I just saw the interview with Máxima, which was broadcasted tonight on the occassion of her 50th birthday. I was rather surprised. We have never seen an interview that was this relaxed, natural and with such direct and difficult questions.
The queen was articulate, authentic, likable, intelligent and she knows it is not about her, always trying to shift the focus to the people she meets, the volunteers, the projects etc. I don't think that there is anybody in the whole country who has this amount of charm and charisma. It is hard to imagine anybody could have been better at this function in The Netherlands.
Some questions were surprising, as the interviewer did not evade the difficult subjects. First and foremost about the death of her sister, about which she seemed rather open and even talkative. The only time she struggled was when Matthijs van Nieuwkerk was asking her about the speedboat. Can you imagine anybody daring to raise such a thing to Queen Beatrix? How times have changed!
In the beginning it seemed that Matthijs van Nieuwkerk -a routinier - was a bit nervous as his hands were shaking. He talked a bit too much but it is hard to imagine anybody would be better suited to do this kind of interview - at least from the perspective of the royal house.
Some other tidbits:
before the engagement Máxima was travelling through the country by car. Visiting all kinds of places, while wearing a wig.
when Amalia was younger they saw a clip of the wedding and the adios nonino on television. Amalia asked: what did daddy do to make you cry?
Van Niewkerk quoted the last lines of the first part of the Máxima biography of Marcia Luyten. A friend of Máxima named Tristana laid out tarot cards to predict Máxima's future. She predicted that she would move to Europe, have a change of carreer and sign a contract with her spouse. Máxima herself added that by that time she thought that she would never get married and have a family of her own and she wondered how to get enough satisfaction out of her work to fill that gap.
about Amalia and her future; I don't see her as the future queen but as my little baby.
on the question: 'what does he [WA] mean to you': she replied: apart from being the father of my children, my husband ... he is my anchor. He keeps me focused, he pushes me and inspires me to do my work, but he holds me at the same time. That combination is fantastic. Of course we have a great time together, with our children, he is a very good father, has a lot of humor, an enormous support.
the presentor gve the queen a book of poems by Pablo Neruda, from which she read one poem. In return she gave him the poems of Louise Glück. The queen said she loves reading poetry and that it relaxes her.