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You are here: Home Moving to Country Facts Book reveals secrets of a royal marriage

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13/11/2008Book reveals secrets of a royal marriage

After 52 years of secrecy, royal historian Cees Fasseur has been given sole access to the private archives of the Dutch royal family.

 In his book, Juliana & Bernhard: The story of a marriage, 1935-1956, he reveals the intrigues - particularly the influence of faith healer Greet Hofmans - that almost lead to a royal divorce, the abdication of the late queen Juliana and a constitutional crisis.
Queen Wilhelmina andJ uliana © Wikimedia Commons
 
The book describes the first 20 years of the royal marriage. During the Second World War and the German occupation of the Netherlands, Juliana lived in Canada with her daughters. Meanwhile Prince Bernard spent the war in London where he had affairs with at least three high society women. It is already widely known that Prince Bernhard fathered two illegitimate children later in life.
 
The book also contains a report by the Beel Commission, which has been printed for the first time ever. The commission was appointed at the request of the royal couple itself following the summer of 1956. In that summer, an article, leaked by Bernhard, appeared in the German weekly Der Spiegel about the Dutch royal couple's marital difficulties. The article Between Queen and Rasputin told of the friction between the Hofmans camp surrounding Queen Juliana and the faction led by her husband Prince Bernhard.
 
Juliana and Bernhard cover book
The prince believed the political influence of faith healer Greet Hofmans, who held pacifist views, was particularly damaging to the queen. But he did not want a divorce and wrote to his wife asking her if she wanted to "reduce the name of the family to that of a third class Balkan monarchy."
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