The royals prefer them Latinas: who are the South American women who made European princes fall in love

They say that for love there is no age and we can add neither nationality. Although a continent and an ocean could separate them, several Latin women married members of European royalty. Keeping their style, genuinely in love these women adapted to real protocols and functions without losing their Latin culture and essence.

Máxima, the most Dutch Argentinian

Without a doubt the most famous of them all. With her immense smile and that spontaneity that characterizes many women on this side of the continent, Argentina fell in love with the then heir to the Dutch throne. They met in 1999 at a party in Seville. He asked her to dance. But her meter eighty-three and her lack of skill made her joyfully and confidently throw a: “You are made of wood” (wooden sos) at him. Far from being angry, he was delighted with that Latina, spontaneous, funny and owner of the most charming smile on the planet. It was the beginning of a love that passed all the tests.

Upon learning the identity of the candidate, William of Orange, then prince of the Netherlands, Máxima's parents tried to convince her of the complication that such a demanding bond could bring her. For her part, Queen Beatrice looked suspiciously at that girl who came from such a distant and different country.

In less than a year Máxima learned the history of the Netherlands, its customs, the strict rules of protocol and Dutch to perfection. On March 30, 2001, Queen Beatrice of Holland announced the engagement and defined her son's girlfriend as an “intelligent and modern woman”.

The Dutch were delighted that their future monarch had fallen in love with a woman with a slender and healthy body but far from the supermodel style and dangerously slim. They also looked with some curiosity at her hair with impeccable reflections, something not very common in the lands of the tulip.

On February 2, 2002, Máxima joined the man she loved, but for that she had to renounce the presence of the other great man in her life: her father. Jorge Zorreguieta had been an official in the dictatorship. And Holland, the most democratic and free country in the world (the first to approve homosexual marriages, drug sales, prostitution in showcases...) did not accept his presence.

Since then, Máxima's popularity has not stopped growing so much that in 2011, Parliament voted for Argentina to become queen consort when her husband was crowned, which happened on April 30, 2013.

The marriage suffered heavy losses. The death of Prince Friso, brother of the king, who died in 2013 after spending 18 months in a coma after suffering an accident while skiing and the suicide in 2018 of Inés, the younger sister of Máxima. They also became the proud parents of Catherina Amalia Orange-Nassau, Alexia and Ariadne.

For the Dutch, Máxima is in a Dutch woman who was born in Buenos Aires. The queen doesn't forget her Argentinian roots and speaks to her daughters in Spanish. In addition, he usually spends some vacations in Villa La Angostura where one of his brothers lives and makes fleeting visits to the country in the face of any family problem. He does not live with a broken heart but a shared one, which seems the same but is not.

Tatiana Santo Domingo, Colombian roots in the glamour of Monaco

Although it will never reign, it is part of one of the most glamorous and distinguished dynasties: the Monegasque. Her mother-in-law is none other than Carolina of Monaco. Tatiana Santo Domingo is married to Andrea Casiraghi, Carolina of Monaco's first child.

The couple's “Cupid” was Charlotte Casiraghi, Andrea's sister who studied with Tatiana at the Fontainebleau high school in Paris. She was the daughter of Brazilian model Vera Rechulski and Julio Mario Santo Domingo, a Colombian millionaire who, when he died in 2009, left a fortune close to six billion dollars. Tatiana was born in New York, grew up in Switzerland and spent some vacations in Cartagena, but her genes show the Latin essence.

When he met her, Casiraghi, who was considered a “golden bachelor” because of that fateful combination of paint, tragedy and rebellion, was struck by that girl who instead of brand designs chose colorful clothes of the so-called hippie chic, spoke with natural ease and laughed out loud.

In 2004 they began their engagement and a year later they went to live together in an apartment in Paris, something that at that time was a mini scandal. It took several years before the bride and groom decided to “marry papers”. But then, another mini scandal. Tatiana was pregnant. Sacha was born on March 31 and her parents married in civilian form on August 31, which showed that for Tatiana and Andrea love was stronger than formalities. The church wedding took even longer. It was February 1, 2014. Maximilian and India completed the family.

The marriage is about making a life away from the cameras but they committed themselves to humanitarian associations, such as the World Association of Children's Friends, founded by Princess Grace of Monaco, or the Philippine Virlanie Foundation, which works with street children.

Tatiana Blatnik, the resilient Venezuelan who wears a Greek tiara

Among the European royals she is known as Tatiana from Greece and Denmark. Tatiana was born on August 28, 1980 in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. The definition of “citizen of the world” is ideal for her. Her parents are of Slovenian and German origin, she went to a boarding school in Switzerland, Aiglon College, and studied sociology in Georgetown, United States. He speaks perfectly Spanish, not so much because of his birthplace but because his mother, Marie Blanche Bierlein, grew up in Malaga.

Tatiana knew since she was a child what pain is. His father, Ladislav Blatnik, was accused of corruption and went into a very acute depressive state. He committed suicide when his daughter was six years old.

The Venezuelan and her prince met or better written they met again at the Gringo club of the Swiss station in Gstaad. She came to talk to her brother Boris, who was with his friend Nicholas, Prince of Greece; he said something in his ear and left. Nicolás asked his partner: 'How do you let the prettiest girl of them all get away? ' And to his amazement he replied: 'She is my sister! ' At the age of 20, Tatiana had become a woman and Nicholas, 11 years older than her, did not recognize the girl he had met a decade ago at his friend's house.

The prince was shocked by that woman with Slavic features and who was wearing her eighty meter with a perfect panache. In addition to physical beauty, what made him fall in love was seeing how he went from Spanish to English without difficulty, he loved to joke and preferred to cook rather than participate in gala dinners and go hiking than attend protocol meetings. His little knowledge of the royal world also impacted him. One day she was seated next to Prince Andrew of England and Tatiana didn't realize who she was until the end of the event.

In love began to seduce her “Flowers, calls, invitations... I lived in Washington D.C. because I was studying sociology in Georgetown. He lived in London and it was 18 months before we started. Deep down he's quite traditional and he courted me like in the old days. It took me over a year to decide, but since 2003 until our wedding we have never been apart for more than 10 days,” she told Vanity Fair magazine.

On August 26, 2010, Tatiana and Nicolas got married. While Greece has not recognized titles of nobility since 1974, when a national referendum elected by 70% of votes, the option of the republic was the first Greek royal wedding in sixty years. Nod to her origins or not, the bride's dress was in charge of Venezuelan designer Angel Sánchez, one of the best-known Latin couturiers in the world who also dresses celebrities such as Sandra Bullock and Eva Longoria.

Today it is common to see Tatiana wearing simple jeans in the supermarket or walking her dog. To those who are amazed by her lifestyle, she responds: “I don't feel like a princess or that I married a prince, with a title. Actually, yes, he is my prince, but nothing more.”

Alessandra de Osma, the princess of the Andes

It is the “newest” of the group of Latinas who joined the European monarchies. She was born in Lima on March 21, 1988 and today she is known as “the princess of the Andes”. In 2007, Prince Ernest of Hannover - also husband of Carolina of Monaco - and his teenage son Christian went on a trip to Peru. A beautiful and elegant brunette was in charge of accompanying them. Her mother was model Elizabeth Foy and her father Felipe de Osma, a powerful businessman. Christian was shocked by that 14-year-old girl who two years later would be hired by the Ford agency in New York to work as a model. Teenagers started a friendship from a distance. They only started dating in 2011 when Sassa moved to Madrid, but before that she graduated as a lawyer at the University of Lima. In 2014 it was the official presentation to the whole family at Marienburg Castle, but showing that they were from two continents then celebrated with a party in the Peruvian city of Paracas.

The couple married in London and chose Peru to perform the religious ceremony, something that at the time paralyzed the country. The wedding was held in St. Peter's Basilica and the bride wore a tiara, made of gold and silver from the Hannover family. The jewel had already been used by Carolina of Monaco and in this case the comparisons were not hateful because they both looked spectacular. The famous “duel of styles” ended with a draw. Alexandra of Hannover, daughter of Carolina of Monaco and Ernest of Hannover, was one of the ones in charge of wearing the bride's tail and among the royals who took the plane to attend the wedding were Prince Paul of Greece and his daughter, Olympia. On the top guest list was Isabel Preysler's daughter Tamara Falcó and supermodel Kate Moss. The Spanish kings were not of the departure, something that Latinos should not surprise us since in colonial times no monarch stepped on these lands.

In 2020, Sassa was the mother of twins Nicolas and Sofia. Settled in Europe, she does not forget the culture of her country. She was named “Ambassador of Colonial Art”, a task that she proudly assumes because she can make visible the beauty of that nation that saw her birth and to which she chooses to return every time she can. It's just that although Sabina sings that “to the place where you were happy you shouldn't try to return” in this case it's better to contradict it.

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