of Kent was ‘naive and arrogant’ to insist she had absolutely no knowledge that her late farther was a Nazi, royal experts claim in a new documentary. 

Princess Michael: The Controversial Royal, airing at 8:55pm on Channel 5 tomorrow, recalls how the 76-year-old Princess, who married ‘s cousin in 1978, found herself at the heart of a scandal in 1985 when it emerged her father was a member of the Nazi party. 

She gave a TV interview denying all knowledge and describing her ‘deep shame’ over the revelation that Austrian and German aristocrat Günther von Reibnitz, was in the SS for 11 years, from 1933 until he was kicked out of the Nazi party in 1944.

But speaking in tomorrow’s documentary, Dr Chandrika Kaul, historian at St Andrew’s University, said her remarks showed ‘arrogance’ and ‘cultural insensitivity’, while royal editor of the Evening Standard, Robert Jobson, said it was ‘naïve’ to believe she knew nothing of her father’s past.

The documentary also deals with the royal’s fraught relationship with Princess Margaret, who reportedly resented her as a Roman Catholic divorcee, and rumours of mutual infidelity in her marriage to Prince Michael. 

Princess Michael: The Controversial Royal airing Saturday on Channel 5, looks back at the 1985 scandal surrounding her father’s Nazi ties, with experts claiming she must have known about it.

Pictured with Prince Michael on the day of their civil wedding in Vienna in 1978

News that Princess Michael’s father had a Nazi past emerged in April 1985. 

Princess Michael, who was born Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, has said she didn’t now about her father’s SS past and she was absolutely heartbroken about the publicity it received. 

‘She actually developed an ulcer and lost 2st in weight and really worried about the shame it had brought on the royal family,’ royal expert Phil Dampier recalled. 

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The documentary showed an interview where Princess Michael distanced herself from her father’s past. 

‘It came as a really great blow to me, because I always rather hero-worshipped him,’ the royal said in the interview. 

In 1985, it emerged Princess Michael of Kent’s father, Günther von Reibnitz, pictured in1918, had served in the SS for 11 years, from 1933 to 1944

At the time the scandal exploded, Marie-Chrstine said she was shocked to learn about her father’s ‘unpleasant’ past (pictured at the Chelsea Flower Show on September 20) 

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