Queen Elena of Romania / Helen of Greece-Romania

[Laura_]

Oh...That is a complex relationship. However even under the most intense pressure, they did not entirely fall out. One of the reasons is that both have a keen sense of humour. I read in Elena's book by Gould Lee that she did some imitation of Missy and left the queen in skittes...

now this is hard to imagine...Helen imitating Missy and Missy left in skittes :-/
Laura

[Marina_Cummings]

Yet it makes sense, as Queen Marie was larger than life and very conscious of her beauty and charisma - in fact a little vain!  She would have thus been delighted to be imitated, and certainly Queen Helen would not have done it in a nasty way but imitate her larger than life moments.  I also read this somewhere, maybe Arthur Gould Lee (who was very close to his source during the writing of the biography, and would not have invented this) or somewhere else as well, can't quite remember.  It was also known in Court circles that Queen Helen would do brilliant imitations of King Ferdinand for Queen Marie, who would be in stitches at Queen Helen's perfect mimicking of "Nando's" german accent!  

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes in that regard, Helen is very much like her Uncle, Prince Nicholas of Greece, who delighted his Aunts (particularly Queen Alexandra) with his imitations. Once he wrote a bike and ran over the old queen's dog, Alexandra freaked out and yelled "He has killed my dog ! He has killed my dog !". When it was discovered that the animal was unhurt, Nicholas did a wicked imiyation of her aunt in distress. Queen Alexandra collapsed in fits of laughter and made her nephew performed this again and again...

[LisaDavidson]

Lisa,  Helen got pregnant before the wedding, actually.  The media, at the time, described Michael as "premature", but he was a rather large baby.  Moreover, the family does not deny that Helen was with child before she went down the aisle.

Marlene - I am familiar as indeed I think you are of the circumstances of HM King Michael's conception. Indeed, the family is quite candid about these circumstances. Since Queen Mother Helen was blameless in the matter, I prefer to state matters as I did.

[Eric_Lowe]

I think Missy and Sitta enjoyed a good relationship most of the time, although there were scrapes. Missy put all the hopes on Sitta and expect her to reform her wayward son. It took them both years to discover how hopeless their case was.

[ilyala]

probably missy, like almost any other mother with a not so good son, thought that he was behaving the way he was because there was no-one to 'take care' of him and she expected helen to do that. she probably said something like 'it's helen's fault cause she can't better him...'. i'm sure that she realized in the end that it wasn't that. although it is my personal opinion that helen is not without fault and that the fact that the marriage was a complete mismatch didn't help matters. carol could be influenced quite easily (see elena lupescu), too bad only the wrong woman knew how to do that.

[Eric_Lowe]

To put blame on Elena's door is unfair, as she was so closeted in the Royal Family that she knew little of women like Magda. Queen Sophie, who knew about these things tried to warn her daughter but without success. She said " Had I listen to her, I would be spared years of unhappiness."Missy also understood that and a bond was formed between the two women, whose mutual love of Michael and fear for Carol are common to both.  

[Laura_]

well...Helen was cold to Carol:(
Laura

[Eric_Lowe]

I don't think she was. She loved him, but she might be "too proper" for Carol's taste judging from his taste in women is like Zizi or the sexy siren Magda  

[Marina_Cummings]

Even if she were cool to Carol she had ample justification, and he didn't give her a chance anyway. She wasn't one to start swinging from chandeliers to hang on to a husband who, in any case, needed little - if no- excuse to bed other women all over Bucharest and elsewhere! Also, Michael's birth had been extremely difficult and she was  advised not to have any more children.  In those circumstances it would have been very difficult indeed to satisfy an insatiable husband.....If there had been real love between them they could have overcome theses difficulties.

[Laura_]

anyway she was a perfect mother and a wonderful grandmother:)and Carol a ... father
Laura

[Eric_Lowe]

I think Missy noticed the good qualities of Sitta later on, and they bonded as both suffered under Carol's regime.

[LisaDavidson]

well...Helen was cold to Carol:(
Laura

Do you have any evidence of this? My understanding from the family is that Carol was very uncaring towards his wife. He was both physically and emotionally abusive to her. I would like to see some source material about Helen's "coldness".

Besides, it's just too convenient for a spouse to allege something like this to justify his/her infidelity - and Carol was a bounder.

[Laura_]

Do you have any evidence of this? My understanding from the family is that Carol was very uncaring towards his wife. He was both physically and emotionally abusive to her. I would like to see some source material about Helen's "coldness".

Besides, it's just too convenient for a spouse to allege something like this to justify his/her infidelity - and Carol was a bounder.

well i've read this in many books...this is a  well known
thing,Marie wrote it in her diary(if Sitta wouldn't be that cold etc etc),Gauthier wrote about this,Quinlan also,and many other...she became very cold after giving birth...but this doesn't excuse Carol's behaviour nor makes Helen guilty of anything...her husband wasn't there for her when she needed him the most , he never loved her so he wasn't able to encourage her in that difficult period :(and she became cold to him(i repeat it is only  his fault);she dedicated herself to be a perfect mother and she succeded...but she wan't able to satisfy Carol anymore...

Laura

[ilyala]

i think they were a completely unsuited match. a guy like carol needed someone more... let's say, either as insatiable as him, or willing to satisfy his appetite. helen was not the type. and this is not just about the physical aspect. carol was impulsive, helen was not. while two impulsives might not be the best of ideas, one impulsive and one cool is even worse. at some point one gets sick of the 'dignified attitude'. i am not blaming helen. i think she did the best she could. what i am saying is that maybe a different type of woman could have received  a better treatment.