Princess Maria Carolina Christina of Bourbon-Parma, Marchioness of Sala (born 23 June 1974), is the fourth and youngest child of Princess Irene of the Netherlands and Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma, and is a member of the Royal and Ducal House of Bourbon-Parma, as well as of the Dutch Royal Family.
Princess Carolina was born at 23 June 1974 in Nijmegen. She has two older brothers, Prince Carlos, the head of the House of Bourbon-Parma, and Prince Jaime. She also has one older sister, Princess Margarita. She was baptised at the Castle of Lignières in France with Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Princess Christina of the Netherlands and Princess Maria de las Nieves of Bourbon-Parma as her godparents.
In 1981, when she was six, her parents decided to divorce. She moved together with her mother and her brothers and sister to the Soestdijk Palace (Baarn), the then residence of the former Queen of the Netherlands. They lived at the palace for a number of years with her grandparents, the in 1980 abdicated Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Later on they lived for a while in a villa at Wijk bij Duurstede.