Princess Hteik Su Phaya Gyi said the childhood days when her family had a bevy of servants and retained some of its royal status were now a distant memory.
The British colonial regime dethroned her grandfather King Thibaw in 1885 and later the military junta, which ruled the country for decades, kept the family out of the public eye.
"They didn't want us to be somebody," said the silver-haired princess, swathed in a shimmering purple shawl worn especially for the rare interview.
"Of course I repent a little over the glorious times that we had when we were young," she said, displaying a lively wit undimmed by her 90 years.
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The demolition of the monarchy, at the end of the third and final war that brought the nation firmly under the colonial yoke, smashed centuries of royal rule in the country then called Burma.
Thibaw and his wife, Queen Supayalat, were swiftly and unceremoniously removed from Myanmar and deposited in the small Indian seaside town of Ratnagiri.
Thibaw died in India aged 56 in 1916, shortly after suffering a heart attack, and the family eventually fractured.
A cloak of silence was thrown over the monarchy by successive Myanmar regimes that viewed it as a potential rival, while army leaders sought to evoke much earlier warrior royals.
"Most of Myanmar has forgotten about the king," said deputy culture minister and royal historian Than Swe, who has spearheaded a campaign to return Thibaw's body to Myanmar.
A visit by President Thein Sein to Thibaw's tomb in Ratnagiri during an official trip to India last December reignited interest in Myanmar's monarchy.
Queen Suphayalat's tomb in Yangon is barely marked. When the family tried to place a simple sign there to inform visitors of the pedigree of the occupant, the former junta immediately removed it.
Thibaw was born into a courtly lifestyle steeped in incredible luxury and his fall was bewilderingly sudden.
The royals lived a lavish and isolated existence within the walls of their gilded teak palace in Mandalay. They could only be approached by people crawling on their knees.