How is the mysterious highness doing now?
Hip hurray! Today marks exactly 46 years since Salma Bennani, better known as Lalla Salma, was born. However, the Moroccan princess has not been spotted in public in years. How are things going with Your Highness these days?
Fairy tale
A beautiful lady with a lush head of red curls wins the heart of Prince Charming: it sounds like the plot of a fairytale romance, doesn’t it? It happened to the young Salma, who met the Moroccan King Mohammed VI in 1999. Three years later the couple tied the knot. On May 8, 2003, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan was born, and the family seemed complete with the birth of Princess Lalla Khadija in 2007.
Mystery
Yet the marriage does not last. Although it was never officially confirmed by the court, the couple reportedly divorced in 2018. They have not been seen together since 2017, and even when the king underwent heart surgery in 2018, Salma was not spotted at his hospital bed in official photos distributed by the Moroccan court.
This of course raised quite a few questions, but the court never acknowledged that the couple had ended their relationship. This means that the current status of the princess is shrouded in mystery. She reportedly has a spacious villa on the Greek island of Kea, where she spends much of her time. The princess is also said to be regularly in Rabat to spend time with her offspring.
Salma’s royal duties have now been taken up by Lalla Meryem, King Mohammed’s older sister.
High-profile princess
Although it remains a bit of a mystery today how Salma is actually doing, the princess can at least look back on a special time at court. Compared to her predecessors, Salma was regularly in the spotlight. Although she mainly stayed in the shadows, Salma occasionally appeared in the public eye to carry out charitable work for cancer research.
This made Salma the first wife of a Moroccan king to appear in this way in public. Salma even represented her husband abroad, such as at the inauguration of our King Willem-Alexander in 2013.
We secretly hope for Salma’s return to the spotlight, because her subdued character and wild curls are somewhat missed. Will that ever happen again? We actually don’t dare count on that. In any case, we wish Her Highness a very happy birthday today – wherever she may be in the world!
Source: Blauw Bloed, Glamial archive | Image: NL Image
