On April 30, it will be 10 years since Guillermo Alejandro acceded to the throne of the Netherlands, after the abdication of his mother, Queen Beatrix. On the occasion of that tenth anniversary, the monarch wanted to open up to the public and gave an interview to the presenter Edwin Ewers and the result was Through the King's Eyes ( Door by ogen van de Koning ), a 10-episode podcast of 20 minutes each, which will be published every Thursday.
At the moment the first three have already been revealed in which he talks, among other topics, about the coronation, his wife Máxima, his three daughters, the abdication and emotions, something that the monarchy does not usually show in public. “When I see other people cry, really from sadness, pain and suffering, it is hard for me to stay cold. In that sense, I think I can be quite happy to live in the 21st century, where showing emotions is seen as something less weak than in the past (...) That showing emotions is allowed. I'm not ashamed either, I must say. Plus I have a Latina as a woman, who can also be very emotional. We share this, it's great."
About her daughters Amalia (19), Alexia (17) and Ariane (who turned 16 yesterday) she says that “they are not blind or deaf, they see everything on social networks, read everything, listen to everything. We do not isolate them from anything. And they talk about it. It affects them, ”says Guillermo, who in a future chapter will explain how the threats she suffers from a criminal group afflict the heiress, and her criticism of her physique.
Edwin Evers and the king recorded the podcast in his office in the Huis ten Bosch palace where during the pandemic he was making video calls dressed in a jacket, shirt and tie but underneath, since he could not be seen on camera, he was wearing sweatpants.
On the day he was crowned king, he confesses in the podcast that he lived an "out-of-body experience as if he were floating above me: What am I? What the hell are you doing? Who do you think you are? I saw myself standing down there, and I liked that." So much so that it is not the only time that he has happened to him: “I ask myself that question every day: 'who do you think you are that you can do this?'”.
Of the worst days of this decade of reign, King William points to the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane (shared with KLM) with almost 300 people on board by a pro-Russian missile in Ukraine in July 2014. He is moved by remembering it and points out how helpless he felt when he offered his condolences to the relatives of the victims for not being able to do anything more for them. He even confesses that many of those affected told him that they too knew how he felt, since he had lost a brother, referring to the death of Prince Friso, which occurred only a few months earlier from injuries sustained in a skiing accident.
And about whether the abdication in favor of his daughter Amalia has been considered, he affirms: “Of course I wish Amalia a very good and long preparation time. For herself, to start her own family or whatever she wants to do, and prepare well for her future. And then we'll also decide on a date, like with my mother. That is really a joint consultation between Amalia and me. That's in the distant future."
