Guillaume of Luxembourg officially engaged to Stéphanie de Lannoy !

[pixiecat]

A very small world indeed!  I get the feeling that those Belgian aristos and royals, young Luxers and Habsburgs run in a very tight circle.  I'm surprised that Imre and Louis partnered up with women from outside of that group.  I would expect Astrid of Belgium's children and the younger Lux sibs to end up with spouses from that group too.

[spanishlover]

arent most of the belgian royals cousins with the luxembourg royals? a lot of close ties.... physically and geographically!

[KittyHeaven]

She definitely wore hairpieces during the pre-wedding gala at the Opera, when she was wearing the whole ruby parure with the presque-zizi red gown.
And she did that often since ; do you remember the first time she wore the Midnight tiara in 2009 with these awful blonde extensions in her braids? 

BLONDE EXTENSIONS??! 

In the name of all things holy...somebody find me a photo pronto!! I have had a hellish day. Seeing that fool wanna be in blonde extensions would be just the ticket to lift me out of the doldrums!!!

Here is a picture, but it was more blonde in my memory  . Very visible extensions though !

Hmmmmm....it's not as bad as I had imagined...DRAT!  It's actually rather elegant..but yeah it's definitely extensions. 

Thanks Elissa!! 

[tgb]

I think Stephanie's quite pretty when she's got a little color to her skin!

There is something very off about Guillaume to me (gaydar!) but if this girl wants to go to bed all her life with a pear-shaped man bent on vigorously scratching her back, that's fine by me! I'm just delighted to have a fresh face to look at and it'll be nice to have a fourth body at all the state dinners.

This picture, meanwhile, is killing me -- it's like he's never experienced the touch of a woman and wants to say, "It tickles!" (Okay, I guess I can't link to that directly -- it's the one on newscom where she's kissing his cheek.)

[PrincessMLA]

arent most of the belgian royals cousins with the luxembourg royals? a lot of close ties.... physically and geographically!

Philippe, Laurent, Astrid, Henri and his siblings are first cousins (despite age differences). Albert II and Josephine-Charlotte were sister and brother. Making Gui the same generation as Philippe, Laurent and Astrid's children.

Gui is cousins to the young Belgians (Elisabeth and so on), Archduke Imre and his siblings (Marie Astrid is Henri's older sister), and a junior branch of the Lichtenstein royals through Henri's younger sister Margaretha (married Prince Nikolaus, a younger son of Franz Joseph II).

They are, both the Belgiums and Lux's are also related to the Norweigans, as Astrid (mother of JC and Albert) was sister to Martha, who was mother of Harald and his sisters. Making Harald cousins to JC and Albert II.

[Ugly Betty]

Re: the back-rubbing...  who knows, perhaps Felix took him aside earlier to have a little chat about what to do with a girlfriend now that big brother finally has one, and gave him a bit of advice along the lines of "well, when you're nervous, just pet her a little. Rub her back for a moment, something like that." And Guillaume, somewhat out of his depth now that he's suddenly confronted with a fiancée, went a bit too far with it out of sheer nerves. He does give off a vibe that he's not entirely certain what he's supposed to do with women who aren't his mother or his sister (or Mette-Marit, who seems happy to let him tag along for red carpet events).  

Is Felix some sort of alleged royal playboy?

[Ugly Betty]

I think Stephanie is cute in a girl next door way.  She needs some serious tutelage in terms of clothing choices but I see real potential there.  I don't give a crap about the aristocracy thing but I do like that she is accomplished and discreet. That will be prove to be a real benefit to the family. 

Her new rock ROCKS!!

[Ugly Betty]

interesting a 20 year age gap between the parents....that is a bit weird, no?

What's even weirder is that the mother looks every bit as old as the father (IMO).

[PrincessMLA]

Re: the back-rubbing...  who knows, perhaps Felix took him aside earlier to have a little chat about what to do with a girlfriend now that big brother finally has one, and gave him a bit of advice along the lines of "well, when you're nervous, just pet her a little. Rub her back for a moment, something like that." And Guillaume, somewhat out of his depth now that he's suddenly confronted with a fiancée, went a bit too far with it out of sheer nerves. He does give off a vibe that he's not entirely certain what he's supposed to do with women who aren't his mother or his sister (or Mette-Marit, who seems happy to let him tag along for red carpet events).  

Is Felix some sort of alleged royal playboy?

I don't believe so, last I heard he had been dating the same woman since 2010 or something like that.

[loubna]

I know very little about stephanie, but according to her CV and her behaviour during her engagement day, for me guillaume did a good choice
according to her CV she looks like an active girl who has many interests, according to videos and photos of the engagement, she looks like an intelligent youg woman, refined, with self condidence but not haughty or snobish
next to her, the duchess of cambridge looks like a ridiculous groupie, she had the same opportunities than stephanie to do interesting things when she was single, but she did nothing

ps: i like her engagement ring, and it would be perfect if it was a litlle smaller

[Princess Tia]

I think they look nice together. To me it seemed they were both trying to keep each other comfortable--just small gestures.  He is a bit dorky, but many times the dorks make the best husbands.  They haven't had woman falling all over them so they are a bit awkward at first, but when they grow to be undorky they're wonderful partners, attentive, lovable, and usually self-deprecating.

He chose a beautiful ring and I think it fits her finger quite nicely.  I don't know what that section of the finger is called (mine is quite short so that ring would never do).  But it appears to fit her just fine with some space to spare.  Maybe her finger length or formation assisted her in her piano and violin proficiency.

Best wishes for a long and happy marriage as they face life's challenges together.

[tigerben]

interesting a 20 year age gap between the parents....that is a bit weird, no?

What's even weirder is that the mother looks every bit as old as the father (IMO).

I said the same thing, in a few pages back, it's unbelievable , had me wondering was the woman acually the Mother! Or was a scandal covered up, I would love to see a photo of Stephanie as a baby to see how the mother looked back then!

[norwegianne]

Born February 18, 1984 in Ronse (Ronse, Belgium), she is the youngest daughter in a family of eight children (she has four brothers and three sisters born between 1966 and 1976) for the most part already married ..

Stephanie comes from the ancient aristocratic family the Belgian De Lannoy: her father, Count Philippe (1922: will celebrate in August 90 years) is the eldest of seven children of Count Paul and Princess Beatrix de Ligne (1898-1982), whose mother was a Cosse-Brissac.

Beatrix de Ligne, the paternal grandmother of Stephanie was a first cousin of Princess Yolanda (mother of Archduke Carl Christian of Austria and stepmother of Princess Marie- Astrid of Luxembourg, aunt of Prince William, their children are related to the groom and the bride!) and Prince Antoine (1925-2005) whose widow is none other than ... the Princess Alix of Luxembourg ( 1929), great aunt of Prince William!

What a small world 

Wasn't Beatrix de Ligne the aunt of Princess Yolande (Yolande's father Eugene was Beatrix/Beatrice's brother)), hence Stephanie's father is the first cousin to Carl Christian of Austria - and Imre & co are the second cousins to Stephanie and first cousins to Guillaume.

Beatrix was also the aunt to Antoine (who was the brother to Yolande), who married Alix of Luxembourg - the sister of GD Jean.

[Little_star]

A very small world indeed!  I get the feeling that those Belgian aristos and royals, young Luxers and Habsburgs run in a very tight circle.  I'm surprised that Imre and Louis partnered up with women from outside of that group.  I would expect Astrid of Belgium's children and the younger Lux sibs to end up with spouses from that group too.

Wasn't Philippe and Mathilde's wedding arranged too? Or is that just a rumour?

[hanzo1]

she looks prettier with her hair down as a whole she is as attractive as most Cp's were except L