On her website, our imposter claimed that her name was "Lady Grania Mountbatten"  and later she used the name "Lady Grace Mountbatten", stating that her full name was 'Grania Mary Mountbatten' , born on 31st July 1946 in Cannes, France.  If she was the lawful child of The Lady Iris Mountbatten and Major O’Malley (who were married on 15th February 1941 and divorced on 24th September 1946), I have the following observations - 

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• No couple in the UK in 1946 would go through a divorce just 2 months after the birth of a child - bearing in mind it takes at least 6 weeks for a decree absolute to be issued after a decree nisi.  In the divorce petition, it states that O’Malley had "deserted" Lady Iris for a period of at least THREE years prior to the divorce - so as she claimed that she was born on 31st July 1946, therefore simple biological facts and the dates of the divorce do not match up with her fanciful claims.  Their marriage was an unhappy one and divorce was then still frowned upon, especially in aristocratic society, let alone someone closely related to The Sovereign.  In 1981, in an interview with the Toronto Star newspaper (shortly before her death), Lady Iris spoke of her "nightmare" first marriage and how she was divorced by O'Malley - "I couldn't get an annulment without telling things I still refuse to tell.  I could never tell a divorce court the horrible, ugly things that happened, but my husband finally agreed to divorce me.  If I had divorced him, it would have been okay. But for him to divorce me - that was really scandalous."

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• On her various websites and social media pages, she posted numerous letters and documents from various official sources (which she sourced herself) as supposed proof of her claim to be Lady Iris' daughter, but all they actually do is confirm that Lady Iris and O'Malley were married, but do NOT prove that she was their child.

 

• It is extremely suspicious/odd that she NEVER posted (nor is there anywhere in the public domain) any photographs of her with her alleged mother.  Why?  Even in 1946, there would be the usual photographs at the time of her birth with her parents -especially as a legitimate child of their marriage would ultimately be in the line of succession to The Throne and such a birth would have been reported in the newspapers etc.  She NEVER possted a birth certificate confirming that her parents were Lady Iris and O'Malley - why is that?  

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• She was in fact the daughter of O'Malley by his second wife - Eleanor Mary 'Sadie' de Pentheny O'Kelly (1922-2001) and was actually born on 31st July 1950 and not 1946.  Her parents were married on 25th January 1947 (and divorced in 1970).  Please click HERE (via Marlene Eilers Koenig's excellent Royal Musings website) to see her real birth certificate... so why did she lie despite the clear evidence to the contrary?  Her own nieces, nephews, and cousins came forward to prove that she is the daughter of  O'Malley and Eleanor de Pentheny O'Kelly.

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• Any child of Lady Iris' lawful marriage to O'Malley would have had the surname 'O’Malley' and not the name of 'Mountbatten'.  Therefore by what right does she (AND her own children) use the surname of 'Mountbatten' ?  No Royal Licence was issued allowing her permission to use the name.  Clearly Mountbatten cannot be her name from birth and must her 'chosen name', so therefore - why do her children not bear their own father’s surname?  No mention is ever made of her own children's father oddly. Why?  What does she have to hide?

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• Children of Major O’Malley would not have a title.  Any child of a daughter of Marquess would not have a title either - as their status would be defined by their father's status.  So therefore, why did she wrongly use the prefix of 'Lady' ?  The courtesy title of the prefix of 'Lady' applies ONLY to the daughter of a Duke, Marquess and an Earl - she is neither.

 

Who were her parents if she was a genuine 'Lady' ?  At times, a Royal Warrant of Precedence may be issued by The Sovereign to grant to a member of the nobility or gentry, the rank that they would normally have enjoyed when their relative (usually their sibling) inherited a title, but due to the death of their own father they themselves failed to assume automatically.  No such Royal Warrant was ever been issued in this case.

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Our imposter referred to herself as "Lady Mountbatten (in lieu of Princess of Battenberg)"  ?  The ONLY person who is currently able to call herself 'Lady Mountbatten' is Penelope, The Countess Mountbatten of Burma (wife of Norton, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma).  Prior to this, Patricia, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1924-2017) and Edwina (Mountbatten's wife) were the ONLY people previously entitled to call themselves 'Lady Mountbatten'.
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