Engagement of Princess Raiyah Bint Al Hussein & Mr. Faris Donovan: October 26, 2019
 

Princess Raiyah got engaged last month to Mr. Fares Donovan.

وكالة الانباء الاردنية

The royal court statement was published earlier today. It did not provide any information about the groom or where the engagement took place. It also did not clarify whether King Abdullah II attended or not.

Congratulations :flowers:

Congratulations! :flowers:
Are there any pictures of the couple?

Wooooowwww!

The LAST child of late King Hussein getting married, hooray!

Congrats, congrats, CONGRATS!

P.S. The English surname and Arabic name of the fiance gives a hint that he is a Westerner converted to Islam (or son of one).

Congratulations to the couple!

Ned Donovan is a journalist for the Daily Mail and Spectator based in Delhi. I didn't know this until now, but his paternal grandfather was a senior Australian diplomat and his mother is the daughter of celebrated author Roald Dahl. I've followed him on Twitter for ages (he's a riot), but was blown away by this news. (I think he's a fair bit younger than her, too...)

Congratulations to the couple.

He could have converted but for some reason I was under the impression that Ned Donovan was a Catholic. I know he's written for the Catholic Herald. I would think a conversion would be at the very least preferred by the HRC.

Petra`s English statement:
Jordan News Agency (Petra)

According to his Twitter bio, he is currently residing in Delhi, India & will move to Jordan in December.

Donovan or O'Donovan is originally an Irish surname so its quite possible he's from Irish RC ancestry and a possible 1st to marry into a non Christian royal house.

Ned's paternal grandparents were Australian (his grandfather was an Australian Roman Catholic ambassador) and Hungarian (grandmother was a journalist and cookbook author). His maternal grandparents were Welsh born son of Norweigen immigrants (Roald Dahl) and America (actress Patricia Neal).

Ned's mother would have been raised protestant. Her father grew up in the Lutheran faith. Her mother converted to catholic though before she died.

He is 8 years younger, she is 33 and he is 25.

great news,i am happy Princess Raiyha found her match
looking forward the wedding the the photos of the couple

Ned is grandson to famous British novelist Roald Dahl, and son to author Chantal Sophia 'Tessa' Dahl - who was born to Roald and American actress Patricia Neal.
Tessa Dahl married actor Julian Holloway and had children Clover and Luke with him, before going on to marry businessman Patrick Donovan, son of an Australian academic and diplomat, whom she welcomed son Ned with.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...d-Donovan.html

Tessa's eldest child - a fruit of the relationship with English actor Julian Holloway (himself son of English stage and film actor Stanley Holloway & his second wife chorus dancer Violet Marion Lane) - is English author and former fashion model Sophie Dahl (b.1977); she is married to jazz-pop singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum (b.1979) and they have two daughters Lyra (b.2011) and Margot (b.2013).

Sophie is Tessa & Julian's only child together and they were never married; in fact they separated shortly afterwards.

Father of Clover and Luke is Tessa's first husband, Bussinessman James Kelly.

This is fantastic news for Princess Raiyah and the Jordan Royal Family!

According to the news reports there is a difference of eight years between the couple. Raiyah is 33 and the groom to be is 25.

:previous:
The age gap between them seems to be interesting. It is quite unusual for a Jordanian princess though we`ve seen many cases among princes.

Given that the fiance was mentioned in the official announcement by the Jordanian Royal Family as "Fares Ned Donovan" suggested that he has already converted to Islam and took the name Fares upon doing it.

I agree.
Converting to Islam is a must for him to marry Princess Raiyah & Join the Hashemite family.

He hasn't started his new name in his personal communications, so while the court will probably consistently call him Fares I expect he wil just continue to go by his name of Ned.

Are there other religions that require you to take a different name upon conversion? To me it's a weird practice but I assume there will be other requiring something similar.

Happens in Judaism as well, though not sure required. Ivanka Trump took the name Yael when she married. Though like Ned, she uses her birth name professionally.

Are husbands in the Jordanian royal family considered to be members of the RF? I'm a tad surprised he was required to convert. Or was there simply family pressure? I guess in the Muslim faith children automatically take their religion from their dads, so there would be pressure for a Christian husband to convert first so the kids carry on the Muslim faith.

Converting to Islam does not require changing names except in some cases such as:
- When it has a meaning that conflicts with Islamic teachings.
- If the name has an evil or bad meaning (very rare cases).

The royal court usually changs the heavy foreign names to make them easy & acceptable to the Jordanian people.