• Hussein of Jordan, the rise of the crown prince in the midst of his country's crisis

  • Fights The secrets Noor told of Rania before the scandal: "He pressed in succession"

Tehran, 1976. Before meeting King Hussein of Jordan, the country where he landed as head of design for the Al Arab airline, a friend read him the coffee grounds. "You will marry someone of very high birth, originally from the land of your ancestors."

Elizabeth Halaby

, Lisa, the daughter of a Syrian who led Panama and held positions in the Kennedy administration, was then 25 years old, 45 less than the age of 70 on Monday. She was a spectacular light-eyed blonde, born in Washington, educated at Chapin, the school of Jackie Kennedy, and one of the few women of her generation who

achieved an architect degree at Princeton

. Restless, she sympathized with the hippie movement and

participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War

. What was he painting in a Muslim country where the woman was little more than an object owned by the husband? "May Allah punish you with love," says an Arabic proverb. Because the love of King Hussein made Lisa the Queen of Jordan, the mother of four children and the

celebrity

of the world press, who dubbed her "

the Grace Kelly of the Middle East

".

What the coffee grounds did not reveal to Noor (the light of Hussein, as it was called after their wedding) was that, after the death of the monarch, his light would go out in that court of the Arabian Nights full of intrigue. The bomb which involved eight children three previous marriages of the king caused that the current monarch,

King Abdullah, despojase in 2004 to Prince Hamza, eldest son of Noor

,

the status of heir

who had ordered Hussein to successor name his own son .

Noor's father, Najeb, alerted him to the risks of marrying the monarch, who in 1977 lost his third wife, Alia, in a suspicious helicopter crash.

In his link with Noor, on June 15, 1978, the first sparks flew: a shoemaker cut off the bride's heels to hide that she was taller than the king and was the only woman in the ceremony.

The siege increased after the wedding: they criticized his designer clothes,

spread rumors of infidelity

and boycotted his attempts to renovate the king's wardrobe.

But the rebel Noor persisted in her efforts to modernize the image of Jordan and

managed to get Spielberg to shoot Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in Petra.

.

She had in her favor her prominence in the media and the support of her husband: "It has given me a happiness that I did not think I would find again."

Rania and Noor of Jordan together at a memorial service for King Hussein at the royal palace in Amman.

After the king's unexpected death in 1999, aged 63 from lymphoma, Noor's fairytale existence collapsed.

With the drama that stripped his eldest son of the throne consummated, Noor moved away from Jordan.

He currently divides his life between the United States and London

, where his daughter Rayjel lives.

She disappeared from the spotlight although she occasionally participates in solidarity causes as president of the King Hussein Foundation and United Colleges of the World, an organization to which the boarding school of Princess Eleanor in Wales belongs.

Despite his discretion, in 2009 LOC uncovered his

hidden relationship with Mexican magnate Carlos Slim

. Of Lebanese origin, he was widowed by his wife and mother of their six children, Soumaya Domit, a day after Hussein's death. "They are two lonely and related souls who have met," said a person close to the couple, although

there has been no news

about the relationship.

Noor always avoided speaking out on internal Jordanian issues except this April, when his son

Hamza, dethroned heir, was under house arrest

in Amman accused of leading a plot to overthrow Abdullah. Something that the prince denies, although in some videos leaked to the BBC he accused the king and his government of being corrupt, incompetent and repressive before a portrait of King Hussein. Hamza, married twice and father of five children,

was his father's favorite

, but he was only 18 when the monarch died, prompting the rise of Abdullah. His mother, Princess Muna, of British descent, never achieved the title of queen that Noor obtained on the day of her wedding.

Hussein's widow broke her silence to defend her son, with a message on Twitter: "Praying that

truth and justice prevail for the innocent victims of this evil slander

. God bless and keep them safe."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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