From ‘telling black diners to go back to the Colonies’ and wearing a blackamoor brooch to branding the British ‘racist’… and now ‘bun-gate’: How ‘Pushy’ Princess Michael of Kent has courted controversy for decades

She was reportedly called princess “pushy” by the late Queen’s only daughter, Princess Anne, and made headlines for less than pleasant reasons for her allegedly controversial views.

The most recent outcry may be the mildest after Princess Michael of Kent sniffed at being forced to take a bite out of a Chelsea bun.

Princess Michael, also known as ‘bun-gate’, wasn’t so friendly when asked to eat a currant bun.

After taking the place of her actress daughter-in-law, Lady Sophie Winkleman, in judging the World Chelsea Bun Awards, the late Queen’s cousin was apparently unaware that she would need to eat anything.

‘My daughter-in-law didn’t tell me I was going to have a taste. Because I’m not going to taste,” she said in Channel 5’s The Royal Borough: Kensington & Chelsea.

“When she said, ‘Help me with this great children’s charity,’ she didn’t tell me to taste.”

The 78-year-old made the comments while at Partridges – an upmarket shop in Piccadilly – while taking part in the judging.

Instead, Princess Michael decided to judge the sandwiches by sight alone, before seeing how the other judges, including Patridge’s general manager John Shephard, had a lot to eat.

“I assumed the judges had to take a really good bite of each sandwich,” she added.

“I have to say they look gorgeous, my expert eye goes straight to the main thing, they are gorgeous,” she continued.

It is the latest in a long line of controversial musings from the princess who once boasted more royal blood than any other royal member who had married into the family since Prince Philip.

The Czech princess became a member of the British royal family when she married Prince Michael of Kent in Vienna in 1978.

Even the late Queen once joked that she was “a little too grand for us.”

But perhaps it was in 2004, when the princess – nicknamed MC by her friends – sparked the most outrage when she reportedly told black guests to “go back to the colonies.”

According to the alleged comments, she was branded a racist by a group at the New York restaurant Da Silvano when an argument broke out over the noise she claimed to be making.

She allegedly slammed her hand on the table and told them to “calm down,” before being accused of saying: “You must go back to the colonies.”

However, the princess was reportedly challenged at the time and is said to have replied, “I didn’t say ‘back to the colonies’, I said ‘remember the colonies’.”

The group included entertainment reporter AJ Calloway, who was apparently surprised to learn she was a member of the royal family.

“I thought she was just a crazy woman. I still think she’s a crazy woman,” he said at the time.

A spokesperson denied that the princess made the slur, which allegedly stemmed from a confrontation over the group making too much noise at the restaurant.

She made matters worse in an interview with ITV that year, denying she was a racist, saying: “I even pretended to be an African years ago, a half-blood African, but because of my light eyes I didn’t get there away. , but I dyed my hair black.’

In 2017, she again found herself at the center of a racism spat and apologized for wearing a “racist” “blackamoor” brooch when she met Meghan Markle at the Queen’s Christmas lunch.

The princess was clearly pictured with the jewelry on her coat as she rode through the gate.

Blackamoor is a genre of figurines, small sculptures or jewelry that largely depict men, but sometimes women, with black skin, usually dating from the 18th century.

A royal family spokesperson said she was “deeply sorry and saddened” to wear the brooch, adding that it was a gift she had worn many times before, without controversy.

The full statement read: ‘The brooch was a gift and has been worn many times before.

“Princess Michael is very sorry and sad that this has been offensive.”

Those within the royal family have not escaped the barbs of the princess either. In 2005, she was filmed meeting the “Fake Sheikh” – the investigative editor of the News of the World Mazher Mahmood – where she targeted the late Princess Diana.

In the meeting where she thought she was speaking with a wealthy Arab, she calls the People’s Princess a “bitter” and “nasty” woman and accuses the then Prince Charles of being “jealous” of her popularity. He was only married to a “womb,” she said.

During a bizarre conversation with disgraced media magnate Conrad Black on Canadian television in 2014, she again lashed out at the royal family, calling them “boring.”

Princess Michael seems to take another swipe at Diana during the chat.

She said, “Like probably a lot of low-educated people who, like pop stars or movie stars, are suddenly lauded all over the world, it’s really hard if you didn’t have a mother who raised you who was quite stern and stern.

“She hasn’t had a mother to raise her and she hasn’t had much education, so it’s much harder to deal with praise.”

In the 1980s, she famously accused the British of racism when she said in an interview, “The English distrust foreigners.

“I will never become British, even if I live here for the rest of my life.”

Her nickname Princess ‘Pushy’ was replaced by Princess Cushy in 2013 when she complained that she had to pay rent for Kensington Palace.

Before 2010, she paid just £69 a week in peppercorn rent, but later she would pay £120,000 a year to stay in the palace, which has ten main rooms.

The new rent rate was imposed when the Queen was forced to restructure her grace-and-favour residences a few years ago to bring rents in line with current market values.

She also sparked controversy when she told Tatler magazine that she knew “the real story” about Princess Diana after her death in 1997.