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CNN Live Saturday

Royals Prefer to Marry for Love

Aired February 02, 2002 - 17:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It seems the royals are getting to be like the rest of us, preferring to marry for love. It's a trend that's been gaining momentum lately. Here is CNN's Paula Hancocks with the royal love story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sixty-five years ago, marrying the woman you loved could cost you dearly. Edward VIII had to give up the British throne in order to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson, arguably the biggest royal scandal of the 20th century.

A far cry from the fairy tale wedding that captivated Amsterdam on Saturday. Even Maxima Zorreguieta's controversial family ties could not stop her winning the Netherlands' hearts. Questions were raised over her father's role in a brutal Argentinean military government, her lack of aristocratic roots, and even the fact she is a Catholic marrying into a Protestant royal family, but all those issues have been pushed to the background -- the public these days appearing to favor royal personality to a scandal-free past.

ROBERT JOBSON, ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Fifty, 60 years ago, once you got married to the king or to the prince, whomever it may be, then the system would look after you. You weren't expected to be a performing royal like you are nowadays. I think once Princess Diana came on the scene, and we had that 15 years when she actually was the most famous woman in the world, and she was expected to perform wherever she went, I think the whole image of royalty and of royal princesses had changed.

HANCOCKS: Today, a royal relationship can almost be enhanced by an element of controversy, a suggestion of soap opera. Norway's Prince Haakon, for example, marrying a single mother, and the nation wholeheartedly accepting Princess Mette-Marit despite her admitting to a wild past.

It's not just in Europe that regal weddings are breaking with tradition. King Mohammed VI of Morocco is to marry a non-royal early this year. But it is the bitter collapse of the fairy tale wedding of the prince and princess of Wales that signaled the change from royalty choosing who they should, to choosing who they wanted. And if a princess was media- and public-friendly, all the better. JOBSON: I think it helps if a princess is beautiful, it helps if she is intelligent, and it certainly helps if she understands the scrutiny that she will be under from the public and the media.

HANCOCKS: Expectations of the perfect princess that have modernized along the monarchies themselves.

Paula Hancocks, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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