Theirs may be the only royal proposal that happened on ice—but we’ll get to that.
Máxima Zorreguieta was a hotshot banker living and working in New York City when she travelled to Seville, Spain, for a party in April 1999. How could she know that her future husband, a prince in hiding, would be there?
“Spain has a special place in our hearts,” King Willem-Alexander said at a 2024 state banquet in honour of Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia. “We were at the Feria de Abril…25 years ago. The sparks began to fly. The rest is history.”
Máxima met a Dutchman named Alexander. In truth: Prince Willem-Alexander, the Prince of Orange, the heir to the Dutch throne as the eldest son of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus. She started taking pictures at the party, she’d reveal in her 50th birthday interview in 2022, and that had angered ‘Alexander.’
“He looked at me very badly. Like, why are you looking at me like that? I just didn’t understand it at all. Who does he think he is, if I want to take pictures, I just take pictures,” she recalled.
But then they started talking and only after the party did he reveal that he was the heir to the Dutch throne. Máxima didn’t believe him. But she was intrigued and wanted to learn more about him, grow the relationship, and learn more about the Netherlands – she admitted in 2022, she only knew of tulips, windmills and the basics of the country.
“I really liked him. But I stayed in New York, to see if the relationship was right for me? Is the person something for me? That grew and grew. I found it interesting. When it went further, if I really want this, I really need to know a lot more. And then I started taking Dutch lessons, in New York. Step by step…the big step was that I had to move closer to the Netherlands.”
She moved to Brussels in 2000, working for Deutsche Bank until April 2001, wrapping up her professional career in the months after her royal boyfriend decided to pop the question in a decidedly Dutch way.
After a two-year relationship, Willem-Alexander decided it was time to propose, and that it was time his future bride learn another typical element of the Dutch lifestyle: skating.
“It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and I thought ‘Máxima needs to learn how to skate because what is more typical Holland than ice skating?’” he’d tell RTL Nieuws. So on 19 January 2001, the future king took his bride skating at Huis ten Boch and on the ice, dropped to one knee and presented her with a ring.
He proposed in English, as Máxima was still learning Dutch, and he wanted to ensure she understood what he was saying.
“I was expecting an offer of a cup of hot chocolate. Because I had heard that is just as much of a Dutch tradition as ice skating is,” Máxima joked. But she quickly replied with an emphatic yes.
The couple recreated the moment 20 years later, in 2021, and shared the moment on the Dutch Royal Family’s official social media accounts. “More than 20 years later, same place. Having fun on the ice!” – W
But their romance, though full of trust and love, wasn’t without controversy.
Máxima’s father, Jorge Zorreguieta, had served in the cabinet of Argentina’s dictatorship, and though he was personally cleared of wrongdoing, it was determined that he would have known what was happening at the time. The couple received government consent to marry, required for all Dutch royal marriages, but Máxima’s father was forbidden to attend the wedding.
Her mother decided not to attend in solidarity, but Máxima’s brothers and sisters and maternal aunt all represented her Argentine side.
After marriage, the couple had three daughters: Princess Catharina-Amalia, Princess Alexia and Princess Ariane. In January 2013, Queen Beatrix announced her intentions to abdicate later that year, and on 30 April, King Willem-Alexander became the Netherlands’ first king in over a century and Queen Máxima became his consort.
In her 50th birthday interview, she called her husband of 20 years her anchor. “He keeps me sharp, pushes me and stimulates me to really do my work but at the same time holds me. I think that combination is fantastic. Of course we have a great time together, with our children. He is a very good father, has a lot of humor. He is a huge support.”
