Prince Constantijn knows Laurentien almost for 35 years since her father Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst (until Feb. 2007 vice-premier) and her mother Jantien Brinkhorst-Heringa are longtime private friends to The Queen.
Princess Laurentien's mother was one of the ladies which shared Princess Beatrix' house when she studied at Leyden University in the 1960's. She and The Queen are befriended for almost 50 years....
The Brinkhorst family so now and then visited Drakensteyn estate and little Laurentien was playing with little Constantijn, not knowing that three decades later they would be married....
I know, and even though in theory that's pretty romantic a concept indeed, falling in love with a childhood friend, I for the life of me cannot fathom falling for any of the kids of my parents' friends that I grew up with. Nothing against the people in question at all, on the contrary, some of them turned out great, smart, handsome, etc.
But it's just..when you grow up together almost, then, and I'm speaking for myself here obviously, then I'd see these people more as cousins or siblings, or something along those lines, and not as potential partners. So in that sense, I find the fact they grew up together even weirder, sorry. Also isn't there the element that as a person, you want to go your own path, choose your own friends etc.etc., and not people that your parents practically picked for you if they could help it..
I mean, I'm all for tradition, but marrying either a cousin or the child of my parent's friends is really a pretty, dare I say it, creepy idea to me.
All the same, I do appreciate Laurentien, as I said before. She truly seems the kind of woman one would like to have as a friend, warm, interested, fun, kind, intelligent without judging, etc. (not withstanding the fact she's a PR pro so would know how to impress people through the media, but all the same, I think it's safe to say she's an asset to this royal family)