The British royal family has a new addition, though not one likely to trouble the front pages for long. Flora Vesterberg, granddaughter of the late Princess Alexandra, and her husband Timothy Vesterberg have announced the birth of their first child, a daughter named Isabel Marina, born on 8 July.
The couple shared the news on Instagram several days after the birth, posting a photograph of the newborn in a white dress with blue trim and explaining the reasoning behind her name.
Isabel, Flora wrote, means “of the sea,” a nod to Scotland and Sweden, the two places where she and Timothy feel most at peace. Marina honours her paternal great-grandmother, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.
A name with history
Princess Marina was born a princess of Greece and Denmark, and became part of the British royal family in 1934 when she married Prince George, Duke of Kent, taking the title Duchess of Kent. She was widowed young, losing her husband in an active-service accident during the Second World War in 1942, and went on to spend the rest of her life carrying out royal duties as a working member of the family. She died in 1968, aged 61.
Marina Windsor, Flora’s cousin who served as maid of honour at Flora and Timothy’s church blessing at St James’s Palace in September 2021, is among the other family members who carry the name forward.
Far from the spotlight, still in the line
Flora is
King Charles III’s third cousin, and her grandmother Princess Alexandra was a first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II, placing baby Isabel Marina 62nd in the line of succession to the British throne. It’s a position far enough removed from the throne itself that the family has largely stayed out of the public eye.
However, Flora, an art historian currently completing a PhD at the Courtauld Institute, has drawn attention in her own right. She became the first member of the royal family to speak publicly about an autism diagnosis, writing about receiving it at 30 in a personal essay for Vogue.
The Vesterbergs married in a private ceremony at the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace in 2020, followed by a blessing the next year attended by Prince Edward and the Duchess of Edinburgh. Timothy Vesterberg, a former professional ice hockey player, now works in private equity in London. For Princess Alexandra, 89, it marks her first great-grandchild, a quiet addition to a family line that has stayed largely outside the spotlight even as it remains, technically, part of the order of succession.
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