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CNN Sunday Morning

New Royal Couple Making Headlines

Aired February 03, 2002 - 08:52   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A new royal couple is making headlines this weekend. Dutch Crowned Prince Wilhem Alexander (ph) married his Argentine bride yesterday. An estimated 80,000 people lined the procession route to watch the newlyweds drive by.

As CNN's Paula Hancocks (ph) reports, it's not the first royal wedding to draw a lot of attention.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS (ph), 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 Wallace Simpson (ph), arguably the biggest royal scandal of the 20th century.

A far cry from the fairy tale wedding that captivated Amsterdam on Saturday. Even (UNINTELLIGIBLE) controversial family ties could not stop her winning the Netherlands' hearts. Questions were raised over her father's role in the brutal Argentinean military government, her lack of aristocratic roots, and even the fact she's a Catholic marrying in to 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, REPORTER: Fifty, sixty years ago, once you got married to the king or to the prince, whoever it may be, then the system would look after you. You weren't expected to be a performing royal as 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 it 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 Hacken (ph), for example, marrying a single mother, and the nation wholeheartedly accepting Princess (UNINTELLIGIBLE), despite her admitting to a wild past.

It's not just in Europe that regal weddings are breaking with tradition. King Mohammed VI (ph) 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 Whales 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's 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 with the monarchies themselves.

Paula Hancocks, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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