With eight grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and countless cousins, the Queen Elizabeth he is the head of one of the largest royal families in Europe. He is also part of this crowded family lady Davina, one of the lesser known relatives of the sovereign. The forty-four-year-old daughter of the Danish noblewoman Brígida van Deurs and del Duke of Gloucester, Queen Elizabeth’s first cousinwas born in London’s St. Mary’s Hospital as William And Harry. And like the children of Carlo and Diana he is grew up in the Kensington Palace apartments. Unlike her parents, Lady Davina, who has never loved pomp and limelight, does not represent the Crown, merely attending the great Windsor family reunions. In recent days, to say, we have seen it at thanksgiving mass in St Paul’s Cathedral (photo above) on the occasion of Platinum Jubilee by Elisabetta. But she went almost unnoticed. Yet years ago made history, for the first time by relating his aunt, Queen Elizabeth, to a Maori.
It happened in 2004, when the then 26-year-old Davina married Gary Lewis, a New Zealand Maori bricklayer, son of a sheep shearer and a maid. As befits the bride’s noble lineage, the ceremony was celebrated in the chapel of Kensington Palace. It was a real royal wedding, albeit a bit in a minor tone. Queen Elizabeth was not there, but two of her children were present, the Princess Anna and the prince Edwardaccompanied by his wife Sophie. Of course, Lady Davina Windsor’s parents were also present. For the groom there were dad Larry, winner in the eighties of the New Zealand sheep shearing championshipmom Viki Carrsome aunt, the son Ari (born of Gary’s youthful relationship) and grandfather Tom Smiler, who pointed out to the press that they too were of noble origins. “My family,” he explained, “are part of the Aitanga-a-Mahaki tribe, the first to settle in this part of New Zealand.”
Lady Davina and Gary met in 2000 in Bali. He had decided to go around the world taking only the surf with you, she was on vacation after graduating in communications in Bristol. It was love at first sight. Six years after the marriage was born the couple’s first daughter, Senna Kowhaithe first multiracial baby of the British royal family, while in 2012 came the second son Tane Mahuta, baptized as his sister with a Maori name. The couple lived for a few years ad Aucklandin New Zealand, but then moved to London and began to be seen at royal weddings and on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on the occasion of the queen’s birthdays.
In the 2019Buckingham Palace announced that Lady Davina had divorced from Lewis after 14 years of marriage. Today the royal continues to live her existence away from the court and the spotlight, while continuing to respond to invitations that arrive punctually from the Palazzo. What if the princess Margaret she was the first Windsor to divorce, Davina will remain in the history of the family as the first to have married a Maori.
Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you:
- Queen Elizabeth, who “jumped for joy” at William and Kate’s royal wedding
- William turns 40, the wishes of the royal family (but those of Harry and Meghan are missing)
- Louis of Cambridge will not follow in George and Charlotte’s (scholastic) footsteps
Source: Vanity Fair
