Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Close Ties to Jordan

The Prince and Princess of Wales made a surprise visit to Jordan to attend the wedding of the country’s Crown Prince Hussein.

William, 40, and Kate, 41, are among a host of foreign royalty who attended the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein, 28, and architect bride Rajwa Alseif, 29, at Zahran Palace on Thursday.

The presence of the British royals – spotted last night at a luxury hotel in Amman – had been kept secret and was only confirmed by Jordanian state media a few hours before the start of the palace ceremony.

But it’s perhaps not surprising that Kate and William made the trip to the Middle East – as both no doubt share a fondness for Jordan.

The country especially keeps special memories of the princess; the Middleton family spent three years there in the early 1980s, when Kate was just two years old, after her father Michael, a British Airways executive, moved to Amman for work.

Kate attended an English-language nursery while her parents were in the country for nearly three years, before returning to Berkshire in 1986.

In 2011, in an interview with The nationalthe founder of the Assahera nursery where Kate attended, Sahera al Nabulsi, gave a revealing insight into the princess’s early years.

She said, “The morning routine was to have all the kids sit in a circle where they would all sing Incy Wincy Spider in both English and Arabic.

“We read a verse from the Quran to improve the children’s Arabic and told stories about the Prophet’s companions, such as Omar Bin Khattab. The idea was to reinforce concepts such as respect and love.’

Kate was in a class of 12, while the nursery looked after 100 children aged three to five from Jordan, Great Britain, Japan, India, Indonesia and America.

In the morning everyone was grouped together to learn Arabic before being divided into different classes.

“The teacher used to ask in Arabic, ‘Who is wearing red today?’ so that the children would recognize the colours’, Mrs al Nabulsi recalls.

The founder of the nursery dressed up as Santa for Christmas and celebrated Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan, when a drummer came to entertain the children.

Mrs. al Nabulsi recalled how the mother of the royal family, Carole, usually did the school run, but Michael sometimes picked Kate up in his work uniform. “The kids were very excited and ran to him,” she said.

Speaking of Kate’s childhood with Save the Children’s CEO Rania Malki during a tour of the Middle East in 2018, Prince William said: “She loved it here, she really did. She’s very upset that I come here without her.’

William visited the ruins of a Roman settlement in Jerash – where Kate was pictured as a child – with Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein, before posing for a photo in the same spot.

The Prince of Wales told photographers at the time: “We’ll have to take the kids next time.”

True to its word, Kensington Palace revealed in 2021 that William and Kate had taken Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on holiday to Jordan when they released their Christmas card.

In 2021, Kensington Palace revealed that William and Kate had taken Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on holiday to Jordan when they released their Christmas card.

The palace revealed that the shared photo for the festive period was taken in Jordan earlier that year when the royal family of five visited the ancient city of Petra.

The Jordanian royal family has also long had a close relationship with the British royal family.

King Abdullah and Queen Rania were among those on the ‘slimed down’ guest list of 2,300 at Westminster Abbey on May 6 for the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla.

The couple also attended Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in September last year.

Queen Rania referred to the late monarch as the ‘Queen of the World’ in a sweet Instagram tribute and even admitted she ‘looked up’ to Queen Elizabeth during an interview with ITV News.

Elsewhere, she was asked about Kate during an interview with CNN taped in London in September 2022, ahead of the late Queen’s funeral.

Speaking of the mother of three, Rania praised the Princess of Wales for her sense of duty, saying she “gives from the heart.”

She also said there was a “sense of sincerity” and “love” in everything Kate does in a snippet of her interview.

“Princess Catherine, when she talks about her work, her face lights up,” Rania said. “She’s doing it out of a sense of duty, but more importantly, she’s doing it because she absolutely cares.”

Her praise didn’t stop there, as she said the Princess of Wales “gives from the heart.”

“When she talks about her job, she says, ‘I’m just lucky to be doing this, I’m privileged to be doing that.'” she said. So she gives from her heart. And again, there’s a sense of sincerity and a sense of love in everything she does.”

Queen Rania is also a councilor for the Earthshot Prize, launched by Prince William in 2020.

On Prince Hussein’s wedding day, 140 guests, including members of the Royal Hashemite family, royal guests and heads of state, will watch the couple tie the knot in the palace garden.

Thursday has been declared a national holiday, with celebratory events being organized in all 12 Jordanian governorates to allow citizens to participate in the festivities.

The couple will marry at Zahran Palace in an “elegant and understated religious ceremony.”

The couple will then move to Al Husseiniya Palace in a motorcade procession for the wedding reception, with a diverse lineup of performers paying tribute to the Crown Prince’s military career, his bride’s Saudi Arabian heritage and traditional Jordanian artistry.

The wedding reception will be hosted by King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, as well as the bride’s parents, with more than 1,700 guests.

The rest of the evening features a variety of performances from local and regional singers, a choral group, Jordanian bands, the national orchestra and folk dance groups.

The reception ends with the cutting of the wedding cake by the bridal couple.