Irina Walker

Irina Walker (born Princess Irina of Romania on 28 February 1953) is the third daughter of King Michael I and Queen Anne of Romania.

She was stripped of her title, styles and rights to the throne following involvement with illegal cockfighting and arrest at Irrigon, Oregon in 2013.

Early life

Irina was born in 28 February 1953 at Clinique de Montchoisi in Lausanne, Switzerland, the third daughter and child of King Michael I and Queen Anne.

Walker spent her childhood at her family homes in Lausanne, Switzerland and in the United Kingdom at Ayot House, St Lawrence, Hertfordshire; During holidays she and her sisters spent time with their grandparents, Helen, Queen Mother in Florence, Italy at Villa Sparta and in Denmark with Princess Margaret and Prince René. She and her sisters were told "fascinating tales of a homeland they couldn't visit" by their father.

Her teenage years were spent in Europe with her family, where she and her sisters received primary and secondary education.

In her mid-twenties, as her two elder and two younger sisters went away to work and study, Irina stayed with her parents at their family home in Switzerland and later moved to the United States to work.

Career

During the 1970s Irina had started working as a specialist, eventually rising to senior Appraiser of Silverware at Christie's' auctionhouse in Geneva, Switzerland.

In Romania

After 50 years of exile of the Romanian royal family from Romania, in 1990 Walker's eldest sister Margareta and younger sister Sophie visited Romania following the Romanian revolution and overthrow of the Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in December 1989; Walker, along with the royal family, were involved in helping the Romanians.

After the upheaval of the revolution had calmed down, Walker, with her two children Michael and Angelica, visited Romania along with the rest of the royal family to spend Christmas in 1997 and went back again with King Michael I, Queen Anne, Crown Princess Margareta and her husband Prince Radu in 1998.

Unlike her sisters, Walker did not perform many engagements for the royal house, except for a visit to the Romanian Academy with Princess Marie, an investiture ceremony, the 60th birthday celebration of the Crown Princess in 2009 and the 90th birthday celebration of King Michael I in 2011.

In 2004 Walker's ex-husband John Kreuger donated the 16th-century painting Madonna with the infant by Francesco Raibolini to the National Museum of Art of Romania; the painting was given to the couple as a wedding present which Kreuger kept after their divorce and later donated.

Irina Walker was present in Romania with her sisters for the funeral of King Michael in December 2017. In the days preceding the funeral, they accompanied their father's body to Peles Castle where it was laid in the Hall of Honour, and subsequently were present during the Lying in State in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace in Bucharest. Walker and her sisters walked behind their father's coffin when it was carried by Gun Carriage from the Royal Palace to the Patriarchal Cathedral for the Funeral Mass in the presence of the President of Romania, the King of Sweden, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and members of other Royal Families. Following King Michael's burial at Curtea de Arges, Walker carried out several engagements with Margareta and her other sisters at the Elisabeta Palace and at Săvârșin.

Marriages, divorce and family

On 4 October 1983 Irina married John Kreuger (born in Solna, Sweden, 3 August 1945) son of Torsten Kreuger and his wife Diana Blanchefleur Hedberg (née Beve) in Scottsdale, Maricopa County, Arizona, in a civil ceremony and on 11 February 1984 in a religious ceremony at Holy Trinity Church in Phoenix. The ceremony was attended by the Royal family including her grand-aunt Princess Ileana, John's parents and family, and friends of the couple. On 24 November 2003 the couple divorced after 20 years of marriage.

Irina and John have 2 children, a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law and three grandchildren:

• Michael Torsten (born 25 February 1984), at Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay, Oregon married to Tara Marie Littlefield
  • Kohen (born 28 March 2012)
• Angelica Margareta Bianca (born 29 December 1986), at Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay, Oregon married to Richard Robert Knight
  • Courtney Bianca (born 31 May 2007)
  • Diana (born 2011)

On 10 November 2007 Irina married a second time to John Wesley Walker (b. in Douglas, Missouri on 30 December 1945).

Arrest

In August 2013, Walker and her second husband were arrested for being part of an illegal cockfighting ring and federally charged with operating an illegal gambling business on their ranch near Irrigon, Oregon. According to the indictment, 10 different cockfighting derbies were organized at their ranch between April 2012 and April 2013, which brought up to $2,000 per day from admission fees, food and drinks and gambling. They were free pending trial.

In October 2014, Walker and her husband pleaded guilty to operating an illegal gambling business and were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman to three years of probation. As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, the couple agreed to sell real estate and pay $200,000 to the government. Irina Walker said during the hearing: "I'm very sorry about my involvement in this business. It was not my intention to go against the law."

On 29 October 2014, Walker's father altered the line of succession, stripping Irina of her royal titles and removing her and all of her descendants (her two children and three grandchildren) from the line of succession.

Ancestry