- Princess Catharina-Amalia said she isn’t ready to be queen of the Netherlands, her biography says.
- The princess said that she would ask her mother to step in if she inherited the throne now.
- She will celebrate her 18th birthday in December.
Princess Catharina-Amalia, the 17-year-old heir to the Dutch throne, said that she doesn’t want to be queen yet, according to a new biography.
The book, “Amalia,” by Claudia de Breij was published in the Netherlands on Tuesday, the Mail Online reports. In an excerpt from the book, the princess said that if her father, King Willem-Alexander, 54, were to die suddenly, she would ask her mother to step in temporarily, the publication reports.
“But I said to my father: ‘You just keep on eating healthy and exercising a lot,” the princess told Breij, according to the Mail Online.
Breij’s biography is based on “personal talks with the princess” for the occasion of Amalia’s 18th birthday on December 7, a representative of the Royal House told Insider. The representative added that the princess told Breij that “she has ’embraced’ the fact of being the future Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, though hopefully she will fulfil the role as head of state a little ‘later’ (to first complete her studies.)”
If King Willem-Alexander were to die before Amalia’s 18th birthday, her mother Queen Máxima would be able to act as a supervisor to the new monarch.
Dutch Civil Law states that the heir becomes eligible to inherit the throne on their 18th birthday. If the monarch is a minor, “parental responsibility for and guardianship” and supervision can be regulated by Act of Parliament, the law states.
Amalia also spoke in the biography about the constitutionally required consent for marriage.
“If it’s the man who supports me, who I love, who I want to spend my life with and parliament doesn’t approve, well, then we’ll just have to see what I do. I can’t choose at my own expense. Then I can’t give the best for our country,” she said, according to Netherlands News Live.