Princess Margriet & Prof Pieter van Vollenhoven, Current Events Part 4 (March 2018 -)


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Princess Margriet opened the Royal Light Festival in Apeldoorn this evening, March 12:



 
According to her son Pieter-Christiaan, Pss Margriet´s health is improving. Yesterday evening he told SBS Shownieuws: `Fortunately it is going a lot better, but it was of course rather unfortunate and painful". Although he wasn't sure, he thought that his mother had a check-up on Monday: "But I didn't hear anything, so all must be well".

 
Thank you for the update! That's good news!
Though sadly injuries of this kind are always worse in older age, due to the more sensitive body and the unfortunately more difficult healing process...
 
Good to hear that the Princess is getting better.
 
Princess Margriet was scheduled to unveil the Names Monument at the Julianapark in Stadskanaal this afternnoon, April 10, but due to her injury her husband Pieter van Vollenhoven kindly filled in for her:


** anp gallery **
 
Does anyone know why there are multiple comedy skits making fun of Pieter? He seems like a very sweet man who loves his family. Him and Margriet make an adorable couple.
 
Does anyone know why there are multiple comedy skits making fun of Pieter? He seems like a very sweet man who loves his family. Him and Margriet make an adorable couple.

That's interesting; I knew little about the couple and assumed they were rather discreet since foreign media seem to have no interest in them. If he/they are regulars in comedy skits they must actually be quite well known to the public.
 
That's interesting; I knew little about the couple and assumed they were rather discreet since foreign media seem to have no interest in them. If he/they are regulars in comedy skits they must actually be quite well known to the public.
Pieter was formerly chairman of the Dutch Safety Board and is now a professor. Here are some skits where comedians have pretended to be him:




In the last skit which is in English (same comedian as the second skit) the comedian plays the piano as Pieter does while singing very crude lyrics. I do wonder if the real Pieter can also sing.

Margriet and Pieter have always been a beautiful couple, in my opinion Margriet is the prettiest of the four daughters of Juliana and Bernhard.
 
As the only sister of queen Beatrix who remained in line to the throne and being the first one marrying a commoner, the couple had always been very well known in the Netherlands. And after a not-easy start for Pieter as a commoner at court, he found a way to make himself useful and ultimately received recognition for his efforts.
 
Pieter proved himself a very approachable person, very outgoing and easy to talk to. He also has a good sense of humor, also about himself and his own role. Where the dutch royals could at times be pretty stand-off-ish, Pieter has always been very jovial when interacting with the general audience and also journalists. Sometimes so jovial that sometimes it bordered on a little bit 'silly' (it's not the right word, but i can't think of the right one in english).

Pieter with his very recognizable look, with the glasses and the large ears was always easy parodied, and he was not one who minded it at all.
I think Pieter has always been an adorable person in terms of both his appearance and his personality. He has a very sweet smile.
 
Indeed Pieter was the first 'commoner' to marry into the royal family and he didn't get a title upon marriage (as i understand it because then Q.Juliana was not a fan of titles). To some him being a commoner was already a bit of a shock and in certain circles he was looked down upon a bit in the early years.
Pieter proved himself a very approachable person, very outgoing and easy to talk to. He also has a good sense of humor, also about himself and his own role. Where the dutch royals could at times be pretty stand-off-ish, Pieter has always been very jovial when interacting with the general audience and also journalists. Sometimes so jovial that sometimes it bordered on a little bit 'silly' (it's not the right word, but i can't think of the right one in english).
Also Pieter performed piano concerts with a few well known pianist friends, also on a few tv shows, which made him probably feel even more down to earth to many of the general audience (maybe not so much in the royal family, i think Q.Beatrix was necessarily a fan of this)
In the NL it's quite common to make jokes about or parody celebrities, politicians etc, and we like when the celebs can laugh about that themselves; Pieter with his very recognizable look, with the glasses and the large ears was always easy parodied, and he was not one who minded it at all.
The clips shown a few posts earlier are by very famous dutch comedians, and although at the time it was a tiny bit daring to joke about someone from the royal family, looking back the humor was pretty gentle and without intending harm. Maybe it was even a bit of an honor to be parodied by them, and as said, Pieter was always known to have a good sense of humor.

Over time and also due to several patronages Pieter has done, appreciation for him improved, both to the general audience, but also within the royal family.

maybe an interesting read is this article (in dutch, but i hope you can use an online translator for it) Profiel Pieter van Vollenhoven: doorzetter met grapjes

Royals who are approachable and easy for their subjects/citizens to talk to, are charming and jovial, work in earnest for their patronages, have a sense of humor about themselves, and are looked on with fondness even by edgy comedians are a massive, invaluable asset to monarchies, especially in democratic countries where monarchy is not taken for granted and depends on public goodwill.

From what you say, it seems like Pieter has been one of those invaluable royals. I am glad he was allowed to serve as a working royal and that it was acknowledged with his lifetime membership of the Royal House, which gives him the legal status of royalty.

Unfortunately, the article seems to be paywalled; I can only see the first couple of paragraphs. But thank you for your already informative post.
 
The planned trip of Pss Margriet to Canada next 9 to 12 May has been cancelled. The RVD says that ´unfortenately it would not be responsible´ considering her broken arm.

 
Discussion that started with Pieter as unlikely candidate to marry a princess has been moved to a new thread discussing the preferences and history of marriage partners for members of the Dutch royal house/family.
 
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