The World’s Most Glamorous Royals

Glamorous global royals from around the world — (Image credit: Getty Images)

The British royal family is nothing if not interesting, but they’re not the only game in town. There are numerous royal families around the world—each with their own drama, and each with their own fashion-forward, glamorous standout. We’d like to introduce you to some of our favorite global royals whose fashion we follow fastidiously (and their lives and work, too).

Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, soon to be Queen Mary

Perhaps the most buzzed-about global royal of the moment is Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, who, after her mother-in-law Queen Margrethe’s bombshell abdication announcement on New Year’s Eve, will become Queen Mary on January 14. In doing so, Mary will become the first Australian-born queen ever. She met her husband, Crown Prince Frederik, in her home country when he visited for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney; they met at a pub called the Slip Inn, and successful ad exec Mary had no idea that “Fred” was the heir to the Danish throne. They married in 2004 and have four children and, in addition to being someone that Denmark can look up to, the Princess of Wales reportedly considers Mary the royal blueprint to follow.

Queen Letizia of Spain

Before marrying into the Spanish royal family in 2004, Queen Letizia was an accomplished journalist who worked for the Spanish version of the economic channel Bloomberg before moving to CNN+. She reported on the 2000 U.S. presidential election from Washington D.C., and in September 2001 she broadcast live from Ground Zero in New York City following the 9/11 attacks; in 2003, she filed reports in Iraq following the war. After a 10-year courtship, she married her first husband in 1998, and they divorced the next year; she married King Felipe (then Prince Felipe) in 2004, and they have two daughters. She became Queen in 2014 after her father-in-law, King Juan Carlos, abdicated the throne, and has wowed ever since.

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden

Fun fact about Sweden’s heir to the throne: though Crown Princess Victoria is the eldest of King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia’s three children, after her brother Prince Carl Philip was born in 1979, she was bumped down behind him in the line of succession because he is male—until Sweden changed its constitution so that birth order determined the line of succession regardless of gender. This change was effective January 1, 1980, once again making Victoria the heir apparent after seven months as No. 2. When Victoria takes the throne, she will be Sweden’s fourth queen regnant and its first since 1720. Victoria has been open about struggles with dyslexia, anorexia, and prosopagnosia, which makes it difficult to recognize familiar faces—especially difficult in the line of work she does. She speaks four languages (Swedish, English, French, and German), married her personal trainer Daniel Westling in 2010, and is the mother of two children.

Princess Madeleine of Sweden

Victoria’s younger sister Princess Madeleine is the baby of the five-person family of Carl Gustaf and Silvia, and, though born third in line to the Swedish throne, is now eighth thanks to her siblings’ children. An enthusiastic equestrian, Madeleine does work to support the Crown, though she currently lives in the U.S. with her family and has since 2018. (They are expected to move back to Sweden sometime this year.) She married British-American financier Christopher O’Neill in 2013, and they have three children.

Princess Sofia of Sweden

The middle child of Carl Gustaf and Silvia is the aforementioned Carl Philip, who married the former Sofia Hellqvist in 2015. Prior to joining the Swedish royal family, Sofia was a glamour model and reality television star, appearing on Paradise Hotel (and even making it to the end). She is a certified yoga instructor, studied accounting, and is a mother of three.

Queen Rania of Jordan

All eyes were on the Jordanian royal family last summer for the royal wedding of the year, attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales and a host of other global royals. The mother of the groom—Crown Prince Hussein—is Queen Rania, the wife of King Abdullah. Before marrying him, Rania worked at Citibank and Apple; their courtship was swift, as they married in 1993—just five months after meeting at a dinner party. They are the parents of four children.

Princess Charlene of Monaco

Princess Charlene’s title is a bit misleading: though she is Princess of Monaco and her husband, Prince Albert, is Prince of Monaco, in that country it means that they are on the throne. Albert had already reigned for six years, since 2005, when he and Charlene were married in 2011, and prior to her marriage and relocation to Monaco, Charlene was an Olympic swimmer from South Africa. Charlene is the mother of young twins and her work as a royal primarily revolves around sports, AIDS, and underprivileged children. Her late mother-in-law is Grace Kelly, and Charlene's style rivals the legendary actress-turned-princess.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands

Queen Maxima originally hails from Argentina and was working in marketing when she met Prince Willem-Alexander in Seville, Spain in 1999. Upon their initial meeting, he introduced himself only as “Alexander” so that she wouldn’t know he was a prince; when he finally did tell Maxima that he was the heir to the Dutch throne, she thought he was joking. They eventually married in 2002 and became king and queen upon the 2013 abdication of Queen Beatrix, Maxima’s mother-in-law. She is the mother of three and has promoted social integration of immigrants, LGBT rights, and financial inclusion as a working royal.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway

Crown Princess Mette-Marit was a commoner and a single mother with a disadvantaged past when she married the heir to the Norwegian throne, Crown Prince Haakon, in 2001; though the Norwegian public was initially largely skeptical of her, they have since warmed, and Mette-Marit is beloved. In addition to her son from a previous relationship, she and Haakon have two children together, and her royal duties were somewhat restricted after a diagnosis of a form of pulmonary fibrosis in 2018.

Queen Mathilde of Belgium

Queen Mathilde is the first native-born Belgian queen in history, and when she married then Prince Philippe in December 1999, theirs was the last royal wedding of the millennium. They now have four children and became king and queen in 2013; causes close to her heart include decreasing poverty in Belgium, education, literacy, and the position of women in society.

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.