Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt

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Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt (born in Germany in 1943 [5]) is best known as one of the husbands of the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor.

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[edit] Name

Born Hans Robert Lichtenberg (other sources state Hans-Georg Lichtenberg), the son of a German police officer, he was adopted in 1980 by Princess Marie Auguste of Anhalt (1898-1983). She was married firstly to Prince Joachim of Prussia, the youngest son of German Emperor William II, who committed suicide in 1920 after four years of marriage, and secondly, in 1926, to Johannes-Michael Freiherr von Loën, whom she divorced in 1935.[1]

Upon his adoption by Princess Marie Auguste of Anhalt, Lichtenberg took the name Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt; he is also known as Frédéric von Anhalt. The adoption and name change did not confer any title or nobility, though this is often assumed by various media outlets unfamiliar with the technicalities of the adoption and which, therefore, frequently refer to him incorrectly as a prince. Prinz von Anhalt is his surname, rather than a title, as per German laws regarding the country's former nobility. In addition to long-standing conventions prohibiting the transfer of German titles to adopted individuals -- except for individuals who are blood relations adopted by another relative -- the Anhalt family does not include Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt as a member. [2]

CNN has stated that Prinz von Anhalt, a former masseur,[3] has said that he was a friend of Princess Marie Auguste's only child, Prince Karl of Prussia (1916-1975), and that the grieving mother adopted him out of kindness and gave him the name Prince Frederic von Anhalt of Munich, the Duke of Saxony. The CNN report stated that British press reports indicate that Princess Marie Auguste was bankrupt and the adoption apparently was a business transaction. The transaction was masterminded by Hans Hermann Weyer, a former window dresser who became an honorary consul of Bolivia in Luxembourg[4] and who became known in the 1960s for selling certificates of nobility, doctoral degrees from invented colleges and universities, and other decorations in Germany.[5][6] Jailed several times on fraud charges and described in 1982 by John Vinocur of The New York Times as "a Munich rogue who sold phony titles" to "used-car dealers hungry for respectability", Weyer is given credit for Lichtenberg's adoption in the latter's biographical profile in the cast list of the 2005 German reality-television program "Die Burg".[7][8] According to the newspaper Rhein-Zeitung, Weyer was adopted as an adult, in 1996, by a Countess of Yorck of Wartenberg (Gräfin von Yorck von Wartenberg), a 78-year-old German noblewoman, and now uses the name Consul Weyer Graf von Yorck.[9][10]

Prinz von Anhalt, according to CNN, has profited in the millions of dollars by selling the Anhalt name to other individuals. "If someone offers you $2 million, you do it," he has said.[11]

[edit] Marriage

In 1986 Prinz von Anhalt married the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. The couple are still married, making it Gabor's longest marriage. "We didn't marry for love," he later said. "It was a friendship, but when you're with someone over a certain time you fall in love."[12] The marriage was technically and legally Gabor's eighth. Her previous union with Mexican actor Felipe de Alba was invalid and subsequently annulled, since she was not divorced from Michael O'Hara when she wed de Alba at sea.

[edit] Reported affair

On February 9, 2007, he claimed that he had a decade-long affair with Anna Nicole Smith. Prinz von Anhalt said he and Smith met in the 1990s, during the latter's brief marriage to elderly oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. He said Smith approached him and Gabor at the Plaza Hotel in New York. "She was a very big fan of Zsa Zsa and wanted to be like Zsa Zsa," he said. "She wanted to be a princess." He said the two started an affair soon after, meeting over the years in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. For much of that time, he said, Smith urged him to make her a princess like his wife.

Short of divorcing the actress, Prinz von Anhalt said the only solution would have been adopting Smith, adding that he did consider that and even filled out adoption papers, but Gabor refused to sign them. However when pressed on the issue by television host Bill O'Reilly, he could not give any proof that he had even met Anna Nicole Smith. Prinz von Anhalt then agreed to reappear on O'Reilly's program and submit to a lie detector test. On 12 February 2007, Gabor's former publicist told the television program "Inside Edition" that the actress's husband is a "chronic fabricator".[13] On 15 March 2007, he announced that he is suing both O'Reilly and Fox News for defamation of character.

On February 28, 2007, Prinz von Anhalt claimed that Howard K. Stern sold Anna Nicole Smith for sex on various occasions when she called him to complain.[6]

[edit] Claims of paternity of Dannielynn Stern

Prinz von Anhalt has been quoted as saying that he could potentially be the father Anna Nicole Smith's infant girl, Dannielynn, who was born in September 2006,[14] and said he would file a lawsuit if Dannielynn is turned over to Howard K. Stern or Larry Birkhead by the courts. Mark Hatten aka Mark "Hollywood" Hatten and Alexander Dent have also come forward with paternity claims.

On 12 February 2007, according to the Associated Press, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt has announced that he will file a paternity claim and that his marriage likely will be over if his claims of parentage prevail.[15]

A closed-door hearing was held February 20, 2007, in Los Angeles.

[edit] References

  1. ^ An Online Gotha - Anhalt
  2. ^ The Ducal Family of Anhalt
  3. ^ [1] "Inside Edition"
  4. ^ [2]
  5. ^ New York Times article mentioning Weyer's career, 1982
  6. ^ John Vinocur, "For German Who 'Awarded' Titles, First Gold, Then Bars", The New York Times, 16 March 1978, page A2
  7. ^ Cast List for "Die Burg"
  8. ^ John Vinocur, "A Republic of Fear: Thirty Years of General Stroessner's Paraguay", The New York Times Magazine, 23 September 1984, page 20
  9. ^ Consul Weyer Graf von Yorck's website
  10. ^ Abstract of Rhein-Zeitung article about Weyer's adoption
  11. ^ "Who is Prince Frederic von Anhalt?"
  12. ^ [3]
  13. ^ [4]
  14. ^ Gabor Husband may be Smith's baby's dad, Associated Press, February 9, 2007.
  15. ^ Gabor's Husband to File Claim for Baby

[edit] External links

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