Montrealer Kaylee Patterson was having dinner on a regular Wednesday evening last month when she got an unexpected phone call.
It was the Princess of Bulgaria, Maria Louisa, leaving her a voicemail. The princess was looking to reconnect with Patterson’s maternal grandmother, Dikrana Iranian, after decades apart.
“You have never seen me run down a flight of stairs that quickly. I grab my phone, I’m out of breath, my heart rate is 200. I pick up, like, ‘hello?’”
That’s Patterson recounting – in a TikTok video – the moment her life collided with Balkan royalty.
And it was a TikTok video that started it all, leading to a real-life royal reunion between two long-lost childhood friends, now each in their early 90s.
“It is incredible,” Iranian told CityNews on Wednesday. “I mean, she flabbergasted me because I never thought I would ever be in touch with Maria Louisa again.
“Now I’m being reunited at 90, which is incredible. But this happens today because it’s possible.”
Patterson says it all began with a simple, funny video about her grandmother’s old-school manners – how to fold napkins, place cutlery, no elbows on the table.
“The children remember that I used to tell them, ‘princess wouldn’t do that,’” Iranian said. “‘You can’t do that. You’re not supposed to do that.’”
“Every meal was like a royal performance review,” Patterson told her TikTok followers in the tongue-in-cheek video. “Chewing too loud? You’re getting exiled.
“If I didn’t set the table exactly in the same way the Bulgarian elite did in 1963, I was five, and I was getting in trouble.”
the royal family of bulgaria lives rent-free in my muscle memory ????
That video – the first in what eventually became Patterson’s “Bulgarian Royal Saga” – racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Then the unforeseen happened: it attracted the attention of the royal family itself.
Soon, Patterson started getting messages from people claiming to be the prince and the princess’ grandchildren. At first, she thought she was being catfished, until a quick search confirmed it was real.
“My grandmother was best friends with the Princess of Bulgaria? It felt like mythology almost.”
“At this point, I’m in over my head because what do you mean a princess saw my TikToks? It didn’t make sense to me,” Patterson told CityNews.
Happening at the same time: Patterson was exchanging emails with the last monarch of Bulgaria, Simeon II, also the former prime minister of Bulgaria, and Maria Louisa’s brother.
“I was thinking, wait, this would be amazing if I could reunite my grandmother with her long-lost friend,” Patterson said. “And she was alive. She’s 93 years old.
“It was definitely weird. Like what do you mean my grandmother was best friends with the Princess of Bulgaria? It felt like mythology almost.”
For Iranian, though, growing up around royalty never felt extraordinary. To her, Maria Louisa wasn’t a princess, but just a childhood friend.
The two met in Alexandria, Egypt; the Bulgarian royal family was exiled there in 1946 after the abolition of monarchy.
“For me, she was just a friend, you know,” Iranian said. “They didn’t make any difference because I was with the royal family.”
“Even though she’s a regular woman, she’s still a princess,” said Patterson, refusing to downplay the unique friendship. “She is the woman my grandmother invoked every time I misbehaved at dinner and here she is calling me.”
Flipping through old photo albums, Iranian finds pictures from their days growing up in Alexandria, along with letters from the royal household. The last time she saw Princess Maria Louisa was several decades ago during a brief airport stop in Montreal. After that, life got busy and they lost touch. Until now.
Since Patterson’s videos, the old friends have been speaking again through FaceTime. The princess is now 93 and living in New Jersey.
“I would love for my grandmother and the princess to actually meet in person,” Patterson said. “That would be my ultimate goal.”
Iranian says after all these years apart, there’s still a lifetime of stories left to share. She hopes the next reunion will be in person.
“My girls made Florida happen this year, so I guess they can make New Jersey happen too,” she said.
