Celebrating 30 Years of Love
To celebrate their thirtieth wedding anniversary, Queen Rania of Jordan and her husband, King Abdullah II, chose Italy. Specifically Gargnano on Lake Garda, where the two royals arrived in the utmost secrecy and where they spent a few days in the hyper-protected spaces of the Lefay Resort & Spa. Mute mouths in the hotel staff, maximum privacy, but the presence of the sovereigns of Jordan, writes the Corriere della Sera, is a certainty. After all, the romantic Italian escape of the royal couple, arrived immediately after the wedding of the eldest son Hussein, was revealed albeit cryptically by Rania herself. The queen has in fact posted two photos on Instagram accompanied by a heart-shaped emoji: in the first photo, taken on the balcony of one of the resort’s suites, the sovereign is sitting behind her husband; in the second one you can see a bouquet of flowers in the background of Garda, probably a symbolic tribute of the king to his wife for the anniversary.
A Love Story for the Ages
Rania and Abdallah’s love is a novel. They met by chance, at a group dinner, in 1992: she – computer science – worked at the Jordanian branch of Apple and he – then thirty-one – had not yet been designated by his father as future king. It was a bolt from the blue, so much so that Abdallah, an unrepentant womanizer until then, began an unrestrained courtship with chocolates and not only: he took the shy twenty-two year old on a motorcycle in the desert, to do water skiing in the Red Sea and helicopter flights to visit the beauties of Jordan. “We got along right away, he had a sincere smile,” Rania revealed in the past. Legend has it that it was the old king Hussein who drove the car that took the 31-year-old prince to Rania’s parents’ house to ask her to marry him. It had only been two months since they met. On June 10, 1993, six months after the first meeting, Rania and Abdullah were already in front of the altar. Then came the children: the heir prince Hussein, prince Hashem, princess Iman and princess Salma.
Rania: A Symbol of Female Empowerment
Rania, an icon of style and symbol of female emancipation, is a beloved sovereign. For her, however, much before the crown comes the affections: “People are fascinated by the title of queen, but for me the really important title is that of mother,” she has repeated many times. And this 2023, for mother Rania, has been a year of unforgettable moments.
