On April 30, it will be 10 years since Guillem Alexandre acceded to the throne of the Netherlands, after the abdication of his mother, Queen Beatrix. On the occasion of this tenth anniversary, the monarch wanted to open his heart to the public and gave an interview to the announcer Edwin Ewers and the result was Through the eyes of the king (Door de ogen van de Koning), a podcast by 10 chapters 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, about his wife Máxima, about his three daughters, about the abdication and emotions, something that the monarchy does not usually show in public. “When I see other people crying, really from sadness, pain and suffering, it's hard for me to stay cool. In this sense, I think I can be happy enough to live in the 21st century, in which showing emotions is not seen as something as weak as in the past (...) That showing emotions is allowed. I'm not ashamed of it either, I must say. Also, I have a Latina as a wife, who can also be very emotional. Let's share this, it's great."
About her daughters Amàlia (19), Alexia (17) and Ariadna (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", points out Guillem, who in an upcoming chapter will explain how the threats she suffers from a criminal group and the criticism of her physique affect the heiress.
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, because he could not be seen by the camera, he was wearing trousers tracksuit
On the day he was crowned king, he reveals in the podcast that he had an “out-of-body experience as if I was floating above myself: 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 it has happened to him.
Among 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. S 'he gets emotional when he remembers it and points out the helplessness he felt when he gave his condolences to the relatives of the victims, because he couldn't do anything else for them. He even reveals that many of those affected told him that they too knew how he felt, as he had lost a brother, referring to the death of Prince Friso, which had happened only a few months earlier, following the injuries sustained by a skiing accident
And on whether he has considered abdicating in favor of his daughter Amàlia, he declares: "Of course, I wish Amàlia 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 will also decide on a date, like with my mother. This is really a joint consultation between Amàlia and me. This will be in the distant future."
