Mette-Marit (57-58, introduction and fact sheet)

The King and Queen of Norway got a shock when their son Haakon introduced them to single mom Mette-Marit and demanded that he be allowed to marry her. Into the nest Mette-Marit brought illegitimate little Marius whose father was a drug dealer. And it would become worse, much worse. The scandals came one after the other when Mette-Marit’s own father spoke out in the press and confirmed that she had used drugs. And then it became known that she had acted in a porn film.
A tearful Mette-Marit was forced to apologize on television for her previous life, which she described with her own words as a confused and settled youth. And the crown prince banged his fist on the table and declared that he was thinking about abdicating the thrown if he wasn’t allowed to marry Mette-Marit.
The Cinderella story came true and an entire world was moved to tears when Haakon finally married his Mette-Marit and held his speech during the wedding dinner. After that everything could have been happily ever after just like the fairytale. But when Harald, Sonja and the court had polished and filed and shaped Mette-Marit’s image – exchanged the H&M shirts with Parisian haute couture and taught her to carry herself like the crown princess she had become – her dimwitted family returned with a vengeance. Her brother Espen was convicted of assault and her father Sven had gone and married a stripper.

HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway

Máxima (introduction, fact sheet and text) 165, 166, 167, 168

It seemed incredible that the red-faced, beer swigging Willem-Alexander would one day become king of the Netherlands. And even more unlikely that he would manage to find a queen. “Alex” was always at the bottom of list with the glamour magazines. That is if he was even allowed to be included as something other than a joke.
He certainly doesn’t look anything like prince charming. The connection between his title – Prince of Orange – and his orange red hair is comical, and with his freckled face and his large build he is hardly the symbol for the fairytale prince who rides in on the white steed. Cross you heart and hope to die, would you breathlessly say yes if Alexander wanted to buy you a drink at a bar – if you didn’t know that he was a prince?
On top of everything else, he has also been considered dumb, referred to as “Prince Stupid” – or even the more common name “Prince Pilsner” because of his appreciation for beer. It definitely didn’t look good for the prince or his royal house.
Then Máxima arrives in the Netherlands. A pretty, charming and smart society girl who hadn’t just gotten the prince’s jaw to drop – the whole population was struck dumb. How in the world did the prince of beer get a hold of this girl? And who was she? An ordinary girl whose dream guy happened to be a prince for real? Or a cunning and calculating upper class woman on her way to nestling into the richest royal family of them all?

HRH Crown Princess Máxima of the Netherlands

Letizia (217, 218 introduction and fact sheet)

In the fall of 2003, Spanish state television reported that their future king, the handsome playboy prince Felipe had a new love interest. At this point the Spaniards had stopped placing their bets on him. Felipe has had more girlfriends than all of the European crown prince’s and both the people of Spain and the prince himself have lost count of all the noble ladies and Hollywood stars a long time ago. It is even rumored that he has an illegitimate child. And people feel sorry for him because the fairytale with the beautiful, ordinary Norwegian photo model Eva ended with him not being allowed to marry her.
But one person who isn’t upset about this is the beautiful television host Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano. It is almost incomprehensible how she managed to maintain her professional poker face – when no one knows more about this sad story and about the prince’s agony than she. Namely because it is the news anchor Letizia who is Felipe’s new woman.

HRH Crown Princess Letizia of Asturia