Surprising Ways These Royal Couples Met And Fell In Love

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11. Prince Haakon and Princess Mette-Marit of Norway

Mette-Marit didn’t have the best reputation when she met Prince Haakon of Norway. She was a single mother with an ex who was a convicted drug dealer. She also had a reputation for attending drug-fuelled parties. However, none of this deterred Prince Haakon from falling in love with her. They met at the Quart festival in the late ‘90s but didn’t start dating until a few years later. Mette-Marit was able to win over the people of Norway prior to her wedding for apologizing for her “wild life.”

EPA

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10. Prince Frederik and Princess Mary of Denmark

Prince Frederik of Denmark met Mary Donaldson, an advertising executive, back in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics. They were both at the Slip Inn, a bar and restaurant, when they met and talked all night along. It wasn’t until someone came up to Mary and told her that the man she was talking with was the Prince of Denmark that she clued in! The two did the long distance thing for the next few years until 2003 when Queen Margrethe gave the couple her blessing. Six months later, they were engaged and in May 2004 they tied the knot in Copenhagen. The couple has four children together, Christian, Isabella, Vincent and Josephine.

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9. King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan

Queen Rania was working for Apple when she met King Abdullah II of Jordan at a dinner party that his sister threw back in January 1993. The couple immediately fell in love and were engaged just two months later. Six months after their first meeting, they were married. Together, Abdullah and Rania have four children, Prince Hussein, Princess Iman, Princess Salma, and Prince Hashem.

Abaca Press

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8. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were married in 1947, but they met back in 1934 at a family wedding and then again at her father King George’s coronation in 1937. However, it was in 1939 when she finally was able to spend time with him at Royal Naval College in Dartmouth that she immediately fell in love and they began exchanging letters. They became secretly engaged in 1946. The engagement was then announced in July 1947 and the couple was married that November.

Mirrorpix/Courtesy Everett Collection

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7. Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden

Princess Victoria of Sweden met her future husband, Daniel Westling at his Stockholm gym. At the time, Victoria was recovering from an eating disorder and had been ordered by her doctor to attend training sessions at the gym, which is how she bumped into him. Her parents were initially against the relationship. They had a Danish prince in mind for their daughter, but she was in love with Daniel. The couple became engaged in February 2009, were married in June 2010, and now have two children, Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar.

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6. Prince Pavlos and Marie-Chantal of Greece

When Prince Pavlos of Greece went on a blind date with duty-free-shopping heiress Marie-Chantal Miller at a Niarchos-family birthday bash, it was love at first sight. Two years later, he proposed to her on a ski lift in Gstaad and they were married six months later in July 1995. The couple has five children, Princess Maria-Olympia, Prince Constantine-Alexios, Prince Achileas-Andreas, Prince Odysseus-Kimon, and Prince Aristidis-Stavros.

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5. Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles

Prince Charles’ college girlfriend, Lucia Santa Cruz, was the one who introduced him to Camilla Parker Bowles back in 1971 at a party. The two quickly realized that they shared a love of polo and being outdoors and that Camilla’s great-grandmother Alice Keppel had an affair with King Edward VIII. They began dating almost immediately but split up when Charles left for the Royal Navy. When he returned, she was engaged to Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles. She and Charles reportedly continued their affair after her wedding and once he was married to Princess Diana. Following their divorces and Diana’s death, the couple went public with their relationship in 1999 when they attended Camilla’s sister’s 50th birthday party and then were married in 2005.

EPA

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4. Prince Felix and Princess Claire of Luxembourg

Prince Felix and Claire Margareta Lademacher met at Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil, a boarding school in Switzerland. They also studied bioethics at the same university, Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum in Rome. According to Felix, the two began as friends and then the friendship turned into love. The couple was married in September 2013 in a civil ceremony and then a religious ceremony that same month. They have two children together, Princess Amalia and Prince Liam Henri Hartmut.

ABACAPRESS.COM

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3. Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden

Prince Carl Philip and reality star Sofia Hellqvist met during a lunch with mutual friends in 2015. According to Sofia, it was “love at first sight” and Carl Philip said, “I don’t think I knew the magic of love before I met Sofia, but ever since I met her, I’ve seen how love can change a person.” The couple was married in 2015 and now share two sons, Prince Alexander and Prince Gabriel.

Robin Utrecht/ABACAPRESS.COM

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2. King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain

When she met King Felipe of Spain back in 2002, Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano was an international journalist working for Televisión Española. Felipe had reportedly asked a friend to set up a dinner so that he could meet the Letizia, but it took a few months for the two to start dating. The couple dated in secret until their engagement was announced in November 2003 and then they were married in May 2004. The couple has two beautiful daughters together, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía.

Abaca Press

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1. Kate Middleton and Prince William

This royal couple met back in 2001 when they were both students at University of St. Andrews in Scotland and were living in the residence St. Salvatore’s Hall. They were both majoring in Art History – until William switched to Geography. They were friends until 2003 after William saw Kate in a fashion show strutting her stuff in a see-through dress with black underwear underneath and realized that he was attracted to her. The couple continued to date until 2010 when William proposed and the couple was married in April 2011. Together, they now have three children.

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Cate

Cate has a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature and has been the Managing Editor of Fame10 for more than 6 years. Despite having a love for the works of Thomas Hardy, Leo Tolstoy and Lord Byron, she also has an intense fascination with pop culture. When she isn’t writing for Fame10, she’s planning her next big adventure in Southeast Asia.