Glamorous ball gowns as far as the eye can see: Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway is celebrating her 18th birthday with a glamorous gala dinner. A group photo is taken with Europe’s future queens. Ingrid Alexandra, second in line to the throne of Norway, is the first woman to ascend the throne there.
Norway’s Hereditary Princess Ingrid Alexandra celebrated her 18th birthday together with representatives of the royal family from almost all of Europe. Almost five months after the actual birthday of the daughter of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, the gala dinner for the coming of age of the future Queen of Norway, which had been postponed due to the pandemic, was made up for on Friday evening in the Royal Palace in Oslo. Also present: almost 200 invited guests from all over the country and from many European royal families.
Before the big celebration started, many group photos were taken, which the Norwegian royal family also shared on Instagram. One shows Princess Ingrid Alexandra surrounded by 10-year-old Princess Estelle of Sweden, 18-year-old Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands and Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, 20-year-old. They are all future queens of Europe. Also in the photo is Prince Charles of Luxembourg, who is only two years old and will one day be Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
Ingrid Alexandra is second in line to the throne of Norway, making her the first woman to ascend the throne in the country. She had already come of age on January 21st. Larger celebrations had to be postponed at the time due to the corona pandemic, which is why they have now been made up for. On Thursday evening, the Norwegian government hosted a celebratory dinner in Oslo’s Deichman Library in her honor.
It was even more solemn than the evening before in the royal palace: numerous royals honored Ingrid Alexandra, including the Dutch royal couple Willem-Alexander and Maxima, Spain’s monarch Felipe VI. and the Danish crown prince couple Frederik and Mary. Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Prince Daniel brought their children Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar with them. The British, on the other hand, were absent.
The royal guests were greeted by heavy rain showers at the castle in the evening. The diadems of the queens and princesses were spot on – including that of the birthday child: Ingrid Alexandra wore a headdress decorated with diamonds and pearls that had once belonged to her great-great-grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden. She wore a violet dress that her mother Mette-Marit had already worn in 2005 when the Japanese imperial couple visited Norway.
Despite the obvious excitement, the princess mastered her speech in front of the high guests with charm and bravura. She thanked her parents and siblings – her mother, among other things, for being able to lie on the couch together and watch series like “Sex and the City”. Grandfather King Harald V was thanked for always having a joke up his sleeve when the mood was bad. She ended her speech with a solemn “Skål!” to loud applause. – Cheers!
The king and his wife Queen Sonja had invited to the belated birthday party. In their speeches, you both told your granddaughter to stay true to yourself – without wanting to be perfect. “I’ve told you several times before, but a grandfather has the right to repeat his most important piece of advice over and over again,” said Harald. “Be yourself and trust that that’s enough – always.”
Among the guests was Princess Amalia of the Netherlands, for whom it was the first official trip as Crown Princess. The eldest daughter of Willem-Alexander and Máxima had come of age a good month and a half before Ingrid Alexandra. Like the Norwegian Princess, it was a tiara debut for Amalia as she confidently entered the ballroom on King Felipe’s arm.
It was a special moment for the young Dutchwoman: in a book for her 18th birthday, she revealed that she had often played with her mother’s jewels as a child and had also tried on a tiara. She was a big fan, she admitted to the book author. “Show me a diadem and I’ll know where it came from. I can recognize all the diadems of Europe.” Friday evening was an excellent opportunity for this.
