When Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands walked into a party in Seville in April 1999, little did he know that his life was about to change forever. The party was held in honour of the annual Seville Spring Fair and Argentine Maxima Zorreguieta was there, taking a break from her job in Deutsche Bank. The couple started talking but Willem-Alexander didn't tell the pretty Latin American lady that he was a prince... it was only at a later date that he came clean to her - and she thought he was joking!
Video: King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima's love story
The two met up some weeks later in New York and their romance blossomed. Maxima moved from her job in New York to the European Union Representative Office in Brussels, Belgium. The relationship went from strength-to-strength and in January 2001, the couple were ice-skating on a pond near the Huis ten Bosch Palace. Willem-Alexander beckoned his future bride over to where he had hidden roses and champagne - whereby he popped the question!
The couple were married on 1 February 2002 at Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk. The only bittersweet moment for Maxima was the fact that her father was not allowed to attend the ceremony on account of his being part of the military junta dictatorship in Argentina during the 1980s.
The couple have gone on to have three lovely daughters: Princess Amalia (born 2003), Princess Alexia (born 2005) and Princess Ariane (born 2007).
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