Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this Sunday.
On the occasion of this major milestone, they gave a rare interview (filmed at their residence, Villa Schonenberg in Laeken) to Alix Battard of the RTL program Place Royale, which will air this Saturday, and also to Wim Dehandschutter of HLN.
Some tidbits from this week's
Soir Mag:
The couple recalls their first meeting and how they fell in love. Astrid: "We first met on a cruise in Greece organised by one of my first cousins on my mother's side, who loved me very much. He also knew Lorenz well, so we were both invited with other friends. There were nine of us on a 12-meter yacht, so it was a great chance to get to know each other well".
Lorenz: "When I met Astrid, I immediately appreciated her kindness, her sweetness, her sensitivity and her common sense. She was very spontaneous and at the same time there was something really special about her, she was very different from anyone I had ever met before. I already knew in that moment that she would be the woman of my life. Over the past forty years (plus the years of dating and the engagement), I've never changed my mind. I'm thankful for each day I get to spend with her".
Astrid: "Over the years, our love has grown and has strenghtened throughout the joys and the difficulties that we inevitably face in life. We're on the same wavelenght and we complete each other. We have a great complicity". She thinks they were made for each other and quotes French philosopher Montaigne, who, when asked why he was friends with writer Etienne de La Boétie, answered "
Parce que c'était lui, parce que c'était moi" (Because it was him, because it was me). "It is the same thing for us", says Astrid.
Astrid and Lorenz are parents to five adult children and are now the proud grandparents to three grandchildren, Anna Astrid (8), Maximilian (5) and Alix (1) of Austria-Este.They try to see them as much as possible. They say that they've just come back from Basel, where they've spent time with their eldest son Amedeo and his family. The little ones call Astrid
Ninou and Lorenz
Nonno (grandfather in Italian)
