Royal drama at the heart of Europe: High society eyebrows are raised at engagement rumours between Danish prince ‘who quit royal duties’ and influencer heiress to the defunct Italian throne whose VERY pushy mother cuddles up to Euro royals

It’s hard to know which was more surprising – Princess Maria Carolina de Bourbon’s hair-raisingly tight choice of athleisure-wear as she wanders the streets of St Tropez.

Or the claim that her equally toothsome sister, Princess Maria Chiara, has a ‘very special relationship’ with the 17-year-old heir to the Danish throne.

‘We’ve known each other since we were little, my father Carlo is godfather to his younger sister,’ she breathlessly told Italian paper Corriere, before dropping the megaphone-strength hint that she ‘hopes to meet Queen Margrethe soon’- sending rumours of an engagement into overdrive. 

If eyebrows are raised in Europe’s royal palaces it would be no surprise. Seventeen-year-old Christian belongs to a notably staid branch of European monarchy, presided over by the redoubtable 83-year-old Queen Margrethe.

Princesses Chiara and Carolina, meanwhile, belong to a junior arm of the Spanish Bourbons and are never-knowingly under-TikTokked. They have their own YouTube…