Audrey Emery

Audrey and Grand Duke Dmitri

Anna Audrey Emery (born January 4, 1904 in Cincinnati , Ohio , † November 25, 1971 in West Palm Beach , Florida ) was an American heiress and celebrity who was the wife of one of the last Russian grand dukes.

Career

Emery was the youngest daughter of real estate millionaire John Josiah Emery and his wife, a native Lela Alexander. She had two sisters, Alexandra and Lela, and two brothers Thomas and John Josiah Jr.

In 1926 she was morganically married to the Russian Grand Duke Dmitri , who lived in exile after the Russian Revolution . Since she was not equal , Grand Duke Kyrill , the head of the Russian tsarist family , elevated her to the rank of Princess Romanovskaya-Ilyinskaya (Ilyinsky was the name of Dmitri's original possessions in Russia). This title was considered a princely title by American social circles, and Emery was regularly referred to as a princess, who, along with Dmitri, was considered the founder of the house of the Ilyinsky in the Russian nobility in exile. Through her marriage to a member of this house, she is considered the Princess of Schleswig and Holstein-Gottorp.

In 1928 she had their only child, Prince Paul Romanowski-Ilyinsky . The marriage ended in divorce in 1937 and she moved to France with her son . In the same year she married Prince Dimitri Djordjadze , a member of a Georgian royal house, this marriage was also divorced. After their two marriages, Emery resumed her maiden name and continued on as Mrs. Audrey Emery.

In 1992, their son Paul Ilyinsky, who had become a US citizen, served in the US Navy and was elected mayor of Palm Beach three times, became the nominal head of the House of Holstein-Gottorf .

literature

• Staffan Skott: Kõik need Bernadotid , 1997, ISBN 9985-65-142-1 (Estonian)

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