Controversy at maximum over Dutch royal wedding

Published on Saturday 2 February 2002 00:00

WORLD royalty is converging on the Netherlands today for a wedding that has left the House of Orange seeing red.

Maxima Zorreguieta, 30, an Argentine, is marrying Crown Prince Willem Alexander, to the bitter disapproval of his mother, Queen Beatrix.

Newspapers across Europe have reported this week on the intensity of the animosity the queen, 64, feels towards her future daughter-in-law.

The Dutch monarch has ordered a strict dress code for Ms Zorreguieta’s friends, fearing that they will dress inappropriately. All the bride’s female guests have had to submit their dress sizes to the queen’s secretary so outfits of "decorum" can be made for the occasion, it was revealed yesterday.

"She wanted muted tones, apparently, and said that Maxima’s friends would dress too flashily," a friend told the German mass-market newspaper Bild.

In a front-page headline "Beatrix Humiliates Maxima", Bild claimed the queen had "always wanted another daughter-in-law - Princess Victoria of Sweden". The 24-year-old is a former girlfriend of Prince Willem Alexander - reportedly the only one his mother approved of.

Bild’s Sunday sister paper, Bild am Zeitung, alleged that Queen Beatrix had also drawn up a list of German princesses with whom she tried to arrange meetings with her son.

The queen is even reported to have ordered a ban on sex between Ms Zorreguieta and her son.

She insisted that the former investment banker live alone in royal apartments for almost a year before the nuptials even though the party-loving Ms Zorreguieta had her own luxury flat in Brussels.

The prince was quoted as saying: "My mother can be quite beastly."

Further embarrassment was on the cards yesterday. Bailiffs were ordered to recover 33,000 in damages from Ms Zorreguieta before she could officially enter the House of Orange.

De Telegraaf newspaper in Amsterdam reported that the paperwork for the move had been rushed through before the wedding. The damages were the result of a car crash Ms Zorreguieta was involved in with a meat trader’s van.

Some newspapers are comparing the situation of Ms Zorreguieta with that of Diana, Princess of Wales. Beautiful and lively, she is likely to become a coveted target of the paparazzi.

She also seems to be being forced to bend to rules many deem archaic for modern women.

A group of her friends turned up at Amsterdam airport on Thursday and posed for photographers. "We have known her since childhood and we all went to school together.

"More than that we’re not allowed to say," one said. They claimed strict instructions from Queen Beatrix made them keep any secrets to themselves.

Since becoming engaged to the prince last March, home for Ms Zorreguieta has been a flat in the Royal Family’s retreat, the House in the Forest, near The Hague, where she has been expected to assist in the care of Prince Willem Alexander’s ailing stepfather, Prince Claus, 75.

Newspapers reported that she was allowed out with her fianc but, like Cinderella, always had to be back before midnight.

Dutch and German television have both aired speculation that illicit trysts took place at another royal residence, Castle Drekenstein.

European television stations are wiping out their schedules to report on the "fairy tale" wedding. Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, and Nelson Mandela head the list of guests.

Among the royalty attending will be Prince Charles, King Albert II of Belgium, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, King Harald V of Norway, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito, Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco and Queen Rania, wife of King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Another controversial couple will also be present: Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon and his wife, Princess Mette-Marit, a single mother who has admitted using drugs. They were married in August.

Not invited are Ms Zorreguieta’s parents. Her father, Jorge, agreed not to attend because of the unease over his association with the dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s of Jorge Videla, thousands of whose political opponents were killed or jailed. Mr Zorreguieta served two years in Mr Videla’s cabinet.

About 6,000 police will be on duty and hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected to line the route. Anti-royalist protesters are also expected.

A 50yd walkway of bullet-proof glass was constructed to connect the Royal Palace on Dam Square with the Nieuwe Kerk, the 15th-century church where the couple’s civil vows will receive the blessings of the Dutch Reformed Church and where an Argentine Roman Catholic priest will say a prayer. The civil ceremony will be at the Beurs van Berlage building, a disused trading bourse.

Ms Zorreguieta, a Roman Catholic, will marry into the Protestant Royal House in a ceremony officiated over by Amsterdam’s Jewish mayor, Job Cohen.