The sheikh, the princess and the NIGHTMARE: Kasia Gallanio's tragic life and mysterious death
A former Qatari princess had opened up about her 'nightmare' life as a royal just weeks before she was found dead from a suspected drug overdose in Marbella.
Princess Kasia Al Thani, 45, the third wife of billionaire Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, 73, had spoken out about how the transition from growing up in a regular household in the US to becoming a part of the royal family had been challenging. She said the prince wooed her when she was just a 19-year-old student in Paris, and that they got married and had three daughters despite their 28-year age gap. However, the relationship turned sour at some point and the pair split in 2007 before ultimately divorcing. The former princess, later known as Kasia Gallanio, sold her own jewelry to survive.
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Kasia had over 550,000 Instagram followers and was known to mingle with Hollywood stars. At the time of her death, she had been embroiled in a toxic custody battle over their daughters, one of whom accused their father of touching her "inappropriately," a claim which he has vehemently denied. Kasia was discovered dead at her Marbella apartment complex on Sunday, May 29, after one of her daughters alerted Spanish authorities from Paris that she hadn't been able to contact her mother for days. Several officers responded to the address and entered her apartment at around 8 am on Sunday, El Pais reported.
Kasia, who was of Polish origin, had spoken out about her toxic relationship with Abdelaziz weeks before her tragic demise. In an interview with Women's World on April 17, she said her current life was like living in a "golden cage" and that she yearned for freedom from her ex-husband who she claimed was refusing to pay child support. "Money is a curse because it isolates you from a lot of people. It's a different world," Kasia said. "I grew up in a normal household so it was a completely different world… I grew up in the States and coming into the Royal Family as an American was something completely new. There's the saying, more money, more problems..."
The former royal bemoaned that she had to sell her own jewelry following their long and bitter divorce, despite residing in a luxury Marbella villa. "I get criticized that I want money but I have to take care of my kids," she said at the time. "Abdelaziz likes to control me through the children which I think is not very polite and only hurts them."
Kasia also recounted how she fell for the prince when she was a student in Paris. "I went to Paris by accident, it was a break from my university, I was a third wheel of my friend who was dating a French banker," she recalled. "He said I have to pass by my client's house to get some paperwork signed, I said OK and we went to this house which was absolutely stunning. He revealed, this is the prince of Qatar. We got to chatting a bit and we exchanged emails and by the time I got back to Los Angeles, my inbox was full and I had roses and everything. It was a very nice courtship."
However, the relationship turned sour after she had their three children at a young age. "There was something that struck me about him," she said. "I wanted to take care of him, I wanted to be there for him because he's lonely. It's lonely at the top. Because there's such an age difference between us and some family members came in between, we just grew apart. I wanted to live my life, I was still very young and I had my children very young so I wanted to experience life and he had already finished that part." She added, "The Middle East is still very different, women are treated very differently to men."
A recent custody hearing in Paris noted how Abdelaziz has also been accused of sexually touching one of their daughters and forcing her to sleep in his bed. "Power, diplomatic immunity, and money shouldn't allow you to be able to do things above the law," Kasia previously said of the allegations. "I hope it's not true however when my daughter says it, I do believe my daughter. It's a horrible story, something that hit me very hard. It's every mother's nightmare," she added, according to the Daily Mail.