Lady Marina Charlotte Alexandra Katharine Helen Windsor was born on 30 September 1992 at the
Rosie Hospital in
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, the second child of
George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, a diplomat and member of the
House of Windsor, and
Sylvana Tomaselli, a Canadian historian and member of the Austrian-Italian
Tomaselli family. Her older brother is
Edward Windsor, Lord Downpatrick, and her younger sister is
Lady Amelia Windsor. She is a paternal granddaughter of
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, who is a first cousin of
Elizabeth II, and
Katharine, Duchess of Kent, the only daughter of
Sir William Worsley, 4th Baronet. Marina is named after her great-grandmother
Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. On 21 January 1993, Marina was christened Marina Charlotte Alexandra Katharine Helen Windsor in a
Church of England ceremony by
William Booth, the sub-dean of the
Chapel Royal at
St James's Palace. Her godparents are
Lady Ralph Kerr, Katherine Ruth Panter, William Hanbury-Tenison, and Sasha Poklewski-Koziell. Marina attended
St Mary's School,
Ascot, a Roman Catholic boarding school for girls. She served as deputy head girl at St Mary's. She went on to study French and Portuguese languages at the
University of Edinburgh, where she was active in dramatic societies and wrote for the student publication
Y-Magazine. She forfeited her place in the line of succession, in compliance with the
Act of Settlement 1701, along with her older brother, after being
confirmed in the
Catholic Church of her mother and paternal grandmother. == Career ==