Princess Kalina of Bulgaria


Princess Kalina of Bulgaria, Duchess in Saxony, Countess of Murany, is the fifth child and only daughter of the former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria and his wife, Doña Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela. Simeon II left Bulgaria as a child in 1945 when the country ceased to be a monarchy by referundum. He was then elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria in 2001.

Biography

Kalina earned her secondary education in the Lycée Francais de Madrid and in addition to her native Spanish, she speaks French, English, Italian, German and some Bulgarian. She is an unconventional Royal, often expressing herself through fashion which includes unusual clothing, hairstyle, and makeup. She is a vegetarian, and her interests include fashion, art, furniture restoration, painting, and animal rights. She was baptised a Catholic.

Marriage and issue

On 26 October 2002, at 30 years old, Kalina married Antonio "Kitín" Muñoz y Valcárcel, a noted Spanish sea explorer, born in 1958 in Sidi Ifni, Morocco. They have a 14-year age difference. The royal wedding was the subject of a television documentary. The wedding ceremony was Roman Catholic at Tsarska Bistritsa, but was followed by an Eastern Orthodox blessing.
On 22 October 2006 it was announced that Kalina and Kitín were expecting their first child. Princess Kalina gave birth to a healthy boy on 14 March 2007 at Lozenets Hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria. The baby's name, Simeon Hassan Muñoz, is in honour of his grandfather Simeon II of Bulgaria and the late Hassan II of Morocco. Earlier reports had claimed that the name would have been Simeon Francisco Javier. Simeon was baptised an Orthodox Christian in Bulgaria on 25 April 2008. His godparents are King Mohammed VI of Morocco and Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark. In 2015, Princess Kalina, her husband Kitín Muñoz, and their son Simeon Hassan were living in Rabat.

Ancestors