PR guru Anthony Bailey says decision to strip him of his OBE ‘will bring great joy’ to his Austrian princess ex-wife – after he was sentenced to 12 months in jail for not paying her £1m in divorce row

• Bailey was stripped of his OBE this week after move was approved by the King
• Breached divorce deal with ex-wife, Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg

A former Labour donor who has been stripped of his OBE by the King after being found in contempt of court amid his bitter divorce has said his princess ex-wife will be feeling ‘great joy’. 

Anthony Bailey lost the honour that was awarded to him in 2008 after he was handed a 12-month jail sentence for breaching a divorce agreement with his ex-wife, Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg.

An official notice announced this week that Bailey’s appointment ‘to be an Officer of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ is to be ‘cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order.’ 

Bailey married Marie-Therese – the great-granddaughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 triggered the First World War – in a lavish wedding in 2007 that was attended by six hundred people. 

In 2019, she initiated divorce proceedings which culminated in last year’s High Court clash, during which Bailey stayed in Portugal, where he owns a £4million villa.

Former Labour donor Anthony Bailey, who has been stripped of his OBE by the King after being found in contempt of court amid his bitter divorce has said his princess ex-wife, Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg, will be feeling ‘great joy’

Anthony Bailey lost the honour that was awarded to him in 2008 after he was handed a 12-month sentence for breaching a divorce agreement with his ex-wife

Mr Justice Peel ruled that Bailey had ‘obstructed the court at almost every possible turn’, and ‘deliberately left the country’ and noted that there were ‘major question marks’ about his conduct. 

Speaking to the Mail last night, Bailey said: ‘This latest news will no doubt bring great joy to my ex wife. It is yet another illustration of what is fundamentally wrong with the deeply flawed divorce process in Britain and why its overhaul is long overdue’.

Individuals can be stripped of their honours by the Government’s Forfeiture Committee with the approval of the King.

As well as being found guilty of a criminal offence, other grounds for losing an honour include being censured by a regulatory or professional body or any other behaviour that is judged to bring the honours system into disrepute. 

Bailey, who was once a friend of the King when he was the Prince of Wales, previously facilitated the wedding of the Duke of Kent’s younger son, Lord Nicholas Windsor, at the Vatican – the first time a British royal had married there for 400 years. 

The PR consultant also helped raise funds for both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and donated £50,000 to David Miliband’s run for the Labour leadership in 2010. 

But in 2016 he was warned by Buckingham Palace to stop masquerading as a knight after he was seen in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot last month sporting a badge saying ‘Sir Anthony Bailey’.

Mr Bailey did receive a knighthood in Antigua after touring the Caribbean as British head of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George, an unofficial Catholic order.

Bailey is seen with the King, then the Prince of Wales, during a royal visit to Saudi Arabia in 2001

Mr Bailey (pictured in 2016) was awarded his OBE in 2008 by the late Queen for ‘services to inter-religious relations and charity’ 

But he opted to flout convention by using his title in the UK, prompting the calls for him to stop. 

Mr Bailey was awarded his OBE in 2008 by the late Queen for ‘services to inter-religious relations and charity’.

Following his split from his wife, a family court judge ruled that Ms Hohenberg Bailey should walk away with more than £2million.

His wife accused him of being in contempt of court after she did not receive the money and said he should be sent to prison.

At a hearing in 2021, judge Mr Justice Holman said: ‘I am very sympathetic to the situation of the wife here,’ said Mr Justice Holman.

‘The judge made an order. It has not been appealed. She is supposed to be getting a substantial amount of money.

‘She believes he is living the life of Riley.’

At a hearing in 2022, Ms Hohenberg Bailey said she was still owed around £1million.

Judge Mr Justice Peel ruled in her favour and handed Mr Bailey as 12-month prison term for flouting court orders. 

He said: ‘He has continued to present himself as the aggrieved part in this. He has, it appears, continued to enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle, in contrast with his wife.

‘His behaviour displays wilful obstruction and broad-scale contempt for the court.

‘It is a shameful spectacle deserving considerable opprobrium.

‘Although the husband can, of course, apply to purge his contempt and should he make good his breaches, I will be likely to look favourably on his application.’

Lawyers said Bailey would face arrest and imprisonment if he returned to England or Wales.  

Mr Bailey added from Portugal yesterday that the ‘bitter’ divorce proceedings have ‘seen me lose everything I’ve ever had in Britain, from my home, my job and even access to my beloved son. ‘ 

Mr Bailey began his working life as a pizza parlour worker and went on to start his own firm, Eligo International.

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