Sunday 10 October 2004 Can Modern Royal Marriages Work?Im such a sucker for a good fairytale. Cinderella is still my favorite story of all time.
Thats why I vividly remember the first time I saw Alexandra and Joachim of Denmark.
My mother handed me the newspaper and told me to look at the picture. I saw a giggling
woman wearing a tiara with a man in uniform. He held her upper arms and it looked like she
was being tickled, her back arched, her head thrown back with a wide, joyful, smile. The
scene struck me because it was so intimate and yet the couple was dressed in full regalia
and surrounded by a crowd of onlookers. I suppose it was an accurate metaphor for the
modern, royal marriage -- the couple behaving as a normal man and woman, surrounded by a
world thats anything but normal. When I read about Alexandra and Joachims
divorce, I thought back to that picture. Everything starts out so well and ends like this.
Is the new royal romance formula not working? Were the old ways better, when
the aristocracy married amongst itself? Can a commoner ever adapt to royal life, even if
they find true love? Of course, there are many examples of successful
unions between royals and commoners King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, King
Gustav and Queen Silvia of Sweden but just when you think the Scandinavians have a formula
that works, the Danish royal divorce happens. And, for every modern marriage that worked,
there are more that didnt Charles and Diana, Andrew and Fergie, Ann and Mark,
Naruhito and Masako of Japan. In the last case, the princess is suffering from what the
Japanese royal house calls an adjustment disorder. The couple is still
together but I cant help but think that becoming a princess has reduced the
Harvard-educated Masako to a shell of her former self. Admittedly, It seems that the perpetuation of the Cinderella
story in modern times is what causes its self-destruction. Release a picture of a new
royal bride giggling in the arms of her new prince and thats what we come to expect
on a regular basis. Im not saying that the public and the media are responsible for - Stephanie |
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