Bulgaria's Prince Kubrat Celebrated His 61st Birthday in the Omani Desert: the Title Is From Panagyurishte, the Life From Madrid

Prince Kubrat of Bulgaria, the third son of Simeon II and Margarita, celebrated his 61st birthday in Oman, together with his wife Carla Royo-Villanova. The news was published by the Bulgarian royal house itself on its official Instagram profile, with a photo of the two of them among the sand dunes. No details about the programme - just a picture and birthday wishes.

Kubrat was born in Madrid on 5 November 1965 and holds the title Prince of Panagyurishte. But his life is Spanish down to the last item: he graduated in medicine from the University of Navarra in 1990, with highest honours, and built his career as a general and digestive surgeon, with further training in London. The title is from the Balkans; the scalpel, the home and the family are from Madrid.

He and Carla met when she was 16 and he was 19, during a weekend at the San Juan reservoir near Madrid. Six years later, on 2 July 1993, they married at Madrid's Encarnación monastery, in front of the then King and Queen of Spain, Juan Carlos and Sofía. For their 30th anniversary, in 2023, they renewed their vows - this time in the garden of their home, in front of their three sons.

The sons - Mirko, Lucas and Tirso - are also far from any throne. Mirko is a surgeon, Lucas a psychiatrist, and the youngest went into telecommunications. A family that keeps the title and lives off its professions - for a royal house, that's rarer than it sounds.

His father Simeon II, Bulgaria's last tsar, returned to Bulgaria after the fall of communism and was prime minister from 2001 to 2005 - not by inheritance, but through elections. Today his son celebrates in Oman, thousands of kilometres from both Madrid and Sofia. How much of the Balkans is left in the Bulgarian royal house apart from the title?