| A St. Valentine's Guide: How To Marry A Prince |
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| Written by Dr. Janice Seto | |
| Wednesday, 14 February 2007 | |
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Page 2 of 7 Eva Sannum dated Prince Felipe for four years. The child of divorced Norwegians, she put herself through school, working as a model for catalogues, fashion shows and shoots around the world. Studying marketing (natch!), the tall blond Norwegian learnt to speak English, Greek (while spending time with her mother and the second husband in Rhodes), Spanish, Italian, German, and French. In none of these languages, to this day, she has never talked to the press (tip to Marie Cavallier…). Given her impressive CV and discretion, what prevented the transition from 'commoner' to Princess Eva de Borbon? As we all know, after the CV, now comes the interview process, and two obstacles stopped the candidacy of Eva Sannum. Spain did not think the gracious Eva Sannum fit what they were looking for. I say Spain because the conservative media and aristocracy — in short, the 'betters' — failed to appreciate the fine qualities in Eva Sannum's resume. They erroneously claimed: "She has done nothing with her life." 
Commentators basically refused to take a chance on her. The reason? If something were to happen to Felipe, Eva could be Queen Regent of Spain if her child were a minor. However, they wanted a royal in the tradition of Queen Sofia, not Eva, to represent Spain to the world.On the other hand, the fact Eva was a university student/working girl of divorced parents — not born Catholic nor aristocratic — and this was a love match did, for many Spaniards, represent their reality. In short, liberals were more accepting of the romance. The other obstacle was lack of proximity. In other words, long distance relationships don't work. If you cannot see each other on an ordinary basis, then your periods of contact under the halo of 'Best Behaviour' paint a skewed picture of your beau, the belle, and the relationship. We only need look at the early days of Prince Andrew and Sarah to see an example of this. It may be fine, it may be passionate, but it is not real. 
Alexandra Manley found out the hard way that time must be taken before committing to marriage. Now divorced from her Prince, and about to embark on a second marriage, she barely got to see Denmark before marrying Prince Joachim. |
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