Princess Gloria Von Thurn Und Taxis kept the tabloids, broadsheets and society columns going for years in the late 1980s and early 1990s thanks to her punk past, outrageous outfits and haircuts, and her passion for motorbikes. Eccentric aristocracy always make good copy, and a punk princess who comes across as down to earth and not minding interacting with the press, seems to have cheered the press pack up after years of following Princess Diana about. Think of it as reporting on Steps for years then suddenly getting the brief to follow Lady Gaga and/or Charlotte Church on a night out in the early to mid noughties.
How Gloria came to be The Punk Princess in the first place reads like something out of a Human League song: She was working [as a waitress?] in a cocktail bar… in Munich, not Sheffield, when “confirmed bachelor” Prince Johannes Baptista de Jesus Maria Louis Miguel Friedrich Bonfifazius Lommoral Furst Von Thurn und Taxis decided to marry her. She was 19, he was 53. Following their marriage, a profile piece by Dylan Jones in the Sunday Times from 1993 reveals, both parties pretty much carried on as they had when they were single: He apparently continued to “dally with young men” and she continued to ride motorbikes and hang out with rich types and popstars while wearing chain mail, mini skirts and designer leathers while sporting “baroque punk hairstyles”.
After the death of her husband, Gloria put on the pearls and tweeds and put away the hair dye and motorbikes. This led to reports that she was trying to sort the estate out while not treating the servants well.
In 2014 she was interviewed by Vanity Fair and it was revealed that her interests lay more in portraiture than punk. The piece also mentioned that she had close links to the Catholic Church and that she was a friend of Pope Benedict. The picture accompanying the piece showed her in glasses, sporting a huge egg neckace, while flanked by two leather clad bikers.
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