How Is Lord Traitor Ivar Mountbatten Related to the Royal Family?

Lord Ivar Mountbatten is gaining attention as a competitor on The Traitors – but what is his connection to the royal family?

Alan Cumming publish on the Today Show Mountbatten would be in June 2024 join season 3 from the competition series alongside reality TV veterans Boston Rob Mariano, Danielle Reyes, Tom Sandoval, Chriselle Stause and more, among a total of 21 contestants. Although Mountbatten has not made a name for himself on television, he has become known as an extended member – and the first openly gay member – of the royal family.

Ivar, born in March 1963, is the son of David Mountbattenbeing the 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, and Janet Mercedes Bryce. Through his father, Ivar is a grandson of Prince George of Battenberg and great-great-great-grandson to Queen Victoria. Ivar’s father was my cousin Prince Philip who married Queen Elizabeth II in 1947, making Ivar first cousin once removed of Philip, third cousin once removed of Elisabeth and second cousin of King Charles III.

Related: ‘The Braditors’ Season 3 Cast Includes Sandoval, Chrishell and Gabby Windey

Get ready The Traitors fans, a new group of loyalists and traitors walk into Alan Cumming’s castle. Peacock announced on Wednesday, June 5, that the season 3 cast will include Tom Sandoval, Robyn Dixon, Dolores Catania, Wells Adams, Tony Vlachos, Carolyn Wiger, Britney Haynes and more. Rob Mariano (Boston Rob), Dorinda Medley, Chrishell Stause, (…)

Ivar has been honest about how he considered Philip a father figure to him after his father died in 1970.

“In later years, I would sit with him and ask endless questions about my father. It was great to have someone who could tell me everything about it,” he told The Telegraph in April 2021. “Prince Philip was a wonderful listener; you could tell him anything as long as you were honest and direct. Was happy to listen to your thoughts. But if he had some advice he thought you should hear, he’d give it to you.”

As a member of the extended family, Ivar has no royal duties. He has worked as a geologist and businessman in the past. Ivar is also a former director of the SCL Group, which was a strategic communications company. While Ivar is a member of the royal family, he understands why he is not as involved in royal events as he once was as a child.

“The family has become very big,” he said to sight360 Tatler in 2019. “When we were younger we went to royal events all the time. But now that everyone has had children, everything has quite rightly diminished.”

Although Ivar is not active with the royal family, he has a close relationship with some of them. He has maintained links with the youngest brother of King Charles Prince Edward and his wife Duchess Sophie. Ivar is godfather to Edward and Sophie’s daughter, Lady Louise Windsor.

Edward and Sophie are godparents to Ivar’s two children, daughters Ella and Alix, whom he shares with an ex-wife Penny Mountbatten. (The exes, who split in 2011, also share daughter Luli.)

Ivar made history in 2016 when he became the first member of the royal family to be openly in a same-sex relationship with his now husband James Coyle. The couple tied the knot in 2018 and were the first British royals to have a same-sex wedding. Speaking to The Independent in 2023, Ivar shared that his family was “extremely supportive” of his and Coyle’s relationship.