Thursday, December 13, 2012

Engagement Announced

In not the most surprising move of the year, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa announced the engagement of their second son Prince Felix to German Claire Lademacher today.

Claire in Rome and together with Felix in Washington D.C. - Photo: Cour grand-ducale

It first became known publicly that Claire and Felix were an item when they were photographed together at the wedding of Princess Blanche de Merode, a good friend of the Hereditary Grand Duchess and one of her witnesses at the wedding, and Baron Philipp von und zu Bodman.

Claire as a child - Photo: Cour grand-ducale
Claire was born on March 21st, 1985, in Filderstadt, a town just south of Stuttgart in Germany. Her parents are Hartmut and Gabriele Lademacher. She has an older brother who is also named Felix.

She spent most of her childhood in Usingen near Frankfurt am Main before her family moved to Atlanta in the United States in the mid-90's. In 1999, her family returned to Germany, where they lived, again, near Frankfurt. During that time that Claire attended Frankfurt International School in Oberursel. She then went on to attend Collège Alpin International "Beau Soleil". It was at the Swiss boarding school that she crossed path with her future husband as he also attended the school. Other contemporaries included Prince Felix' cousin Princess Maria-Anunciata of Liechtenstein. In 2003, Claire earned the school's Prize of Excellency.

After she earned her IB with the majors History, English, German, Psychology and Art, she went on to attend the American University of Paris where she studied International Communications. She finished in 2007 and subsequently started working for publishing company Condé Nast in New York City and Munich. She then worked for IMG World in Berlin.

Claire and Felix in Florence, Italy - Photo: Cour grand-ducale

In 2011, she started a master's programme in Bioethics at the University Regina Apostolorum in Rome, where Prince Felix also studies. After receiving her degree summa cum laude, she is now working toward her Ph.D. She currently is a visiting researcher at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

In her free time Claire enjoys dancing, playing tennis, volleyball and badminton as well as skiing. She is also interested in photography and music. Like her parents, she is concerned with and keen to support social causes. She has taken part in a few humanitarian missions, for example to India.

For more background information about both Claire and her family, have a look at our recent Luxarazzi 101 post about her.

Photo: Cour grand-ducale
The engagement of Claire and Felix doesn't come as a surprise to anyone closely interested in the Grand Ducal family. Even though they do not go as far back as Beau Soleil, the two have been dating for a couple of years by now. They were pictured together at different events since their first public outing at the wedding of Blanche and Philipp von und zu Bodman. Claire was present for both the weddings of Felix' cousin Archduke Imre and his wife Archduchess Kathleen, as well as the wedding of Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie. We will most likely see them for the first time at an official event at the wedding of Felix' cousin Archduke Christoph in a little more than two weeks.


To celebrate the engagement, the cour has released a few private pictures of the happy couple that can be found at RTL and L'essentiel.


Source: Cour grand-ducale

1 comment:

  1. One very lucky lady, indeed. And her career achievements are very outstanding, Congrats!

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