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Jordan Bardella is linked to a complex case involving his partner, who comes from a French aristocratic family and is the heir to a legal dispute involving several hundred million dollars.
Since Jordan Bardella made his relationship with Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies De Jiménez official, media attention surrounding the couple has steadily increased. Revealed to the public by Paris Match in the spring of 2026, this romance between the leader of the National Rally and an heiress of European aristocracy fascinates as much as it intrigues. But behind the glamorous appearances and the high-society image of the young Italian princess , an old legal case linked to her family has resurfaced. A complex affair involving a colossal fortune, offshore trusts, accusations of inheritance misappropriation, and an international legal battle over nearly $600 million. A scandal that is now causing significant media and legal tensions.
Aged 22, Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies De Jiménez belongs to the Bourbon-Two Sicilies family, an ancient Italian dynasty descended from the kings of France . The Bourbon-Two Sicilies family is directly descended from the Bourbons, a royal line notably descended from Hugh Capet and Louis XIV.
This Italian branch of the dynasty came into being in the 18th century when Charles III of Spain conquered Naples and Sicily in 1734. Even though this monarchy disappeared during the Italian unification in 1861, the family still retains an important place in European aristocratic circles to this day.
Maria Carolina’s father, Prince Charles of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, is still symbolically considered a pretender to this former, now-vanished throne. But what is attracting attention today goes far beyond the simple royal inheritance.
The considerable wealth of this family stems largely from the maternal side of Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies De Jiménez. Her maternal grandfather, Camillo Crociani, was a powerful industrialist active in the arms and technology sectors. In the 1970s, his name surfaced in the vast international scandal linked to Lockheed Martin, a massive corruption case that implicated several countries and industrialists worldwide. Brought to justice, Camillo Crociani left Europe and settled in Mexico with his family.
technologies.
Upon his death in 1980, his fortune was distributed among various trusts and offshore companies located in several international jurisdictions . This extremely complex estate structure would later become the starting point of a spectacular family feud. The conflict erupted publicly in the early 2010s.
Initially, it was a dispute over the division of artworks inherited from Camillo Crociani. Among the works in question were paintings by Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, and Marc Chagall. But very quickly, the dispute escalated considerably.
Cristiana Crociani, Maria Carolina’s aunt, accused her sister Camilla, the princess’s mother, of having misappropriated a significant portion of the family fortune with the complicity of their mother, Edoarda Crociani. The amount in question reached nearly $600 million. The legal battle continued for several years before various international courts.
The case reached its climax before the Royal Court of Jersey, a British territory renowned for its central role in offshore finance.
After several years of proceedings, Judge Julian Anthony Clyde-Smith ruled that part of the family trust’s assets had been moved improperly.
In 2021, Camilla of Bourbon-Two Sicilies was convicted of contempt of court after refusing to comply with certain court orders. She was then fined €2.3 million or face a prison sentence of up to 12 months.
For several years, this affair remained relatively discreet among the French public. But the recent media coverage of the relationship between Jordan Bardella and Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies De Jiménez has abruptly thrust this case back into the spotlight.
Given the media and social media attention this case has received, the lawyers for the Bourbon-Two Sicilies family reacted swiftly. In a statement published on Twitter, lawyers Olivier Pardo and Benjamin Mathieu denounced a Belgian article they deemed “completely defamatory.”
The lawyers assert that certain information circulating constitutes “false information” and “slander” indirectly targeting Jordan Bardella through his partner. They also state that “there is no longer any dispute within the Crociani family” and that this family conflict is now “resolved.”











