View the image at Telegraph

Last week Prince Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s former Crown Prince, gave an interview to British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

Reza Pahlavi backed a campaign of “civil disobedience and non-violence” to change the Iran’s government. He called on Western support and said to the journalist, Simon Heffer, that “he can’t sit and say nothing as Iran suffers”.

To read the full interview click here.

salma Iranian Royals Interview, Pahlavi Dynasty, Prince Reza

His Majesty King Abdullah II was interviewed by the London-based Al Hayat Newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief, Ghassan Charbel, on Monday where the King talks about peace, the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian state.

The interview is being published in 2 parts. The first part was published today and the second will be published tomorrow.

To read the full interview click here.

dazzling Jordanian Royals Abdullah II, England, Interview, Working Visit

 Although his life was never controversy-free, Bulgaria’s former Tsar and Prime Minister found himself in the midst of not one but several allegations recently.

click to view the picture in TIME

Several Bulgarian officials threatened Simeon Saxe-Coburg with court actions because he had allegedly been given more than the double of compensation he was entitled to under the country’s restitution process. In 2003, the Bulgarian Parliament, which was controlled by Simeon’s party at the time, decided to return some of the assets of the former royal family. It was later alleged that the compensations included about 450 hectares of forest lands, for which, according to some politicians, there was absolutely no legal basis.

In an interview to Israeli “Maariv” newspaper, the former Tsar denied those assertions: “Who did the land belong to in the past 50 years? Certainly not people: those in power had them. And later, those properties were left without care and were in pitiful condition. What should have I done – spend money on them and their maintenance, or leave them without proper care? When in 1998 the court ruled that as a Bulgarian citizen I had a right to restitution, no one said anything against it. When we donated 90 hectares to Sofia city hall, no one argued we were in right to do so. But from the moment I entered the politics, my opponents have been searching for such things to blacken my reputation”.

In the same newspaper, Simeon Saxe-Coburg denied another allegation – that he’s a heavy gambler. The former Tsar said that he’s visited casinos only 3 times in his entire life, out of curiosity, and all 3 visits were documented. He added: “After I became Prime Minister, I was accused of being a gambler, a Russian spy, a greedy person, whose motivation to return to his motherland was merely to gain back former Crown properties: all those accusation are complete nonsense!” Read more…

Marsel Bulgarian Royals European Union, Government, Interview, Scandal, Simeon II

 HRH Crown Princess Mary yesterday, September 30th, attended the opening of a special exhibit focusing on the human brain at the Experimentarium in Hellerup. The exhibition opens today to the public, and will run until next year.

Click to see the image at MSN Star Lounge

During the visit, the Princess got the opportunity to view school children’s brain dioramas, saw a pig brain dissection and was able to herself hold a brain which came from a 52-year-old organ donor.

HRH also gave a speech to mark the opening of the exhibition, and stressed the importance of the human brain. “You must train your brain – all the time. Then you will have a better life. Our brains love surprises; brains love to have fun, love us eating healthily and exercising.” She then declared the exhibition open, proclaming: “Ready, set, smart!”

It was also revealed yesterday that American talk-show host Oprah Winfrey was declined an interview with the Crown Princess, or any member of the Royal Family. With the 121st International Olympic Committee Congress being held in Copenhagen in the coming days, the royal court declined the invitation, with possible reasoning being that granting the interview would show favouritism towards a candidate city (Chicago) for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games which will be decided tomorrow.

Click here to read more about the brain exhibition, and here to read more about the declined Oprah interview.

JessRulz Danish Royals Exhibition, Interview, Oprah Winfrey, Princess Mary

On September 28th Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway have been interviewed by Christiane Amanpour during her new talkshow at CNN in New York.
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour invited the to her studio in New York, because she thinks that the Royal Couple will help to focus attention on some of today’s important issues.
The interview 12.5 minutes and will be shown in the program, “Amanpour” on CNN International on Friday, October 2nd. Queen Rania of Jordan also showed up at this program.

Click at the image to read an article at VG

Host Christiane Amanpour told VG Nett :
“In this program we focus on the things many people do not know about royalty. The good work they do and the positive influence they have on many humanitarian issues. [...]“

She also said that she was really impressed by the Cp couple:
“They are very eloquent, and good ambassadors for their country.”

The CP couple talked about their main issues: Poverty, justice, dignity and Aids.
You can read more about this interview in this thread.

Her_Majesty Norwegian Royals HIV/AIDS, Humanitarian Efforts, Interview, Prince Haakon, Princess Mette-Marit, United States of America

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According to a face-to-face survey ran by Gallup Romania, the support rating of Prince Radu Duda, the husband of Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, has hit double digits for the first time since he launched his presidential campaign in April 2009. Nearly 12% of the Romanians who took part in the survey said they plan to vote for Prince Radu in the 2009 Romanian Presidential Elections. In a separate survey, almost 14.5% of Romanians picked Radu Duda as the candidate they trust most.

The Office for Social Research’s poll released today has slightly different data and predicts Prince Radu will get from 6 to 9% of the votes.

Both figures are notably higher than the 2% approval rating Prince Radu had at the beginning of his campaign. Although President Traian Basescu is still comfortably in the lead, Prince Radu and Antonescu are the only candidates whose ratings has gone up since the last survey: all other candidates suffered considerable loss of trust among the voters.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview HSH Karl Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen demanded Prince Radu should stop using the name Hohenzollern. The Hereditary Prince maintains that his father, HSH Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, had no right to grant Prince Radu an ad personam ‘name’ of “Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen” and called Radu Duda’s usage of the title a “farce”.

Neither the spokesman for the Romanian Royal Family, nor spokesman of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm commented on Hereditary Prince’s interview.

Marsel Romanian Royals Government, Interview, President Basescu, Prince Radu, Princess Margarita, Public Opinion

In an exclusive interview to celebrate her 70th birthday, HRH Princess Irene of the Netherlands has spoken of her struggle to accept her royal status.

During the interview/documentary which was aired on Tuesday night in Holland on Nederland 2, Irene told how she couldn’t cope with the separation between herself and the people her royal title and family brought. “I always wanted to be a normal human being,” the Princess said, adding she had to “work a lot” to accept the fact she was a princess.

Princess Irene said in the documentary that she prefers to use her father’s last name, van Lippe-Biesterfeld: “It made a tremendous difference to me whether I answered the phone as Princess Irene or Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld. It helped me to be closer to the people.” She does however use her title occasionally when it will assist in bringing her message across.

Filmed at her home in Holland and now more at peace with her place and role in life, Princess Irene also spoke of her the great joy that her granddaughter, Julia Ten Cate (Princess Margarita’s only child), has brought to her life. “It is more than I have ever experienced before,” she said.

Click here to read Princess Irene’s birthday thread. Read more…

JessRulz Dutch Royals Biography, Birthday, Interview, Princess Irene of the Netherlands

Click on image to see caricature in Tiempo

 Princess Beatrice d’Orleans, countess of Évreux, gave an interview to the Spanish magazine ‘Tiempo’ this week. The princess was born as Beatrice Pasquier de Franclieu, daughter of Bruno de Pasquier de Franclieu, count de Pasquier de Franclieu and Jacqueline Térisse, born in 1941.  She married prince Michel of Orleans in a low-key ceremony in Casablance, Morocco on 18 November 1967.  Her husband’s father, the late count of Paris, was against the marriage, as he wasn’t too impressed by Beatrice’s noble background (or the lack of it). The couple had difficulties in finding a priest who dared to marry them, as the count made his disapproval well known.

The marriage between Beatrice and prince Michel didn’t last however, the couple seperated in 1994, though they never divorced. After the separation the princess moved to Spain, where she still lives. In the interview with ‘Tiempo’ princess Beatrice says that it was a love match but after 30 years she grew tired of her husband and thew him out of the house. The prince was unemployed so the princess had to start working, and as a man of his generation prince Michel found it difficult to deal with that. Before the seperation the couple lived in Germany, Morocco and in the UK and got four children: Clothilde, Adélaïde, Charles-Philippe and François.

Click on image to see photo at octavioaceves.com

The princess also tells ‘Tiempo’ that she still has a title because she is not divorced, but a divorce would mean that she would get another title as she is the mother of French princes. The princess might refer to the situation of her sister-in-law, who became duchess of Montpensier after she divorced the present head of the French royal family. The princess says she received the legion d’honeur and the French republic did her a great favor by simply naming her Beatrice Pasquier and not as Beatrice d’Orleans.

The rest of the article deals with the life of princess Beatrice in Spain and she also promotes a macrobiotic clinic for which she is working. The princess also reveals that she buys clothes at Zara as well, but that her favourite designer is Dior. In the evening she won’t wear anything else!

Read the interview in Spanish in the online edition of ‘Tiempo’ here.

Marengo French Royals Interview, Princess Beatrice d'Orleans

For the first time since her brother Jörg Sommerlath’s death in 2006, Queen Silvia has spoken about how palliative care assisted her brother in his final months. Jörg Sommerlath died of laryngeal cancer in early 2006, in the palliative care department of a German hospital, where the Queen spent those final months by his side.

Click to see the image from ANP

In an exclusive interview with Svenska Dagbladet, the Queen tells how much of a difference palliative care made for her brother. “For him, it meant a lot to get the nursing care. It gave him the opportunity to alleviate the suffering,” she said.

Queen Silvia also told the journalist that she could see how people could take patients into account, and that palliative care allows them to manage their lives more than if they simply had standard care in their final days; and how the setting of palliative care offers more to the patient than believed. “I could see how we take into account the patient in a completely different way. In the usual care is more patient in the hands of staff…Everything should be made at specified times…It is not always as patient wishes,” Queen Silvia said, recalling her personal experience. She said that when her brother was in the hospital, the family come and go as they wanted, which meant that they could help in the care of Jörg, and fulfill his final wishes.

Queen Silvia pledged her commitment to palliative care research, saying that in the future she would like to see every major hospital have a specific department for palliative care.

The interview comes just before Queen Silvia travelled to Austria yesterday to speak at the 11th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care, which was also attended by the Austrian First Lady Margit Fischer and Austrian Health Minister Alois Stöger.

Click here to read more about Queen Silvia’s current events.

JessRulz Swedish Royals Health, In-Laws, Interview, Queen Silvia

Click on image to see photo at caras.pt

   Princess Diane d’Orleans,duchess of Anjou and in her own right duchess of Cadaval is writing a historical novel about a Portuguese queen. In an interview with Portuguese boulevard magazine CARAS she revealed this, though she did not want to say which queen she is writing about at this stage. The book will be available in book shops next year. The duchess also started as a special reporter for the magazine, her first interview will be with princess Michael of Kent.

Diane Alvares Pereiro de Melo, duchess of Cadaval married prince Charles-Philippe d’Orleans, duke of Anjou last year in the Portuguese city of Évora. The couple gives interviews to Portuguese and French boulevard magazines every now and then and are involved in various charities.

More information about this couple in this thread at TRF.

Marengo French Royals Duchess of Cadaval, Interview, Prince Charles-Philippe