Death of Princess Christina of the Netherlands: August 16, 2019


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Marengo said:
I believe he did not treat Christina very well. That the family kept inviting the late duke of Parma to family events but banned Jorge Guillermo completely says enough. He was said to be unkind and with bad manners and with belittling remarks towards his wife, apparently witnissed by members of the royal family.

When Christina met Jorge he lived together with a man, Ned O'Gorman. He had studied Art History and worked at a kindergarten for socially underpriviliged children in Harlem, New York. After the marriage Prince Bernhard supposedly arranged a more respectable job for him at KLM and later at Golden Tullip Hotels. The latter let him leave the company with a small compensation. In the last years of his marriage he mainly focussed on buying art and old wine. He also wrote a few coffee tables books. one of them about Cuba, which experts claimed had little to do with the reality on the island. The art work was all auctioned off after the divorce.

After the divorce he studied History of Art and Theology at Leuven University in Belgium. He befriended a priest with the last name of Dobson. In 2005 it was claimed in the gossip press that they were more than just friends. Later he moved to London -where his daughter Juliana lived with him- and in 2005 to a small castle in Condome, France. From his divorce he did not gain much money as the couple was married with a prenuptial agreement.

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Didn't princess Christina have an appartment above the royal stables of Noordeinde in The Hague?
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I heard the same thing. In fact, I know someone who was a journalist who interviewed Jorge and Cristina when they lived in New York City in a posh building near the United Nations. There is a park in the area and she met them for an interview. She said that he treated Cristina horribly even in front of her and her photographer which is shocking because you would think that someone with a bit of discretion would try to reign in their behavior in front of the press, not Jorge Guillermo. My friend the journalist told me that he would walk on ahead, callously leaving her behind [a nearly blind woman] without even the slightest care that she might trip as she tried to catch up and that he would [and this is shocking!] refer to her as "that blind woman!" You know what it is to call your wife, the mother of your children, "that blind woman?"

Also, I heard that he was so arrogant that people at work would call him "the queen" which as you know is a double entendre referring, also, to his alleged sexuality.
 
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Ned O'Gorman was an American poet and editor of Catholic magazine,he died some years back.

Marengo said:
When Christina met Jorge he lived together with a man, Ned O'Gorman. He had studied Art History and worked at a kindergarten for socially underpriviliged children in Harlem, New York. After the marriage Prince Bernhard supposedly arranged a more respectable job for him at KLM and later at Golden Tullip Hotels. The latter let him leave the company with a small compensation. In the last years of his marriage he mainly focussed on buying art and old wine. He also wrote a few coffee tables books. one of them about Cuba, which experts claimed had little to do with the reality on the island. The art work was all auctioned off after the divorce.

After the divorce he studied History of Art and Theology at Leuven University in Belgium. He befriended a priest with the last name of Dobson. In 2005 it was claimed in the gossip press that they were more than just friends. Later he moved to London -where his daughter Juliana lived with him- and in 2005 to a small castle in Condome, France. From his divorce he did not gain much money as the couple was married with a prenuptial agreement.
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Let us summarise: Christina was head over heels on Jorge. And Jorge was head over heels on Christina's millions. Thanks to mama-in-law state-less Jorge got a very well-paid position at KLM Royal (!) Dutch Airlines and at Golden Tulip Hotels (owned by KLM).

The villa De Eikenhorst at the Royal Domain De Horsten, where the King lived until two months ago, was originally build by Princess Christina and Jorge, in the 1980's. It was stacked with antique and artworks. The same for their Central Park Appartment in New York City. It must have cost a fortune and Jorge was penniless.

After the divorce the villa stood empty for a couple of years until the Prince of Orange got the idea to live there with his newly-married spouse Máxima. A complete overhaul erased the interiors of Princess Christina and Jorge. But let us not condemn Jorge: his father-in-law was exactly the same. Juliana loved Bernhard to bits. Bernhard loved Juliana's millions.

To get an idea: one of the salons in the brand-new build villa De Eikenhorst (looking old) , when Christina and Jorge lived there: http://www.paleizen.nl/Paleizenbest...g/Wassenaar/Bibliotheek tijdens Christina.jpg
 
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I wonder if we'll see Jorge Guillermo at the funeral?
 
An Ard Ri said:
I wonder if we'll see Jorge Guillermo at the funeral?
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We have not seen him at any event in the royal family, since the divorce. Unlike his former brother-in-law, the late Duke of Parma, he seems disappeared. I think Princess Christina (or Princess Juliana) paid a huge sum to him, under strict condition that he stays away from the royal family.

It is the same with Alicia Hala de Bielefelde and with Alexia Lejeune Grinda: millions from their father Prince Bernhard but zero contact with their four royal half-sisters. The Orange-Nassaus are masters in enclosing themselves when needed. I think that is in their DNA since mediaeval times, by means of survival.
 
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An Ard Ri said:
I wonder if we'll see Jorge Guillermo at the funeral?
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I wonder too? It's a difficult call. If he doesn't go it will prove in the eyes of many that he is callous and unfeeling not to go to the funeral of a woman who was once his wife, the mother of his children, and loved him dearly and if he goes I'm sure that he will not be welcomed and will be looked on by many [especially his former sister-in-laws] as a man who made their youngest sister suffer so much. How can he even approach Beatrix and the other sisters to give his condolences? If he does, I'm sure that they will receive him frostily.
 
Imo i would be very surprised if we *see* anything concerning the funeral, the Dutch RF are very good at keeping the dutch media out of their way, and it is a private affair after all.

If i would have to guess, i'd say that Jorge Guillermo would not be welcome at the funeral, he can support their children and grandchildren in private, away from the RF i'm sure..

I don't think we ever got to see the grandchildren (and spouses) of Bernardo, Nicolas and Juliana, because they are private citizens too, and i don't think that will change now

just my 2 cts ofcourse
 
Lee-Z said:
Imo i would be very surprised if we *see* anything concerning the funeral, the Dutch RF are very good at keeping the dutch media out of their way, and it is a private affair after all.

If i would have to guess, i'd say that Jorge Guillermo would not be welcome at the funeral, he can support their children and grandchildren in private, away from the RF i'm sure..

I don't think we ever got to see the grandchildren (and spouses) of Bernardo, Nicolas and Juliana, because they are private citizens too, and i don't think that will change now

just my 2 cts ofcourse
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I agree. Bernardo, Nicolàs and Juliana Guillermo are very, very private persons. In no way comparable with "look at me, look at me!" figures like Tessy, Kitty or Jazmin.

According to the magazine Vorsten, Princess Christina lived in Italy. She had a spacious pied-à-terre (high ceilings, stunning interiors) in The Hague, which was the étage with the dome and tower above the main entrance to the Royal Mews in the palace park. So there are appartments and studios at the Royal Mews indeed. See picture: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...jke_stallen.jpg/800px-Koninklijke_stallen.jpg
 
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I don't see why her ex-husband needs to attend, they divorced because he was so mean to her so I would like to think even her children wouldn't need his support for the funeral service and will instead, if needed, seek support in their mother's family.
 
Duc_et_Pair said:
Appartments above the Royal Mews? I believe Princess Madeleine of Sweden had one. But I have no idea if the Royal Mews in The Hague houses studios and appartments. It is big enough, I must say:

https://haagspraak.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/i56a6686akl.jpg
and
https://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/binar...ment/prinsjesdag-2018-koninklijke-stallen.jpg

Somehow I can not imagine the Princess living there. It must be her sister's Beatrix' pied-à-terre at 66.
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I have read in a few articles over the years that she used an appartment above the royal stables at Noordeinde. IIRC it was mentioned when the Dafodil trust was in the news. Today the Volkskrant referred to it too:

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-ac...t-anoniem-door-het-leven-was-gegaan~b595ce0e/


Perhaps the street-side is less dark & has more windows than on the inner court that you showed, which perhaps makes it more suitable for an apartment:
https://haagspraak.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/i56a6686akl.jpg

Edit: I see now that you have found an article in vorsten that claims the same. The princess lived indeed in Italy. I believe her daughter also lived there with her family, though I do not know if that is still the case.

tommy100 said:
I don't see why her ex-husband needs to attend, they divorced because he was so mean to her so I would like to think even her children wouldn't need his support for the funeral service and will instead, if needed, seek support in their mother's family.
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At the wedding of their eldest son Bernardo the priest told a newspaper that the two were on speaking terms again, that the old wounds were healing and that the wedding and birth of a grand daughter was the reason why.

I do not think we will know if he attended or not. From an interview in 2015 about her art work it seems that Juliana Guillermo has a good relationship with her father, as perhaps also do her brothers.

The cremation will be in private, as were the wishes of the princess and in the line with the way she lived. At most there may be some pictures when the family walks to the cupola of Fagel, as was the case when they said goodbye to the late Duke of Parma. But I would be surprised if they will not allow pictures to be taken this time. As Lee-Z and Duc said: the princess was a very private person and her children even more so.
 
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We do not know if Jorge was mean to her. But it was a public secret that the love was one-sided. But again: it was exactly the same between the late Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard. A one-sided love affair.

But that is probably almost unavoidable: Christina was born in a palace, with severe eyesight problems. From day one her much older sisters Beatrix and Irene, the nannies, the governesses, the dames-du-palais, the teachers, all clouded protectively around her. Every time she became in public, all people murmured: "Aaaaawwww.... Look at that... The poor girl..."

She was, like her sisters, stuffed with a fortune to make a good start in life. And there you are: a lonely, overprotected, visibly impaired Princess of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, with a triple diamond platinum credit card, a fabulous art collection and a VIP treatment. No wonder she met men who probably never would have been interested in her. Exactly the same with Juliana & Bernhard by the way.

That is the tragic of many old-style royals not (enough) exposed to real life. And Princess Christina had an extra handicap, of course.
 
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:previous:

Curiously enough in 1975 Beatrix told her former nanny -as recorded by the late Willem Oltmans (!) who had the same former nanny- that Jorge Guillermo 'came from an excellent family' and was not a goldigger.

Duc_et_Pair said:
a lonely, overprotected, visibly impaired Princess of the Netherlands
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I am not quite sure in how far this was true by the time the two met. She was at least very independant. The princess left her parents when she was sixteen to live with a friend & her parents. For her studies she moved to Groningen and later to Montreal where she studied on the conservatorium and after that to New York. She lived abroad in anonimity and even had a job as a singing teacher and gave sound therapy to blind people. I suppose New York in the seventies was hardly a place where naivité could be sustained for a long time.
 
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Oh, how sad. I was aware that Princess Christina was ill but I had hoped she would recover... 72 is pretty young in terms of dying age nowadays. :sad:
Christina seemed to be a very talented individual and I hope she has a lot of music at her funeral to reflect that side of her life.
 
Rust in vrede uwe koninklijke hoogheid.
My deepest condolences to the Dutch Royal Family.
 
Now it is clear that the recent sale of artworks from Princess Christina's private collection, for an example drawings by Pieter-Paul Rubens and crystalware by René Lalique, were possibly meant to distribute her wealth in the latest phase of her life.

By the way, when she left Villa Eikenhorst after the divorce, she had organized an auction too with hundreds of items. She gave permission to the auction house to label it openly as "properties of HRH Princess Christina of the Netherlands". The result however was destined for the Princess Christina Concours (an annual concours for 500 young talents in classical music, which also hands out stipends for promising talents as well a fund to provide in - often costly- music instruments).
 
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Upthread I read that Jorge Guillermo only cared about his title - but how can he care about a title that he doesn't have?

Or is the meaning that it is a title that he was, at the time, to receive upon marriage?

I think it is too far-fetched to compare Christina's marriage to Jorge Guillermo to that of her parents. Every marriage is different.
 
Perhaps he was hoping he'd be made a Count or a Baron ,it never happened and he remains Mr.Jorge Guillermo who was once married to a Princess.
 
Rayarena said:
It was rumored for years. Cristina was even once quoted as saying that Jorge was insufferable and that he only cared about his title. Almost as soon as he married her the problems began. It was said that he would leave her at night and go off. A persistent rumor is that Jorge was gay.
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First,the jerk had no title,second,there was vast physical abuse by that guy,not once but often.No,he went into a monastery hiding from the world and keeping himself closeted in more then one way by doing so,the cowardice lice,and afterwards moved back to the US where he came from and had lived with men instead of women before he met dear Christina through her work in NYC!
He is persona non grata here!
 
Duc_et_Pair said:
Appartments above the Royal Mews? I believe Princess Madeleine of Sweden had one. But I have no idea if the Royal Mews in The Hague houses studios and appartments. It is big enough, I must say:

https://haagspraak.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/i56a6686akl.jpg
and
https://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/binar...ment/prinsjesdag-2018-koninklijke-stallen.jpg

Somehow I can not imagine the Princess living there. It must be her sister's Beatrix' pied-à-terre at 66.
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Princess Christina had an appartment above the Royal Mews,yes,her pied a terre here in NL.
 
Duc_et_Pair said:
Now it is clear that the recent sale of artworks from Princess Christina's private collection, for an example drawings by Pieter-Paul Rubens and crystalware by René Lalique, were possibly meant to distribute her wealth in the latest phase of her life.

By the way, when she left Villa Eikenhorst after the divorce, she had organized an auction too with hundreds of items. She gave permission to the auction house to label it openly as "properties of HRH Princess Christina of the Netherlands". The result however was destined for the Princess Christina Concours (an annual concours for 500 young talents in classical music, which also hands out stipends for promising talents as well a fund to provide in - often costly- music instruments).
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The Princess knew very wel what was coming,yes.And every single piece was privately funded,never a penny from tax-payers,private property is that for all and every one!!Always.Regardless what pulp drunk & frustrated journaille says & writes.She did what was legally possible in the circumstances and I would just do the very same came the occasion.

Let her rest in peace,she was a good,warm and noble Lady.
 
An Ard Ri said:
Perhaps he was hoping he'd be made a Count or a Baron ,it never happened and he remains Mr.Jorge Guillermo who was once married to a Princess.
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Exactly - and with the first part: he may just have missed his claim to fame by remaining plain Mr. Jorge Guillermo.
 
I think neither Pieter van Vollenhoven nor Jorge Guillermo would have protested when their mother-in-law would have made them a noble. Both Pieter's parents were patricians. Making him a jonkheer (untitled noble) and their children no Oranges would have been better, in hindsight.

Now we see a one of their sons as "pandjesprins", a much-discussed real estate mogul, owning houses, the Media Park and even a Formula One race circuit.

Was he Bernhard Stuyling de Lange van Vollenhoven, it has a different load than Zijne Hoogheid prins Bernhard van Oranje-Nassau, Van Vollenhoven.

But Queen Juliana refused to bestow a title on Pieter: in her eyes it would like as if she could not accept a "commoner" as son-in-law and she wanted to avoid that wrong impression, especially in de midst of the roaring Sixties. She wanted to show Pieter from Schiedam was exactly the same to her as the dark-blue-blooded Spanish-French-Italian son-in-law Carlos Hugo.

With this precedent, any title for Jorge Guillermo was out of the question.
 
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Lucien , I like your posts about your late Princess Cristina
She was an artist a clever and independant Princess .
At the end of her life she was fighting against a painful and terrible cancer.
She was wise to sell her old masters painting and drawings , the amount is already to her 3 Children who were loving Children .
 
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Duc_et_Pair said:
I think neither Pieter van Vollenhoven nor Jorge Guillermo would have protested when their mother-in-law would have made them a noble. Both Pieter's parents were patricians. Making him a jonkheer (untitled noble) and their children no Oranges would have been better, in hindsight.

Now we see a one of their sons as "pandjesprins", a much-discussed real estate mogul, owning houses, the Media Park and even a Formula One race circuit.

Was he Bernhard Stuyling de Lange van Vollenhoven, it has a different load than Zijne Hoogheid prins Bernhard van Oranje-Nassau, Van Vollenhoven.

But Queen Juliana refused to bestow a title on Pieter: in her eyes it would like as if she could not accept a "commoner" as son-in-law and she wanted to avoid that wrong impression, especially in de midst of the roaring Sixties. She wanted to show Pieter from Schiedam was exactly the same to her as the dark-blue-blooded Spanish-French-Italian son-in-law Carlos Hugo.

With this precedent, any title for Jorge Guillermo was out of the question.
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The "title question" has been asked to Prof. Mr. Pieter - it was in an interview with Volkskrant for his 50th wedding anniversary in January 2017: he never requested nor wanted a title and is of the disposition that one must think highly of him/herself when a title is wished for. It *has* been discussed, but not by him.

So one can use "high flying language" but this is how it is. Thus the bolded part is not necessarily true, IMO.

Jorge Guillermo is of a totally different order and totally incomparable with Prof. Mr. Pieter.
 
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Skippy said:
The "title question" has been asked to Prof. Mr. Pieter - it was in an interview with Volkskrant for his 50th wedding anniversary in January 2017: he never requested nor wanted a title and is of the disposition that one must think highly of him/herself when a title is wished for. It *has* been discussed, but not by him.

So one can use "high flying language" but this is how it is. Thus the bolded part is not necessarily true, IMO.

Jorge Guillermo is of a totally different order and totally incomparable with Prof. Mr. Pieter.
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Of course that was a socially desirable answer. What could he say? Yes, I wanted a title for myself and my children? Prince Henrik gave no socially desirable answers. And he was slashed in media.
 
Duc_et_Pair said:
Of course that was a socially desirable answer. What could he say? Yes, I wanted a title for myself and my children? Prince Henrik gave no socially desirable answers. And he was slashed in media.
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There is a huge difference between a title of Count/Earl and the title King just because you married the Monarch. Not a relevant comparison IMO.
 
Duc_et_Pair said:
Of course that was a socially desirable answer. What could he say? Yes, I wanted a title for myself and my children? Prince Henrik gave no socially desirable answers. And he was slashed in media.
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O-H Anglophile said:
There is a huge difference between a title of Count/Earl and the title King just because you married the Monarch. Not a relevant comparison IMO.
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The latter has more rationale and precedent, but the remarks of Prince Henrik of Denmark, and the media reaction, reached far beyond a simple answer about a title.

In any case, I understand the point Duc_et_Pair was making was that Pieter's answer that he never requested a title does not necessarily imply that he would have rejected or resented a title had one been given.

And, to return to the topic of Princess Christina's life, I suppose the rumor(?) that Jorge Guillermo had hopes of a title becomes less believable considering his awareness that even Pieter van Vollenhoven, a working member of the royal house and the father of princes in line to the throne, did not receive one.

In light of his apparent interest in the privileges and benefits of the royal family, why did he not prevail on Princess Christina to request Parliament's authorization for the marriage, which would have allowed him to become a member of the Royal House?
 
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