ROYAL ROMANCE

Evening Star, Issue 19196, 12 March 1926, Page 1

ROYAL ROMANCE

PRIME'S " GRANDE PASSION " Newspapers the world over have taken the keenest interest in the love affairs of the ox-Crown Prince Charles, who recently renounced his rights to the throne of Rumania, particularly American paper’s (writes the Loudon correspondent of the ‘Age’). The Prince was in Milan shortly after he made the act of renunciation, in company with a Rumanian lady who is supposed to bo his latest gr.uule passion. Prince Charles is what might bo described as a chronic lover, were it not for the fact that ho changes so often tiie object of his passion. The most unfortunate part about it, however, is that he takes all his loves too seriously and wants to marry each woman with whom he happens to be in love at the time, thereby somewhat complicating his life and that of other people and making of it an uninterrupted series of marriages and divorces. He lurther complicates matters by seeing chat each marriage is sanctified by the birth of a .semi-royal descendant. One cannot help thinking that it would be a good thing lor Krai ice if she had a few royal primes like prince Charles to help solve the problem of her declining birth rate. , Being keen psychologists and lovers of the human interest noto in their daily Press, it is only natural that the moss interest in the love affairs of this young man, and that a crowd of American journalists arrived in Milan and laid seige to the hotel where the prince and the Rumanian lady were staying. But, alas for the diligent seekers alter human interest stories for their .papers, he remained confined to’ his room, refusing to see anyone, and to one American reporter more audacious than the rest, who wrote beseeching for an interview of a thousand words, replied: ' 1 have nothing to say.’,’ An American .syndicate, with an equal show of enterprise, cabled the prince at regular intervals to know whether thorn was any truth in the rumor that ho Intended *o' become a movie stain There is no doubt that if this princely hero of so many romances did decide in go into the moving picture business and become a cinema actor he would have a tremendous success, especially in America. But he is determined, it appears, to devote himsefl to engineering. under the name of Afonaslireano, which he intends to adopt from now on. He has always had a passion for anything to do with electricity and mechanics generally, and now lie intends to follow a career lie lias always wanted to follow.

One would imagine that the women whom the Crown Prince has left so easily after marrying them would hear him a grudge. But no. they continue to he faithful fo him, or at least to bis memory. His royal wife, Princess Helene, daughter of the late ex-King Constantino of the Hellenes, whom he married after his first love romance, and who, in losing her husband, lias lost also her dunce of ruling on the throne of Rumania, has made known her decision not to divorce, him. As to his first wife. Mile Cecllc Lambrino, better known perhaps as Milo Zizi, she also is faithful to the memory of the volatile prince, despite the fact that after the annulment of her marriage to the Crown Prince Charles and the birth of their son. now six years old, she married a complaisant colonel in the Rumanian army. Recently she declared in an interview published in a leading paper; “[ resolved seven years ago to preserve absolute silence about everything coffperiling the Crown Prince. T shall remain always his faithful and sure friend, seeking only, and especially at this moment, not to cause him difficulties or distress him in any circles whatever.” Jealousy is not, obviously, a fault with. Rumanian women any more than it is with Rumanian men.

As a matter of fact, thejr _ changing love affairs are a characteristic feature of the life of Rumanians, without their over producing those tragic situations which would be bound to arise under similar circumstances in Italy and other countries where unbridled passions run riot on the least provocation. The writer once paid a visit to the late Queen Elizabeth of Rumania, who is so well known in the world of letters ns Carmen Sylva, under which naino she wrote several books. During our conversation she drew for me a picture of Rumanian morals which I have a]i wavs remembered, a picture which was certainly not flattering for Rumanian society.' The late Queen imputed the moral decadence of her country to the influence of French literature and lack of morals. One must not forget, however, that Carmen Sylva was a princess German born, and that she married a. German prince, a Hohenzollern, a fact, nevertheless, which did not prevent Rumania from coming in on the side of the Allies during the war. Charles Hohenzollern is the name given by the ex-Crown Prince to his son by Iris first wife, Mile Zizi Lambrino, and one of the most perplexing problems arising out of bis renunciation of his rights to the throne of Rumania is that of the future of this boy. By a special decree of the King he is officially, but temporarily, named Charles Hohonzollern, and when the marriage of his mother and father was annulled _ the Rumanian Government made provision for him and his mother. But abdication of the father completely alters the position. One way out of the difficulty, and "one which the ex-Crown I’rinco will probably adopt, is to give his child his own now name of Monastireano.