother, King Nikola I and Queen Milena of Montenegro. In 2011, Crown Prince Nikola and his family were granted special status by the Montenegrin government; the legislation that was approved by the nation's parliament provides the family with an annual allowance as well as a residence in the country. Crown Prince Nikola now divides his time between Montenegro and France. 
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