Society and Culture The Fabulous Miller Sisters

Despite being the youngest sister, Alexandra makes the first grand romantic catch before her older sisters, Pia and Marie-Chantal. It happens on a day in 1987, when 14-year-old Alexandra is walking home to The Carlyle in New York City. She gets on the elevator and encounters the dashing 17-year-old Prince Alexander von Fürstenberg. Alexander is the son of the Austro-Italian aristocrat and Fiat heir, Prince Egon von Fürstenberg and fashion designer, Diane von Fürstenberg. Alexandra knew this was the man she was going to marry. However, they do not start dating officially until she turns eighteen. During the late 1980s also, the eldest sister, Pia starts dating Christopher Getty, an heir to the Getty Oil fortune and grandson of J. Paul Getty. Marie-Chantal’s grand catch happens in the early 90s as a friend sets her up on a blind date. The blind date happens to be Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece who is an exiled crown prince and son of Greece’s last king, King Constantine II. He is also of Danish royal blood as his mother, Queen Anne-Marie is a Danish princess by birth and sister of the reigning queen, Queen Margrethe II. They both knew it was love at first sight. The years 1992-1995 are when all the grand romantic catches of the Miller Sisters become their trophy husbands. Pia marries Getty Oil heir, Christopher Getty in 1992 in a lavish Bali wedding with a reported 300 guests on a mountaintop with Indonesian children dropping rose petals on them. Pia’s wedding is very much more intimate and lowkey than the weddings of her younger sisters. Next, Marie-Chantal marries her exiled crown prince, Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece in July of 1995 in London. Just two days before their wedding Marie-Chantal’s parents throw them the most lavish pre-wedding reception ever. It was held in the English countryside at an estate called Wrotham Park. There are over 1,200-1,400 guests and almost every European royal and aristocrat is there. Marie-Chantal’s mother, Chantal pays homage to her native Ecuador by ordering over 100,000 Ecuadorian roses at an estimated cost of $1 million. The reception goes on until 4 a.m. and the remaining guests enjoy a champagne breakfast. Marie-Chantal and Pavlos marry at St. Sophia’s Cathedral in London. Marie-Chantal’s wedding dress was designed by family friend, Valentino, and her dress costs between $225-$250,000 and for her wedding and the festivities her parents spend an estimated $8.5 million. She is now Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece. Alexandra’s New York wedding follows in October of 1995. She also has a lavish prewedding reception in Battery Park that was based on her native Hong Kong. Robert Isabell, the ultimate party planner who also did MarieChantal’s pre-wedding reception, planned her reception with the help of her mother, Chantal and Alexandra herself. The reception featured lavish tents that spanned three blocks and was decorated with Hong Kong and Chinese related designs and silks and was called the Alex Ball to play on the names of the bride and groom. The guests sipped their cocktails, as they watched the Grucci fireworks explode over the Statue of Liberty. The wedding takes place at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola Church on Park Avenue and Alexandra’s wedding dress is designed by Karl Lagerfeld himself and her guest list varies from celebrities like Dolly Parton, to aristocrats like her in-laws the von Fürstenberg’s, and exiled royalty like her other in-laws the deposed Greek Royal Family. She is now a princess also and her title is Her Serene Highness Princess Alexandra von Fürstenberg.

During the late 1990s to early 2000s, the sisters rule over Manhattan with their equally attractive trophy husbands. Not only did they have matching trophy husbands, they also felt the need to have matching Upper East Side townhouses and each sister owns their own by 2001. They also produce their gilded progenies of Getty heirs, exiled Greek royalty, and German aristocrats. However, their brief reign as it-girls and marriages are falling apart. As the 2000s emerged, the Miller Sisters’ poise, elegance, and grace is not what the media or people in general care to look at anymore. Wilder and younger socialites emerge like the Hilton Sisters, Nicole Richie, and Johnson & Johnson heiress, Casey Johnson. That made the Miller Sisters obscure at that point as the new breed of socialite were taking over with reality tv, tabloid scandals, and having their personal lives invaded by paparazzi. Adding more salt to the wounds is that Pia’s and Alexandra’s marriages are falling apart. The marriages are falling apart because their husbands, Prince Alexander von Fürstenberg and Christopher Getty are being unfaithful. Alexander is known to be a cheater since he and Alexandra began dating and they divorce in 2002. Christopher Getty’s cheating emerges around 2003 when he is seen with some Russian woman and Pia eventually divorces him by 2005. As of today, the Miller Sisters are leading very quiet yet glamorous lives. Pia is a socialite currently based in London living in a townhouse in Knightsbridge and hates being in the public eye so not much else is known about her besides she does some work as an independent filmmaker. Marie-Chantal, the most well-known of her sisters, is still happily married to her exiled crown prince husband, Pavlos, and they have five children together. After leaving New York around 2004 she and her family spent many years living in London, but are back in New York as of recently. She has her own childrenswear line aptly named MarieChantal and attends various royal events throughout Europe with her husband, especially in Denmark since the Danish royals are her in-laws. She currently resides at her family’s old 71st Street townhouse on the Upper East Side. Alexandra is based in Los Angeles now and has an acrylic furniture business named AVF Home. She also remarries to an architectural designer and developer named Dax Miller. She is currently residing in her ultra-modern H-shaped Holmby Hills mansion, which she designed herself. The Miller Sisters are now obscure to the masses, thanks to families like the Kardashians and Jenners. They represented a blend of a cultured international upbringing, nobility, and wealth and were the kind of socialites America may never see again.

Pia & her daughter Isabel Getty at the 2021 Royal Ascot in England

Alexandra photographed inside her Los Angeles based acrylic furniture business, 2016

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