by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau

Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau was the second son of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Claus von Amsberg, and a younger brother of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. He was born Prince Johan Friso Bernhard Christiaan David of the Netherlands on September 25, 1968, at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Embed from Getty Images 
Prince Friso with his parents on his christening day

Prince Friso was christened on December 28, 1968, at the Domkerk in Utrecht, the Netherlands. His godparents were:

• Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, his maternal grandmother
• Crown Prince Harald of Norway, the future King Harald V of Norway
• Johan Christian Baron von Jenisch, his father’s friend
• Herman van Roijen, Dutch diplomat and politician
• Christina von der Recke, his paternal aunt, born Christina von Amsberg

Prince Friso had two brothers:

• King Willem-Alexander (born 1967) married Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, had three daughters
• Prince Constantijn (born 1969) married Laurentien Brinkhorst, has two daughters and a son

Following his primary education at the Nieuwe Baarnse School in Baarn and secondary education at the Eerste Vrijzinnig Christelijk Lyceum in The Hague, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, studying mechanical engineering. He then attended Delft University of Technology, graduating in 1994 with a degree in aeronautical engineering. From 1990-1995, he also studied economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, earning a master’s degree in 1995. And in 1997, he earned his MBA from INSEAD in France.

Prince Friso worked at several companies, both in London and the Netherlands.

• 1995-1996 – McKinsey & Company, Amsterdam
• 1998-2003 – Vice President, Goldman Sachs International, London
• 2004-2006 – Co-Director of TNO Space, Delft
• 2006-2011 – Managing Director, Wolfensohn & Company, London
• 2011-2012 – Chief Financial Officer, URENCO

He was also the co-founder of the MRI Centre in Amsterdam, and the founding shareholder of Wizz Air, a low-cost airline based in Hungary. He was also, along with his younger brother Prince Constantijn, honorary chairman of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development.

In June 2003, Prince Friso’s engagement to Mabel Wisse Smit was announced. There was public controversy regarding Mabel’s past and her reported relationship with a known drug lord. Having been somewhat vague in their responses to questions about the issue, and Friso’s insistence that he would marry Mabel with or without formal approval from the government, the decision was made not to request formal consent from the Dutch parliament for the marriage. In doing so, Prince Friso relinquished his rights to the Dutch throne and his title of Prince of the Netherlands. However, he retained his personal title of Prince of Orange-Nassau and was granted the hereditary title Count of Orange-Nassau, with the surname Orange-Nassau van Amsberg.

 

Friso and Mabel were married on April 24, 2004, in Delft, the Netherlands. Following a civil ceremony, a religious ceremony was held in the Oude Kerk in Delft, the Netherlands. The couple had two daughters:

• Countess Luana of Orange-Nassau van Amsberg (born 2005)
• Countess Zaria of Orange-Nassau van Amsberg (born 2006)

On February 17, 2012, while on the royal family’s annual skiing holiday in Lech, Austria, Prince Friso was buried under an avalanche and was in a coma. According to medical reports, he had been buried for 25 minutes and suffered neurological injuries due to the lack of oxygen. On March 1, 2012, he was moved to Wellington Hospital in London, England, nearer to his family’s home. In the summer of 2013, he was declared to be in a minimally conscious state and no longer in need of hospital care. He was moved again on July 9, 2013, to Huis ten Bosch Palace, his mother’s residence in The Hague in the Netherlands. It was here, on August 12, 2013, that Prince Friso passed away at the age of 44.

Prince Friso’s funeral

A private funeral was held at the Stulpkerk Church in Lage Vurrsche, the Netherlands near Castle Drakensteijn where he had grown up, and he was buried at the Dutch Reformed Cemetery in Lage Vuursche, Utrecht,  the Netherlands. A memorial service was later held, on November 2, 2013, at the Oude Kerk in Delft.

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