In 1964, Princess Irene’s father, King Paul, died aged 62 following a battle with stomach cancer. Her brother, Constantine, ascended the throne aged 23 and was given the title Constantine II. However, public support for King Constantine faded after he tried to influence Greek politics, machinations that led to the collapse of the newly elected centrist government of Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou. He was deposed in 1967 following a military coup and an unsuccessful counter-coup in Greece. Following this, he fled to Rome, where he spent the first five years of his exile. The Greek monarchy was abolished in 1973, and Princess Irene moved to India with her mother.
Both Frederica and Princess Irene were interested in Hindu philosophy, and reports claim that Princess Irene converted to Hinduism, though it is unknown exactly when this took place. She was reportedly an ‘ardent devotee of Shankaracharya’, an 8th-century Indian Vedic scholar and teacher and praised sacred Hindu scriptures, known as the Vedas. She was reported as saying: ‘The Vedas and Indian philosophy alone could show a path of peace to the world… The Vedic life was above caste, region, religion and country. World peace can be achieved by following Vedic life’.
Princess Irene’s mother, Frederica, died in 1981, and following this, Princess Irene moved to Madrid to live with her sister, then Queen Sofía of Spain, in an apartment at the La Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, the royal residence of the King and Queen of Spain. She remained there for the rest of her life. Irene’s niece, Infanta Cristina of Spain (Felipe’s sister) named her daughter Irene after her.