The Royal World – How royal or noble are the participants?

The TV-channel MTV on Wednesday 7 November (10pm British time) comes with a new reality show called “The Royal World“, which has six episodes, the final one to be aired on Wednesday 12 December. I think MTV will also broadcast this in Australia as off 8 November, so you might be able to see it in even more countries. MTV promises sophisticated young royals and actual aristocrats who will come together for a good time in a mansion in the British countryside. MTV is said to have gained exclusive access to the family homes and friendship circles.

As usual with these kind of shows, most names of the participants are quite unknown to the bigger audience. And in the best cases they are totally unknown royals or at least from a noble family. So I decided to have a look into the background of the people in this show. Sometimes however even I got stuck, so more information is always welcome.

Count Michael Ziadie Campbell (born in Russia, around 1993)

Misha as he is called was educated in France. He has a music degree and works in events management.

Count Dmitri Ziadie Campbell (born in Russia, 1993)

Dima is a producer according to his IMDb profile. He also worked as an events organiser.

The family is not unknown to reality shows. Misha and Dima are adopted sons (1993) of Lady Colin Campbell, wellknown from I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here. She also writes royal biographies. Georgia Ariana Ziadie was born in Jamaica and married in 1974 Lord Colin Ivar Campbell, son of the 11th Duke of Argyll. They divorced only a year later. Although she always kept using the title and is allowed to, it doesn’t make her sons noble, royal or even counts (a title not even in use among British nobles, there it should be Earl). No title also at all.

Marquess Maria Gabriella Diana (born in Italy, 1996)

Oh dear, listed as a marquess (a male title) on sites about the programme, as surely in English it should be Marchioness, or in Italian Marchesa. Surprisingly I can’t even find a short video about her on the MTV website itself. She is a model, living in New York. She studied at the Istituto Marangoni.

She seems to be the daughter of Giovanni Diana – son of Marchese Alfredo Diana – and his wife Gabriela Cardenas Ribadeneira, as her age is not listed in the profiles I found. She has two elder brothers. I am not quite sure which title she is allowed to use, not being too familiar with Italian nobility. I would go for Nobile Donna Maria Gabriella dei Marchesi Diana tough.

Tyler Dooley (born in Los Angeles, USA, 1992)

Oh yes, that name sounds very familiar. No, he is not noble or royal at all. He is a son of Thomas Markle, the half-brother of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. That is clearly all it takes to be asked to take part in a reality show.

In case you don’t know yet, he lives in Oregon, USA, owns a legal cannabis business and created a product called “Markle Sparkle” in honour of his aunt’s marriage in May 2018. He wasn’t invited for the wedding by the way, although he was in London. Meghan used to babysit him.

Jessica Heydel (born in Wales, UK, 1992)

Jessica lives in Kensington, London, is half-English, half-Russian and is said to be a triple Baroness. She partly grew up in Moscow, Russia, and graduated from Goldsmiths where she studied Events Management.

And a Baroness she indeed is (see her ancestors) and if you look far enough there might even be some princely and royal ancestors. As she has explained in the past, her family was given the title of baron in 1772 in Poland, in 1820 in Russia and in 1826 in Austria. Jessica is a daughter of Baron Alexander Heydel and his Russian wife Svetlana Tokueva, who by the way is not a noble by birth. She has a younger brother.

Daniel MacLaurin (born 1996/97)

Daniel grew up in Scotland and studies at the University of St Andrews. He is part of the Scottish MacLaurin Clan.

I don’t have a genealogy of this family and the clan is certainly not one of the more known ones. Also written MacLaren. On a photo he wore a kilt in the ancient colours of the MacLaurin of Bioch family. He is at least not closely related to the chief of the Clan MacLaren.

Sienna Rose Myson (born in London, UK, 1991)

Siennas royal connection is that she used to ride with Zara Tindall née Phillips, the grandaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. Furthermore her godmother is Princess Vanessa Lobanov-Rostovsky, who is married to a member of this Russian princely family descending from the Grand Dukes of Kiev.

As a young woman Sienna was nominated for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Award. With her horse Tambourine she was a double eventing gold medallist at the European Championships for Team GB in 2008. She also is a freelance television presenter and reporter as Sienna Myson, although her full surname seems to be Myson-Davies.

Adeniyi Obafemi Olopade (born in 1994)

Niyi is one of the 15 children (six boys, nine girls) of Chief Jonathan Adio Obafemi Olopade (born Lagos 1926), who lived both in the UK and Nigeria? Niyi enjoys sports.

Lady Camilla De La Poer Beresford (born 1995)

Camilla is the only daughter of Henry Nicholas De La Poer Beresford, 9th Marquess of Waterford, and his wife Amanda Thompson. She studied fashion design at Bath Spa University and graduated this year. She since has started her own fashion label Camilla De La Poer.

Her elder brothers are Richard, styled Earl of Tyrone, and Marcus.  Richard loves playing polo and is a former captain of the Young England Polo team. The family has lived in Ireland for over 800 years and lives at Curraghmore House.

Zara Sassoon-Munns (born in London, UK, 1994)

Zara is a fashion designer who recently launched her own sports clothing line Move Like Zaza Ltd. She has lived all over the world. Zara is a daughter of Peter Sassoon Munns- an hotelier – and his wife Farah – who is director of Trust Reservations. Actually according to Ancestry the surname is a combination of his birth name Munns and her maiden name Sassoon. Zara’s sister Sophia Sassoon starred in the TV-Programme Made in Chelsea.

I just wished I could find the genealogical connection to the numerous barons and earls that she is supposed to have in her family tree. I guess she must be related to the Sassoon family, that is listed in Burke’s Peerage as a landed gentry family, formerly of Ashley Park. This family is of Jewish descent and originally from Iraq. The family moved to India and partly ended up in Great Britain. According to Wikipedia they are known as the Rothschilds of the East. Unfortunately my genealogy is rather old, and her mother was only born in 1965.

The host or Master of Ceremonies

No show without a moderator. The man is a comedian and magician called Archie Manners. Actually he could have been part of the normal cast easily. He seems to be Archie Manners, born 1993 as son of Robert Manners and his wife Samantha Jukes. His father is a grandson of the 4th Baron Manners of Foston, who in male line descends of the Dukes of Rutland. Therefore he actually has more noble ancestors than most of the participants I’d say.