Former Queen of Romania dies in Swiss hospital

Queen Anne of Romania with her husband King Michael signing autographs on books during celebrations of their 60th wedding anniversary in Bucharest in 2008 Keystone

Anne of Romania, the wife of Romania’s last monarch, King Michael, has died in a hospital in western Switzerland. She was 92 and had lived with her husband near Lake Geneva since 2004.

The royal house said her body would be flown from Switzerland to Romania on Thursday and lie in state for two days ahead of the funeral in the central Romanian city of Curtea de Arges.

Correspondents say she will have the most lavish royal funeral in Romania since the death in 1938 of Queen Marie.

Born Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, she was half French and half Danish. She was known for her wit and devotion to her husband, but avoided the spotlight.

She met Michael, 94, in November 1947 when they had both come for the wedding of the future Queen Elizabeth II and Philip Mountbatten in London.

In a 2013 documentary with Romanian public broadcaster TVR, Anne said she was formally introduced to Michael, who was in uniform, at a reception at Claridge’s Hotel in London and she responded by clicking her heels and standing to attention. She said he proposed to her soon afterwards, while driving.

Exile

The family had lived in the town of Aubonne on Lake Geneva since 2004.

Former King Michael was forced to abdicate by the Communist rulers in 1947 and moved into exile in Britain. After the end of Communism, Anne visited Romania in 1992.

When she was young, she studied painting in New York and later volunteered for the French army during the Second World War.

Anne is survived by Michael and their five daughters.