Princess Alexandra turns thirty years old today! Sadly, no new birthday portrait has been published yet.
While she was studying at Franciscan University of Steubenville, there was a video going around that her friends organized for her 20th birthday. It included snippets of well wishes from both university friends and family members. (I have not seen it for many years.) You could tell from the video that Alexandra is well loved. Apparently, in the family she is known as
"Yaya" which is what her mother called her, as well as Prince Louis, Tessy and their young children. Her father addressed her as "Alexandra," while her friends called her "Alex."
Alexandra was born on February 16. 1991, two days after her parents' 10th wedding anniversary. Sebastien was born just 16 months later on April 16, 1992, his father, Grand Duke Henri's 37th birthday. MT has said that she gave Henri the most beautiful birthday gift that day. (Interesting that Alex and Seb were both born on the 16th of the month; Felix and Louis were born on the 3rd of their birthday months.)
From their 40th wedding anniversary interview in
Paris Match this week, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa describes her children's careers:
MT de L:
"I am a proud mother of her children. Our concern being that they can live their passions, we have never exerted pressure to push them to make brilliant careers. Today, everyone blossoms harmoniously in the area they love: our daughter Alexandra is in humanitarian and social work, Sébastien works in the development of ecological agriculture, Félix is an entrepreneur, especially in wine, and Louis is a coach and mediator."I'm especially interested to hear that Louis is employed as a "mediator". I wonder if his GF helped him get that gig, as she is a lawyer, and mediation services can be a big deal during legal proceedings. But usually the preferred choice of a mediator in a legal proceeding has a legal background, i.e., is a retired judge or lawyer. Maybe he only mediates pre-litigation matters.
I would like to see more of Alexandra but I suppose she's got a right to live her life more or less as a private person. She's not the direct heir, after all. My impression however is that her light has not been allowed to shine much, what with MT in control.
