Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, was born in Havana, Cuba on March 22, 1956.

Her parents, banker José Antonio Mestre y Alvarez and the late María Teresa de Mestre are both from families descended from the Bourgeoisie and Spanish nobility. They do not, however, carry any titles.

In October 1959, at the time of the Cuban revolution, the toddler Maria Teresa Mestre left Cuba with her parents. The family settled in New York where Maria Teresa was enrolled at Marymount School.

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In the summer of 1965, the Mestres settled down for a few months on their family estate of Santander in Spain before taking up permanent residence in Geneva, Switzerland. It was here that Maria Teresa, a political science student at the University of Geneva, met her future husband: Henri, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

It was said that the pair’s romance met with opposition from Henri’s parents, especially his mother, Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte. Maria Teresa gave an informal lunch for several Belgian and Luxembourgeois journalists in 2002, intimating that she never won the approval of her mother-in-law because she was non-European and carried no royal title.

Whatever the case may have been, in February 1981 Henri and Maria Teresa were married. The couple went on to have five children: Prince Guillaume (28); Prince Félix (25); Prince Louis (23); Princess Alexandra(18); Prince Sébastien (17).

Family Life

Grand Duke Jean stepped down in 2000 in favor of Henri, making his son the Grand Duke of Luxembourg in his stead. Maria Teresa became the Grand Duchess and Prince Guillaume became Hereditary Grand Duke.

Joséphine-Charlotte, who had suffered from lung cancer for some time, died at Fischbach Castle at the age of 77 in 2005. That same year, Maria Teresa’s third son, Louis, made headlines when he and his girlfriend Tessy Antony had a baby out of wedlock.

The people of Luxembourg were shocked. The prince was only 19 years old and Tessy 20 years old at the time. Tessy, a driver in the army, had been part of the armed forces for two years. She met Louis while she was part of a NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo, while the prince was there to visit Luxembourg’s troops.

(L to R) Princess Tessy, Prince Louis, Prince Felix and Princess Alexandra.

Tessy, the commoner daughter of a tiler, was welcomed into the family despite the surprising event of the out-of-wedlock child. The baby boy, named Gabriel, was the first grandchild for Maria Teresa and Henri.

Louis and Tessy decided to marry in the autumn of 2006, and soon she gave birth to a second son, whom they named Noah. Both sons, as well as Tessy, were styled with the surname “de Nassau”. On June 23, 2009, on the occasion of Luxembourg’s National Day, Grand Duke Henri gave Tessy the title of Princess of Luxembourg with the style Her Royal Highness. Both Maria Teresa and Henri remembered the difficulties their own union had, so they welcomed Tessy as princess and as an official part of the royal family.The title Prince of Nassau and style Royal Highness were also granted to their sons.

Henri and Maria Teresa recently celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary in 2009 surrounded by friends and family. Several European royals attended the festivities, and Luxembourg cheered their happy royal family.

Work and Patronage

Like many European princesses, HRH The Grand Duchess speaks several languages – French, English, German, Italian, and her native Spanish. Her Royal Highness’ multilingual talents make her accessible to many European peoples and is a boon to Luxembourg.

Maria Teresa, in her capacity as Grand Duchess, works tirelessly for humanitarian causes. She is the President of the Luxembourg Red Cross and is patron of charities who support people with physical and mental disabilities.

Her Royal Highness is, like Princess Maxima of the Netherlands, very active in the promotion of microcredit. The Grand Duchess is the honorary chairperson of the LUXFLAG Microfinance Label.

In 2006, Her Royal Highness received the Path to Peace Award from a Holy See Foundation for her “relentless contribution to humanitarian causes.”

Henri’s mother was Josephine-Charlotte, a Belgian princess who married into Luxembourg’s Grand Ducal family. Philippe’s father is King Albert II of Belgium, Josephine-Charlotte’s youngest brother. Their other brother, Baudouin, died in 1993 after 42 years as Belgium’s king.