Mary Donaldson
Old Life: Australian lawyer
Royal Life: Queen of Denmark
You can''t get farther from the palaces of Europe than the remote places of Australia. But that''s where Donaldson, 31, grew up, in a small home in Taroona on the island of Tasmania. The daughter of a college professor and a university vice-chancellor2, she moved to Sydney to pursue a law career and met Denmark''s Crown Prince Frederik, 35, at a disco during the 2000 Olympics. Within a year Donaldson had moved to Copenhagen to be near her love, trading the courtroom for classes in protocol3 to fit in with4 one of Europe''s oldest royal families. But as her May wedding approaches, Donaldson insists she is still an average Australian girl at heart, telling reporters she watched the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana on TV as a kid but wasn''t impressed. “I wasn''t thinking about becoming a princess,” she said. “I actually dreamt of becoming an animal doctor.”
Letizia Ortiz
Old Life: TV journalist
Royal Life: Future Queen of Spain
Her mother is a nurse and her father a newspaper reporter, but Ortiz, 31, doesn''t let her fiancé５ Crown Prince Felipe of Spain, control her actions. When Felipe, 35, interrupted her during a press conference to announce their engagement, she grabbed his arm and said: “Let me finish!” Introduced by friends at a dinner party last spring, the couple kept their love a secret until last autumn and decided marry in May. Though she has been married before to a college professor, that wedding was a civil ceremony, so she and Felipe can still have the church wedding his conservative Catholic6 parents want. “It''s like a fairy tale,” says Ana Campillo, a journalist who knows Ortiz. “Not because she is marrying a prince but because she is marrying a man she loves.”
Claire Coombs
Old Life: Land surveyor
Royal Life: Belgian princess
For years most Belgians assumed that Laurent, 40, the youngest son of King AlbertⅡand Queen Paola and eighth in line to his country''s throne, would never marry, preferring fast cars to settling down. But after a Brussels dinner party in 2000, the prince decided to help with the dishes and wound up washing7 and drying with fellow guest Coombs, 29, the softspoken8 daughter of a British businessman and a Belgian mother. When the prince proposed two years later, he flushed so red with nervousness that Coombs, who worked at a surveyor''s office in Wavre, Belgium, until her April 2003 wedding, burst out laughing9. Since then, the pair have avoided the media. Family and friends give Claire credit for slowing Laurent down10.
A Prince Makes a Sacrifice for Love
Not all fairy tales are the same. Last year, when Prince Johan Friso, 35, third in line for the throne of the Netherlands11, announced his engagement to Mabel Wisse Smit, 35, the head of a Brussels-based human rights organization, his mother, Queen Beatrix, was very happy to be gaining a “lovable and talented” daughter-in-law. That is, until the media uncovered Wisse Smit''s past relationship with a drug lord, which she had kept from the Dutch parliament, whose members must approve highranking royal marriages, rather than call off the wedding, Johna Friso gave up his right to the throne and weded Wisse Smit in a quiet April ceremony.
Ari Behn
Old Life: Author
Royal Life: Consort12 of Princess Martha Louise of Norway
Royalty marrying common people is old news in liberal Norway, where Crown Prince Haakon wed single mom Mette-marit Tjessem Hoiby in 2001. So it was no shock to the Norwegian royals when Princess Martha, 32, announced her engagement to former playboy Behn, an author. Martha, who met Behn through his mother, one of her college tutors, didn''t mind. “He makes me shine,” she said. Since their 2002 wedding, Behn has settled down, becoming a proud papa to baby Maud Angelica. King Harald said, “Who hasn''t done one or two bad things in their youth?”
Cinderella Stories现代版灰姑娘
玛丽-唐纳森
平民身份：澳大利亚律师
王室身份：丹麦王妃
从欧洲宫廷到澳大利亚偏远地区，这距离够远的吧。但31岁的玛丽-唐纳森就是在澳大利亚最南端塔斯马尼亚岛塔鲁纳长大的。作为大学教授和大学副校长的女儿，她后来到悉尼从事律师职业，并在2000年悉尼奥运会期间的一个迪斯科舞会上结识了35岁的丹麦王储弗里德里克王子。随后一年内，唐纳森去了哥本哈根，与心上人相聚，为适应欧洲最古老的王室生活，她离开了法庭而走进了宫廷礼仪的课堂。五月婚典临近时，唐纳森却说，心底深处，她依然是一个普通的澳大利亚女孩儿，并告诉记者她小时候就在电视上看过查尔斯王子和戴安娜的婚礼，不过也没什么印象。她说：“我没想过要做王妃，而是想做一个兽医。”
蕾蒂西亚-奥蒂兹
平民身份：电视新闻记者
王室身份：未来西班牙王后
蕾蒂西亚-奥蒂兹的母亲是位护士，父亲是名报社记者。她今年31岁，才不会让未婚夫、 35岁的西班牙王储菲利普王子管束她的行为呢。在宣布他们订婚的一次记者招待会上，菲利普插了一句话，她抓住他的胳膊说：“让我说完！”他们是头年春天在一次宴会上经朋友介绍相识的，爱情的秘密一直保持到去年秋天，他们定于五月完婚。她曾与一位大学教授有过一段婚姻，那次婚礼是次民俗仪式。所以这一次根据菲利普信奉天主教的保守父母的旨意，她和菲利普要举行教堂婚礼。熟悉奥蒂兹的记者阿娜-卡皮诺说：“这简直就像是童话故事。我不是说她嫁了王子，而是说，她嫁给了心中所爱的男子。”
克莱尔-库卜斯
平民身份：土地测量员
王室身份：比利时王妃
多年来，大多数比利时人一直认为，国王阿尔伯特二世和宝拉王后最小的儿子，40岁的劳伦特是不会结婚的。这位排序第8的王位继承人，喜爱赛车胜过安家度日。2000年，在布鲁塞尔一次宴会之后，王子决定帮忙收拾盘子，结果和另一位应邀而来的客人，29岁的库卜斯一起又是洗又是擦。库卜斯说话斯文秀气，父亲是位英国商人，母亲是比利时人。两年后王子向克莱尔求婚时，紧张得满脸通红，倒把克莱尔弄得扑哧笑起来。克莱尔在比利时瓦富尔土地测量所工作，直到2003年4月结婚。从那以后，两口子一直回避着新闻媒体。家人和朋友都夸克莱尔，说是她让劳伦特消停下来的。
不爱江山爱美人
并非所有的童话故事都是一样的。去年，35岁的荷兰王子约翰-弗里索(排序第三的王位继承人)宣布与设在布鲁塞尔的人权组织负责人，同样35岁的马伯尔-维斯-斯密特订婚时，他的母亲，贝阿特里斯王后十分高兴自己有了一个“可爱而有才华的”儿媳。不过这是在媒体披露维斯-斯密特过去曾与一个毒品大王有过关系之前。而这一点她一直瞒着荷兰议会，因为议会成员必须批准而不是取消重大的王室婚事。消息披露之后，约翰-弗里索放弃了王位继承权，并与维斯-斯密特在4月悄悄举行了婚礼。
阿里-贝恩
贫民身份：作家
王室身份：挪威玛萨-路易丝公主丈夫
在开明的挪威，王室成员嫁娶平民，不是什么新闻。2001年，王储哈肯王子就娶了单身母亲麦特-玛丽特-杰森-霍比。所以，32岁的玛萨公主宣布她与前花花公子兼作家阿里-贝恩订婚时，挪威王室成员并不震惊。玛萨是通过贝恩的母亲认识贝恩的，她是玛萨的大学老师。玛萨倒不介意他以前的作派。她说：“他让我光彩照人。”他们2002年结婚以后，贝恩安顿了下来，成了自豪的父亲，宝宝叫默德-安吉利卡。连哈拉德国王都说：“谁年轻时没干过一两件荒唐事？”
