Greek royals exude glamor in their glossy black and white Christmas card – after the Wales family were mocked for their version

An idyllic beach, cheekbones that could cut glass and designer clothes, the Greek royal family certainly pulled out all the stops with their very glamorous 2023 Christmas card.

The photo, shared on Instagram by Crown Princess Marie-Chantal, shows the matriarch with her husband Pavlos, the heir to the defunct throne, and their five children, all in black and white.

Model Olympia, 27, is joined by her brothers Constantine, 25, Achileas, 23, Odysseas, 19, and Aristidis, 16.

The family, all looking good on the catwalk, sit in front of a beautiful view, believed to be in Greece.

The inside of the neat text reads ‘Wishing you a merry Christmas and happy new year’ in both Greek and English.

Olympia, who recently split from Britain’s most eligible bachelor Peregrine Pearson, showed off her slim physique in a leopard print dress.

Meanwhile, Constantine, who is dating Poppy Delevingne, 37, wore a light shirt with an open collar and chain to match his brothers.

The card, in black and white, was quickly compared to the offering from the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Earlier this month, Prince William and Kate Middleton showed off the family portrait with their three children in matching white shirts.

The couple pose with Prince George, 10, Prince Louis, five, and Princess Charlotte, eight, who sits in a chair at the front of the group.

The three men and boys are dressed in matching plain shirts – George opts for a Ralph Lauren Polo number – and dark trousers, while Kate and Charlotte have swapped the trousers for jeans.

While many saw the photo of a happy family, some thought it wasn’t festive and mocked it as an apparent Photoshop fail.

A sharp-eyed observer zoomed in on the left hand of Prince Louis, five, and noticed that his middle finger appeared to be missing.

Of course, it looks like he’s just spreading his fingers wide. But upon closer inspection, some also wondered what happened to William’s left leg.

He appears to have adopted a wide stance, but only his right leg is visible. Similarly, only one of Kate’s feet is visible behind the chair where Princess Charlotte, eight, sits.

Pavlos’ father was King Constantine, a relative of Prince Philip, who was exiled from Greece after the abolition of the Greek monarchy in 1973.

Princess Olympia, who has 300,000 followers on her Instagram page, where she updates royal viewers with insights into her daily life, has often expressed her long-standing love for the fashion industry.

At the age of 11, Olympia attended her first couture show in Rome with her parents.

During her time at a boarding school in Switzerland, she studied art history, theatre, photography and graphic design in hopes of pursuing a career in art or fashion.

She interned at Christian Dior’s couture department at age 17 before earning a bachelor’s degree from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2019.

Her family was on hand to watch her receive her diploma at a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York City, where they beamed as she walked across the stage in a black cap and purple dress.

Olympia has moved from her former family home in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and now lives in Notting Hill with her sausage dog Echo – who she adopted during the coronavirus lockdown.

As of 2021, she is in a relationship with Peregrine Pearson, the son and heir of Michael Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray, whose family has a known fortune of £224 million.

Perry’s father owns a significant part of the Pearson media empire and the 16,500-acre estate in West Sussex that is home to the Cowdray Park polo club where Princes William and Harry played.

The pair split earlier this year and Perry has since been linked to Sophie Turner.

Olympia was previously the face of Louis Vuitton’s Capucine bag campaign, which was a full-circle moment for the royal family, who reportedly loved her grandmother’s Vuitton bag as a child.

Meanwhile, Olympia’s mother, Marie Chantal of Greece, lived a modern-day fairytale, from growing up with billionaire father Robert Miller to “falling in love at first sight” with Prince Pavlos, heir to the Greek crown.

She combines work as a clothing designer with life as a mother of five whose children are already forging their own successful paths.

She also has a huge online following, with almost a quarter of a million fans on one social media channel alone.

Born in London on September 17, 1968, to parents Robert W Miller, 88, and his Ecuadorian-born wife Maria Clara Pesantas, 83, she grew up in Hong Kong until the age of nine, where she then attended boarding school in Switzerland.

Marie Chantal, 55, is the middle of three sisters, Pia, 57, and Alexandra, 50, who are also best known for their well-connected marriages.

In the 1980s, she attended a bilingual school in Paris before attending the Masters School in New York for her senior year of high school.

Marie-Chantal has a long history of associating with the rich and famous; Before marrying into the royal family, the London-born blonde worked for Andy Warhol.

She began a degree in art history at New York University in 1993, and it was in the city that she first met Prince Pavlos, 56.

The couple met on a blind date set up by New York investment banker Alecko Papamarkou, a mutual friend who was convinced things would work out.

“We hit it off,” the princess told Vanity Fair in 2008. ‘It was love at first sight. I knew he was the person I would marry.”

The couple became engaged in 1995 after a romantic proposal in the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad, and their wedding in July later that year was the largest royal gathering in London since Queen Elizabeth’s wedding to Prince Philip in 1946.

Among the 1,250 guests in attendance were the royal families of Great Britain, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Romania, Jordan and Bulgaria.