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The Netherlands

King Willem-Alexander: “Story about Amalia going to China is total nonsense”

Earlier this week, a story broke Princess Catharina-Amalia of Orange might finish her education in China. King Willem-Alexander has commented saying the story is total nonsense.

A couple of days ago the well respected Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf wrote a story about the first in line to the throne, Princess Amalia going to finish her final years of secondary school in China and thus follow in her father’s footsteps. Immediately the story spread across the international media, including us at Royal Central.

King Willem-Alexander was asked about the possibility of his eldest daughter going to China as he left an official engagement. The King of the Netherlands said with a laugh: “Well I came back from my trip to South Korea on Wednesday, landed in Paris and I read the news. I was very surprised.”

He continued: “I thought I should call Amalia to see whether she has planned something while I was gone. I didn’t know the story yet.”

His daughter Princess Amalia also thought the story was quite funny as the King said: “She [Amalia] laughed hard about it. It’s absolutely not true. It’s totally made up. It’s total nonsense.”

The Dutch Royal Family usually doesn’t comment on rumours but the King thought this time it was important to give a reaction. He explained himself: “I thought it was good to set the record straight as many people took it very seriously. When a story becomes so big, it is good to let people know somebody just made it up.”

Luckily Princess Amalia wasn’t exactly bothered by the rumours as she had a great laugh about it. The King continued by saying: “Amalia is doing great, she feels good. She loves being in school and that’s what she wants to continue doing.”

It is true however that Princess Amalia has been studying Chinese in school for a few years, but that she would follow in her father’s footsteps by studying at the UWC in Changshu is untrue.

About author

Laura is from Belgium and has a passion for all things royal. She is Europe Correspondent for Royal Central since October 2016 and has contributed to other news websites. In her daily life she is a fulltime student in EU-politics and political communication.