Prince Louis will become a father!

[ShksprNLov]

Originally Posted by iowabelle

Genevieve, it's not the worst thing that could have happened. I mean, they didn't raise a criminal, after all.
This family will probably do just fine in the future.

I completely agree Iow...things a lot worse have happened to other families and they are still on the throne and respected by at least some of the population. And even if Louis and Tessy do decide to break up, I'm sure Louis will keep in contact with her and the baby either because he wants to or because of public scrutiny. But if they do break up, I'm sure Tessy will be perfectly capable of taking care of the baby. Single mothers do it all the time.

[suturegeisha]

Ah, Genevieve, you took the words right out of my mouth. Well said.


Anyway, over on the Glittering Royal Events board, there was a poster who said something very striking about the whole situation, and as such I would like to paraphrase her here [her name is Lindy]:
In response to someone saying that the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess seemed happy about what had happened, she replied that she really did not feel that Henri and MT were overjoyed with the situation. She goes on to say that she wondered about what had been going on with the LRF for the past few months- there were no photos of the family during their annual summer holiday in France, and Henri attended several reasonably big events without MT [Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia's birthday, Prince Antoine de Ligne's funeral [who by the way was Henri's uncle]] and that neither of them went to the wedding of Henri's cousin's daughter Princess Elisabeth de Ligne, and etc. And she's right and I didn't realize it until she pointed it out- for them to be missing from these events is really quite unusual. Do you think that this possibly could have been because of turmoil in the household? Not entirely unfeasible, right?
I do believe that Henri and MT are pretty conservative, MT more than Henri- she was born and raised in a pretty strict Catholic household [again, I'm paraphrasing the original poster]. You can't imagine that having their 19 year old son, who is unmarried and for that fact doesn't really seem to be doing anything with his life as of yet [ie, no college, please don't jump down my throat as it is just my observation!] coming up to them and saying "Oh, yeah, Mom and Dad, my girlfriend is pregnant with my child" and them doing double backflips with excitement, can you?
Plus, her pregnancy was announced in around her third month [due March 2006- so she became pregnant very roughly in June 2005]- I think that they probably decided to head off any potential and gossipy damage by announcing she was pregnant before she started to show. Better to control the fire than add the fuel, as they say.

This really isn't anything new to this family- look at Prince Jean, Henri's brother, and his [ex?] wife Helene Vestur- their first daughter was born before they ever got married. And it's a well-known fact, but nobody says anything about it. Wierd. I wonder if Louis will have to give up his right to the throne, like his uncle Jean did?

I hope it all works out. I do so love this family!

[suturegeisha]

Originally Posted by iowabelle

Genevieve, it's not the worst thing that could have happened. I mean, they didn't raise a criminal, after all.

And besides, nobody (well, except me) really talks about Princess Caroline of Monaco having two children conceived illegitimately anymore. (Granted, she married their fathers later.) Nobody said her parents were lax with her (or with Albert). Stephanie, maybe that's a case of lax parenting... but oh well. Monaco has survived so far.

This family will probably do just fine in the future.

I agree with you on that, but also remember- for one reason or another, that's kind of "expected" in Monaco. Not so much in Luxembourg, as far as I can tell.

[lamass]

suturegeisha, that is an amazing point of view lindy had. how strange is it all of those things are happening in a row with this pregnancy.

[Lady Night Stalker]

Well I have no real worries about the whole thing. For one Louis is royalty. He probably has some enourmous trust fund set up so his child will be set for life. I'm sure there will be some emotional baggage but Louis's child will get everything he needs.

I'm sure Louis's parents aren't happy though. No matter who your parents are they are initially going to hit the roof if their teenaged son or daughter announces to them that they are pregnant. Can you imagien how that must have affected the Grand Duke and Duchess to learn their son was expecting an illegitamate child? I would have been a little less than pleased. So I doubt Lousis' parents are thrilled.

[Warren]

Originally Posted by gaggleofcrazypeople

Since Jean's children are all counts and countesses, I believe the baby will have a similar title.

Late last year Grand Duke Henri granted Jean and his four children the title of Prince (and Princess) of Nassau with the qualification of Royal Highness. Prior to this they were Counts and Countesses of Nassau.

If Louis doesn't marry the mother of the child I think it unlikely he or she will be given a title. But historically the Luxembourg House seems to enjoy giving out titles to the dispossessed, so who knows?
.

[Peaches]

Originally Posted by Genevieve

I am of mixed feelings on this subject.

Bravo Genevieve!

This message board is truly surprising. Okay, to be honest, most of the time, we ogle at royalty or say silly things at one point or another, but this topic really has brought out a lot of interesting discussion!

I agree with Genevieve about the part of the pregnancy announcement being a bit of a PR thing. I'm sure they were not thrilled in the same way the queens and kings of other countries were happy with their impending daughters' pregnancies.

Also, I did notice (as someone pointed out already), in hindsight it's easy to see that there were no new pictures of the family over the past few months. And as someone said before, it would have been interesting to have been a fly on the wall when Louis told his family about the news.
.

[Danielane]

Originally Posted by gaggleofcrazypeople

Since Jean's children are all counts and countesses, I believe the baby will have a similar title.

GD Henri has decided they would be princes. So now they are princes.

[Danielane]

I think no one here can be sure at 100% how strict or relax parents Henri and Maria Teresa are. As for the whole royalty, we can only assume things and make deductions when seeing pictures, except if we have contacts with the royal families. So saying "Henri and MT haven't been strict enough parents" is going to far, as would be the fact of saying the contrary.

[Lady Marmalade]

Since he thought he was so smart and adult for having unprotected intercourse, I would then cut him off financially and make him really learn what being a parent is all about. Paying for the baby's health care, clothing, diapers, food, etc.

Let's see how adult he would be without the money and homes to back up his careless actions.

I will say it again, amazing how all of you treat this like it is so cool to have happened.

If he was not rich and royal, the baby would be the one to suffer and miss out as is usually the case when parents are that young.

[delineate]

Personally, I'm downright sick and tired of the rude, nasty, and appallingly judgemental comments people have been making about this situation. There seems to be alot of negativity all over this forum (not just in this thread) from certain people as of late, and it's getting to the point where I don't really care to visit anymore.

[Harry's polo shirt]

Hi, Lady Marmalade!

I think his parents need to be careful in order to not punish the baby. YOu can punish the parents but sometimes that punishment hurts the baby. I know Louis is 19, the same age as me. He is probably freaking out and extremely stressed out right now, if his parents cut him off or are mean to him, that may cause him to ignore his parents. Grandparents are very important to a child.

His parents definatly should not enable him or anything. Giving him a free ride with money, a house, etc. will hurt him more. He should learn from his actions, (I will not call it a mistake because no child should ever be called a mistake).

Most parents have no idea what their children are doing. They may have given him some space and freedom, and he took advantage of it. His parents should not be held responsible they had nothing to do with him making a baby.

[Lady Marmalade]

I agree, do not punish the poor baby as all babies need the unconditional love, which hopefully he and his girlfriend will give the child.

Look, I am going to assume none us know the prince or his girlfriend personally. Therefore we do not know the circumstances other than the fact she is pregnant by him.

And we can mix the happy posting of congrats with the ones of disgust as well. It is called freedom of expression as we all have different views of this situation.

I just believe what he did was careless and reckless. I know it seems maybe a chic thing to do when you have money and homes and servants to back it up.

And since he was so adult to have intercourse without protection, then he should be responsible, get a job and support the child without the palaces, trust funds and titles to back him up.

Reality is a wet diaper and a screaming baby nine months later.

[Princejohnny25]

You guys act like he is the first royal to have a child outside of wedlock. It is much better that the whole family help raise this child. Louis is not the first royal in history to have a bastard child. He is doing the right think by announcing it and being a proper father to the child. He could have easily paid his girlfriend to stay quite and set up trust funds and never see the child like other royals do but he is being responsible.

[BMC]

Originally Posted by Lady Marmalade

I agree, do not punish the poor baby as all babies need the unconditional love, which hopefully he and his girlfriend will give the child.

Look, I am going to assume none us know the prince or his girlfriend personally. Therefore we do not know the circumstances other than the fact she is pregnant by him.

And we can mix the happy posting of congrats with the ones of disgust as well. It is called freedom of expression as we all have different views of this situation.

I just believe what he did was careless and reckless. I know it seems maybe a chic thing to do when you have money and homes and servants to back it up.

And since he was so adult to have intercourse without protection, then he should be responsible, get a job and support the child without the palaces, trust funds and titles to back him up.

Reality is a wet diaper and a screaming baby nine months later.

Hear, hear!

No matter how this works out, this child is going to have a deeper impact on Tessy Antony's life than on Prince Louis'- if things do not work out between them, Louis will leave and go on with his life. Miss Antony however will still have the child to raise- yes, it will be much easier with the financial support of the Grand Ducal family but still, she will be the one to do it on her own.
Then again, she may be far more prepared to handle it than he is- she comes from an ordinary family- no trust funds, homes or servants/flunkies to clean up your messes for you.

Anyway, I'm curious about the reaction in Luxembourg to this news. What do the people there think about all of this?

[seto]

I don't think it's fair to assume it was unprotected sex. Things happen and birth control can fail. It happens to 19 year olds as well as 40 year olds. I wish them luck being a parent isn't an easy job I don't care how old you are.

[Genevieve]

Originally Posted by delineate

Personally, I'm downright sick and tired of the rude, nasty, and appallingly judgemental comments people have been making about this situation. There seems to be alot of negativity all over this forum (not just in this thread) from certain people as of late, and it's getting to the point where I don't really care to visit anymore.

I don't think it says anywhere that this forum has to be always sugary and chipper and that posts can't be constructive or critical.

This is a controversial topic on many levels. On the one hand you have teenage parents to be who are not married, sex before marriage, traditional ideals of monarchy and sensitivities to scandal, and a host of other issues and subjects. There are bound to be lots of different opinons. Some will be supportive and encouraging of the situation, others critical and negative, and some like me who are in between and don't know what to think.

Not everyone likes the Luxembourg royals, and even if one does, they aren't always going to agree with the actions of members of the royal family all the time.

In any thread you read here some level of judgement is being passed, whether it's on what someone is wearing or how their hair is cut or on actions of a much deeper level, such as Louis's actions in light of this announcement.

Isn't this post I am quoting passing judgement on those who've shared their critical opinons?

[Genevieve]

Originally Posted by iowabelle

Genevieve, it's not the worst thing that could have happened. I mean, they didn't raise a criminal, after all.

And besides, nobody (well, except me) really talks about Princess Caroline of Monaco having two children conceived illegitimately anymore. (Granted, she married their fathers later.) Nobody said her parents were lax with her (or with Albert). Stephanie, maybe that's a case of lax parenting... but oh well. Monaco has survived so far.

This family will probably do just fine in the future.

Monaco's monarchy may have survived thus far but they are a bit of a joke and hardly respected as some other monarchies. Especially with Ranier gone, there is hardly a member of that family that is a true class act anymore. All three children have had children out of wedlock (though a different case can be made for Caroline as she did wed Stefano and Ernst August before the babies were actually born). Both Caroline and Stephanie have had affairs that resulted in broken marriage for their boyfriend's, multiple weddings and anulments.

When you think of the circus that is the Grimaldi family's monarchy, you can hardly take them seriously when you think of the Spanish or the Belgian royals.

In Great Britain Queen Elizabeth is very well respected as a monarch but when Charles takes over he'll have an uphill battle in gaining the public's respect for all his shenanigans over the years.

In the case of the Luxembourg royal family, it's a good thing that it's Guillaume who will succeed his father and not Louis.

[Lady Jennifer]

Or it could be the other way around. Prince Louis might step up & take care of the child & Miss Antony could leave and go on with her life. It could happen that way but I'm not Saying it will. With ppl now knowing about the child Prince Louis will have to (even if he doesn't want too) take care of the child. The ppl of Luxembourg will not stand for a deadbeat dad who is a Prince (my own opinion of course.).