HOW ROYAL FAMILIES HAVE COPED.
It isn’t easy for royalty to do the right thing in a pandemic: get too involved and be accused of meddling in matters best left to experts; go into hiding and be accused of shirking responsibilities. So what has European royalty done during the pandemic?
1 PRINCE CARL PHILIP AND PRINCESS SOFIA OF SWEDEN
Comfortably Europe’s most attractive royal couple, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden have been very proactive. Princess Sofia, 35, became a health-care assistant. Carl Philip, 40, the king’s only son, who was a major in the Swedish navy, has been a reserve officer at the Operations Command Centre, co-ordinating crisis response.
2 KING FELIPE AND QUEEN LETIZIA OF SPAIN
They have been active on video calls with politicians, armed forces personnel and health workers. But with the lockdown easing in Spain, they have resumed face-to-face engagements. As well as masks, the stylish pair wear assassin-style black leather gloves in public.
3 PRINCESS ELISABETH OF BELGIUM
Her cousin Prince Joachim may have shamed the family with his non-isolating party presence, but the heir apparent to the Belgian throne, 18-year-old Princess Elisabeth, in Wales studying for her International Baccalaureate, returned to Belgium to do her schooling remotely. She will follow family tradition by enrolling at the Belgian Military Academy in the autumn.
4 PRINCESS TALITA VON FURSTENBERG
A member of the German princely family of Furstenberg, “TVF” (like her grandmother Diane, she is a fashion designer, and does not use the princess title) had her 21st birthday in lockdown at home in Malibu. An Instagram post showed her surrounded by cakes, balloons, flowers, an ocean vista and birthday messages.
5 PRINCESS THEODORA OF GREECE
The 36-year-old actress, who was raised in London, was to have married U.S. lawyer Matthew Kumar at a star-studded wedding in Greece this month (her father, King Constantine, is a second cousin of Prince Charles and godfather to the Duke of Cambridge). That has been postponed, but they toasted on the day with champagne, wore the national flag’s blue and white, and posed in front of, yes, a massive Greek salad.