In February 2021 I discussed several Dutch royal topics with my colleague Anika Helm of the wonderful German royalty-blog Adelswelt. We spoke about the vacation of the Dutch royals to Greece despite of the Covid-19 pandemic. I also gave my opinion about the subject whether the daughters of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima could become influencer on social media one day, if it is OK for Countess Eloise to be an influencer on Instagram and we also discussed the apanage of The Princess of Orange.
Apparently my quotes in the last article were highly interesting to other media. At that time Amalia’s 18th birthday was only months away, and the discussion among fans and in the media about whether she should receive an apanage after her birthday on 7 December 2021 was growing. I told Adelswelt:
“I would be happy if they decided to change the law and only give the heirs to the throne an apanage if he/she actually works regularly for the crown and not while they are really hardly doing anything.”
I said to hope that Amalia would follow the example of her Belgian colleague Princess Elisabeth, the Duchess of Brabant. And I thought that Amalia should take on more duties in case she would receive money as off her 18th birthday, not only attend Prinsjesdag (opening of parliament). We all know now that Princess Amalia on 11 June 2021, after finishing secondary school, indeed wrote to the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. She found her own solution, without the need to change the law, and said that she would for the time being return her personal income and the payment for her expenses, as she said it felt “uncomfortable as long as I do not do anything for it in return”. She will only accept money when she starts to have higher costs in her function as Princess of Orange.
Soon the Schweizer Illustrierte made good use of the article of Adelswelt, including my quote. Also several German magazines appear to have used it. The magazines Meine Freizeit (May 2021) and Spaß für Mich (September 2021) decided to write about the subject, mention my name and even include – without my permission – a rather ugly portrait photo of myself they had taken from the NettyRoyal Facebook account. At least in April 2021 Woche Heute didn’t publish the photo, but decided to publish my age (as if that’s relevant information). Although the Swedish magazine Svensk Damtidning knows that Amalia declined her allowance for now, in March 2022 there was still a small article about the matter, again quoting me. Oh well, it doesn’t make me famous, but it is interesting to follow how far a simple quote on a German blog can travel … it has both annoyed and amused me and Anika, who told me last week, when sending the Swedish article: “I should keep you as an expert. This is making big waves :-)”