HGD Guillaume and HGD Stéphanie, Current Events 3: May 2014 - September 2017


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There is no obligation to produce a heir. Of course things change when the royal line is not procreated, but in no time the House of Luxembourg will be overflooded with heirs anyway. Is it not from Prince Guillaume, then it is from his many siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins.
 
The court will never say that Stephanie has difficulties to conceive.it is privat.
The interview took place before their wedding , she was 28, she was still young and could wait
But now, she is 32, it is not an old age but the biologic clock is running and a wife has not to wait a long time . they are married since soon 4 years.

All the brides who married in 2011 2012 have children, Kate, Charlene, Claire, Zara.
I remembered when the palace of Monaco announced that Charlene was pregnant, a lot of the people here said, we thought that they will have never children.
They were about to celebrat their three years of wedding.
I hope that there will not be a lot of pressure on the shoulderss of Stephanie and we will learn soon that she is pregnant.and that she will know the happiness of the motherhood
 
It is not really an inability though. They have said in interviews they want a large family eventually but they are in no hurry to start one right away. They are making conscious choice then to be child free for now.

The court will never say that Stephanie has difficulties to conceive.it is privat.
The interview took place before their wedding , she was 28, she was still young and could wait
But now, she is 32, it is not an old age but the biologic clock is running and a wife has not to wait a long time . they are married since soon 4 years.

All the brides who married in 2011 2012 have children, Kate, Charlene, Claire, Zara.
I remembered when the palace of Monaco announced that Charlene was pregnant, a lot of the people here said, we thought that they will have never children.
They were about to celebrat their three years of wedding.
I hope that there will not be a lot of pressure on the shoulderss of Stephanie and we will learn soon that she is pregnant.and that she will know the happiness of the motherhood

This is so true. Stephanie is still young, she is only 32, but her advancing age in my eyes highlights that their lack of children is not by choice. Keep in mind, if a woman is already 32 and she wants to have a large family as the hereditary couple have professed, even if she waits only one to two years between preganancies, she will be in her mid-forties by the time that she has her last child. While this is not unheard of [Stephanie was born when her mother was in her forties], the risk of problems like Down's Syndrome will increase. Everyone knows that and I'm sure that Guillaume and Stephanie who will probably not terminate a pregnancy if this occurs due to their Catholic faith know this too. I, therefore, believe that their childlessness is not by choice, unless they don't care about the risk.
 
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Luxemburger Wort has just announced that Felix and Claire are expecting another baby in the autumn. When I saw the news heading, "New baby expected in Luxembourg's Grand Ducal Court" my heart skipped a beat of joy and as I opened the link, I crossed my fingers in hope that it would say Guillaume and Stephanie. I admit, I was very disappointed when I saw that it was not. It must be tough on Guillaume and Stephanie who as the hereditary couple are expected to produce an heir. This will only underscore their inability [thus far] to have a baby. I hope that they don't end up like their great uncle and aunt, King Baldouin and Queen Fabiola who died childless.

i agree that this will potentially put pressure on them, but i see them as a happy couple just now and don't believe that they are having trouble conceiving. maybe they know what awaits them (a life of duty and service to the country) and want to enjoy a time without the responsibility of kids to top that up. who knows...

I believe that it is an inability to have children. If I remember correctly, when they became engaged, the princely couple said that they wanted to wait three years to have a child, they are going on four years now. All of their contemporaries have had children. William and Kate are up to their second! It is Guillaume and Stephanie's overriding and unavoidable duty to produce an heir. That is their raison d'etre. Sadly, I don't believe that they remain childless by choice. Don't forget that they have enormous resources at their hands. They aren't like a struggling pair of commoners who have to put their lives on hold if they have children. Guillaume and Stephanie could go on with their royal duties and leave the children in the hands of an army of nurses and nannies. I suspect that there is much unspoken alarm at the Royal Court over this, but of course, we are not hearing about it as everything is being kept out of the eye of the public.

yes, they quoted 3 years when they married, but maybe they have reassessed that now. stephanie is 32, so if they want to have a big family, like they mentioned back then, then probably they will start thinking about it soon, or maybe it is in the plans already. as you said, they have resources if they can't conceive naturally.

i also i read somewhere (i don't know how true this is) that royal brides marrying a heir are tested for their ability to conceive prior to announcing the engagement. it seems a bit harsh on the female, and i can't remember where i read it anymore, but it seems logical given their status and responsibilities. so i don't think there is any reason to panic yet - and besides, guillaume's siblings are having children of their own, so the line of succession is not being threatened. i guess today's announcement of felix and claire's second child just adds more certainty on that matter, as (i believe) amalia would become grand duchess in the future should guillaume and stephanie not have children, after felix.
 
Vernissage de l'exposition de l'artiste Wim Delvoye - Cour Grand-Ducale de Luxembourg - Juillet 2016

10e anniversaire du Mudam - Cour Grand-Ducale de Luxembourg - Juillet 2016 (I wonder if there's video of Stephanie's speech...)

MUDAM: Le Mudam a 10 ans !

I feel odd as I'm not very concerned about the HGD couple's "childless" situation. They said they're willing to wait a few years and never specified a number of children. Perhaps they decided to delay parenthood a bit longer.
Another translation of the pre-wedding interviews mentioned "spirit of a large family."

'I've found my Prince Charming': Luxembourg's bride on how she fell in love with her fiancé
 
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Personally, I would love to hear they are expecting, just because I really like them. But, I'm not real worked up about the time, or even if they can or can't have kids. Grand Duke Henri certainly has a line of heirs if there would come a time that G&S could not have children. Only time will tell. It does keep me watching, though!
 
Personally, I would love to hear they are expecting, just because I really like them. But, I'm not real worked up about the time, or even if they can or can't have kids. Grand Duke Henri certainly has a line of heirs if there would come a time that G&S could not have children. Only time will tell. It does keep me watching, though!
I agree with you! But in todays era with so much in fertilization treatments, hope they will not have any problems to conceive! But it is strange that after so many years of marriage she is not pregnant and she is not coming any younger
. I am sure it must difficult for her to ave all this family members getting pregnant and she doesn't........ assuming they are trying and she is not getting pregnant! wishing all the best!
 
Ya'll need to keep in mind they are Catholic...if they are very orthodox about their faith they won't take part in most of the fertility treatments out there.



LaRae
 
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The HGD couple had a third event on July 5th. In the evening, they attended an EMDR psychotherapy conference at the University of Luxembourg.

On July 6th, the HGD couple attended the 50th anniversary celebration of the Port of Mertert at the Philharmonie.

Lëtzebuerger Journal: Runder Geburtstag
 
I'd rather say it's a blend of German and French. At least that's how it sounds - and if you look at Luxembourg's geographical situation it's quite logical. But it's a proper language in its own right of course.
 
On July 8th, the HGD couple attended the inauguration of the new youth center Marienthal. In 1975, the state acquired the site and made it available to the National Youth Service in 1977. Marienthal has existed since 1231 and was designated a National Monument in 2002. Transformation and renovation of the center began in 2010.

Luxemburger Wort - 5-year renovation breathes new life into Luxembourg monastery

Luxemburger Wort - Le Grand-Duc héritier au "Centre de Jeunesse"

Luxemburger Wort - Erbgroßherzog Guillaume im "Centre de jeunesse"

RTL.lu - Lëtzebuerg - Neie Centre de jeunesse ageweit

Inauguration du Centre de jeunesse Marienthal - gouvernement.lu // L’actualité du gouvernement du Luxembourg
 
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Didn't Oberweis produce TRH's gorgeous wedding cake?;)

I love that photo of Stephanie accepting flowers from that little girl, lovely.

BTW Prisma, thanks much for adding the video the speech that I asked for.
 
French is HGD Stephanie's natal language, and she acquired fluency in the Luxembourgish dialect within about 18 months of her wedding.
 
Stéphanie is Belgian and she should have learned flemish at school. Luxembourgish language is not very far from it. Kudos to her but is not like if it was her first contact with these family of languages.
It was more difficult and amazing to Maxima to be fluent in Dutch or Mary / Marie to learn Danish
 
Stephanie stated in her engagement interview that she was finding the Luxembourgish dialect difficult to grasp despite her knowledge of French and German.

So I very much disagree with you that her ability to gain complete mastery of that language in a little over a year is not exceptional, especially as she was also dealing with the sudden and traumatic loss of her mother as well as acclimating herself to a new country and a new position on top of it all.

BTW...she might have been exposed to Flemish at school but she made it clear in the garden of Berg Castle on her engagement day that she was not fluent in it when she was asked directly by a reporter.
 
I did not day that it was not an achievement for her to learn quickly the language. But as already having good bases of Flemish and German language the gap is not enormous.
It is like learning Russian. It is less difficult to learn Russian when you already know Bulgarian and Serbian, than if you know only English.
 
King Philippe of Belgium speaks 7 languages, one of which is Flemish. HGD Stephanie also speaks Russian. How many of you can say you do, too?
 
Wow..I did not know that about Philippe, who has been dismissed on the Royalist message boards and in the media as kind of a dullard.

He is apparently much sharper than he has been given credit for, good for him.

As for Stephanie I know that she lived in Russia as a student but I have never been quite sure if she is fluent in that language of if she simply exposed well enough to pick up some words and phrases.

I have my reservations about some of her sartorial and grooming choices, but I agree that she is one of the brainiest of the current crop of young Royal females on the scene.
 
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in the official site of the monarchy, it mentions that stephanie speaks french, luxembourgish, german and english. i guess she may have some grasp of russian following her time studying in moscow (1 year).

i did however spot a mistake in her french speech when she said 'il faut palier a cela'. in fact, palier is used without the preposition a, but it is a common mistake you'd hear many (educated) people in france make. i guess that means that she crafts her speeches herself at least.

http://www.projet-voltaire.fr/blog/...r-quelque-chose-»-«-pallier-a-quelque-chose-»

Didn't Oberweis produce TRH's gorgeous wedding cake?;)

yes, i believe so. they generally produce all the cakes for the royal family.

some pictures of the wedding cake:

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/83598136806160715/
this site also compares the cake of guillaume and stephanie to william and kate's which was quite similar:
https://mysweetlawyer.files.wordpre...lla-2013-04-07-a-las-22-08-51.png?w=980&h=414
 
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Yes, the G/S official wedding cake was very similar to the W/K cake. Both were beautiful.

But I give the prize to the Cambridge cake, which was truly gorgeous and one of my favorite ever Royal wedding cakes.
 
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W&K's cake was a work of art. Just gorgeous!


LaRae
 
forgive me, but is it just French? or Just she speak Luxembourgish as well?

According to the program, she gave the speech in French. I can't confirm as I don't know enough French. It doesn't sound like she switched languages.
GRAND HALL
16H00-16H30
RÉCEPTION OFFICIELLE
Speeches (FR)
S.A.R. la Grande-Duchesse Héritière de Luxembourg, Présidente de la Fondation Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
M. Xavier Bettel, Premier ministre et Ministre de la Culture
M. Enrico Lunghi, directeur Mudam Luxembourg
MUDAM: 10 Years Mudam
 
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