June Rose Bellamy


June Rose Bellamy, also Yadana Nat-Mei is the fourth wife of Burmese dictator Ne Win and former First Lady of Myanmar. She is a Burmese royal princess of Australian descent and the great-granddaughter of Prince Kanaung.

Biography

June Rose was born on 1 June 1932 in Rangoon, British Burma. She was the great-granddaughter of Prince Kanaung Mintha and granddaughter of Prince Limbin. She was the only daughter of Princess Hteiktin Ma Lat of Konbaung, and Herbert Bellamy, an Australian orchid collector long settled in Burma. She educated at St Joseph’s Convent School, Kalimpong, India, also educated in Rangoon, Burma and New York, USA.
June Rose was offered for a female lead role in the war film The Purple Plain, as the young Burmese nurse who gives a suicidal pilot an interest in life, but says she pulled out during the shooting in Ceylon. "It was so Hollywood, it was ridiculous; it was an insult to anything that had to do with Burma," she said.

First marriage

June Rose was first married Mario Postiglione, a physician and Senior Malaria advisor of WHO in Rangoon, Damascus, Geneva and Manila. The couple divorced in 1954, after having two sons, Michael Bellamy Postiglione and Maurice Postiglione.

Second marriage

In 1963 June Rose met Ne Win, Burma's new military ruler, in Europe, where she was living. Ne Win suggested she come back to Burma, but she was unwilling to leave Italy. On a later visit he proposed. They married in 1976, but the marriage lasted only five months. June Rose now teaches International and Italian cooking in Florence, as well as carrying on charitable work, through Rangoon-based doctors, putting young Burmese students through medical school.