A surprising story about a senior member of the British Royal Family has resurfaced. An author with past ties to the royals shared a wild claim. He says one princess named her pet sheep after famous tennis stars.
Aatish Taseer, 44, dated Lady Gabriella de Windsor for three years in the early 2000s. Lady Gabriella’s mother is Princess Michael of Kent. Taseer recently spoke about his past revelation that Princess Michael kept two black pet sheep. She reportedly named them Venus and Serena, after tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams.
"The Venus and Serena story shows a strange lack of awareness," Taseer said on the "Tell Me About Your Father" podcast on July 14. He added that the royals sometimes don’t see how shocking or offensive their actions can be. Taseer first shared this detail about Princess Michael, now 80, in a May 2018 Vanity Fair article. That piece was titled "Palace & Prejudice."
Princess Michael of Kent is married to Prince Michael of Kent, 83. He is the son of Prince George, Duke of Kent. His grandfather was King George V. News outlets have reportedly reached out to Princess Michael’s representatives and Buckingham Palace for comment.
Despite this accusation against his ex-girlfriend’s mother, Taseer shared that they once had a special bond. "Princess Michael, I was very comfortable with her," he stated on the podcast. "I saw her occasionally after Ella and I broke up." He recalled her attending his first book launch. He also used to visit her in England.
However, things shifted after Taseer married his husband, Ryan Davis, in August 2015. "Once I came out and married a man, it was like… I don’t know," Taseer explained. He felt it was seen as "a betrayal of our time together." For him, it wasn’t a betrayal at all. Taseer said he had always been in relationships with men.
"There wasn’t a true change, no big break, nothing like that," he added. "But suddenly, that defined our time together again." Taseer found the Princess’s alleged struggle to accept his new life sad. He had always seen her as "a kind of gay icon." Podcast co-host Matt Philip even joked, "If she weren’t so racist, she’d be very marketable."
This isn’t the first time Princess Michael of Kent has faced accusations of racism. In December 2017, she wore a controversial blackamoor brooch. She wore it to a lunch with Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. "Princess Michael regrets and is very upset that [the brooch] caused offense," a spokesperson said at the time.
Another alleged incident occurred in 2014. She reportedly told a group of Black diners in New York City to "go back to the colonies." In an ITV interview after this supposed event, she denied the racist label. "To be called a racist is like a stab in my heart," she claimed. "Because I truly love these people."
Given his history of writing about the Royal Family, Taseer doesn’t expect to mend fences anytime soon. "The biggest offense in England is indiscretion," he stated. "They never say it openly, but there’s no greater crime than that. And I was extremely indiscreet."