Jorge Guillermo

Jorge Pérez y Guillermo (born August 1, 1946) was the husband of Princess Christina of the Netherlands between 1975 and the couple's divorce in late 1996. He was accordingly brother-in-law to Queen Beatrix between 1980 and 1996. He is also a noted art collector.

Life Family provenance and early years Jorge Guillermo was born in Havana, Cuba where he attended school until 1960. Dr. Federico Gilberto Pérez y Castillo (1911–1967), his father, was a physician with connections to the political establishment. Prof. Edenia Mercedes Guillermo y Marrero (1925–2002), his mother, held a series of senior positions in education administration by 1960, combining her duties as director of education of the Province of Havana with a lectureship. Jorge Guillermo also had an older brother, named after their father, Gilberto Perez (1943–2015), who later became an American Professor of Film Studies. The decision that the family should leave the country was evidently taken, in the first instance, by Edenia Guillermo. While O'Gorman ran the center, the focus of Guillermo's contribution was reported to be on fund raising. Details of Ricky's condition never became clear: he was seriously ill. O'Gorman himself later recalled without elaboration that "it took him six years to die". A couple of months later, the princess broke off her studies in Groningen and moved to Canada, which she had, she pointed out, already visited several times on vacation. She was accompanied, it was reported, by her two private secretaries, the Misses Vlieger and Berghout. Three years later, she moved on again to complete her time as a music student at the Music Conservatorium (as it was known at that time) of nearby McGill University. She also gave private singing lessons This was followed by a church celebration at the cathedral in Utrecht. The church ceremony was ecumenical since Jorge Guillermo came from a Catholic family while the Dutch royal family adhere to the Dutch Reformed Church. Having failed to obtain permission from the States General (Dutch parliament) ahead of her marriage to Guillermo, Princess Christina automatically lost her right to the throne. However, although the matter is reported in a number of sources, as the youngest of four royal siblings, with at least six of her nieces and nephews ranking ahead of her in order of precedence when it came to the succession, any sacrifice involved was largely a theoretical one. By not involving parliament in her decision to marry, the princess also avoided any discussions on the delicate and far from settled constitutional issues arising from her having chosen a Roman Catholic spouse.

Royal marriage At the time of the marriage, the couple let it be known that they intended, once their honeymoon was completed, to return home and live once more as "ordinary New Yorkers". Sources are in most respects silent about the couple's life together in New York. All were baptised as Catholics.

The princess continued to shun the limelight: "I like to lead my life in anonymity, without the burden of being a princess. Where I can meet people who like me for myself...". The couple could nevertheless sometimes be spotted in public at art auctions. Using the cut-price flight tickets provided to Jorge as part of his remuneration package from KLM, they acquired a reputation for being willing to fly "to anywhere they heard of art works of special interest for sale".

In 1984, as the three children approached school age, the family returned to Baarn in the Netherlands where they settled. They initially lived in a section of the royal palace at Soestdijk. By this time Queen Juliana had retired and Christina's sister was on the throne, as Queen Beatrix. The Queen agreed to the construction of a family home for the Guillermos on the site of a former manor house at Eikenhorst in the royal park at De Horsten, on the edge of the prosperous commuter suburb of Wassenaar. One reason the move was controversial was that much of the royal park at De Horsten was (and is) open to the public. Indeed, the European trail E11 crosses it. According to one source, sections of the royal park had also been designated as a nature reserve, triggering protests from the country's powerful nature protection lobby. An access road to the estate was closed in 1986, after which neighbors had to follow a diversion of several kilometers to reach their own small holdings.

Royal divorce In 1994 reports surfaced that the marriage was in trouble. Others were more circumspect, but rumors of Guillermo's marital misfeasances continued to circulate. In 1994, Juliana, their youngest child was 12. One of the first points of agreement in the divorce settlement was that Princess Christina should receive custody of their three children.

Towards the end of 1996, the matter was concluded and the divorce became officially public. On 19 and 20 November 1996, a major art auction was held at the Amsterdam premises of a multinational auction house. According to sources, the couple had been forced to sell some, most or all of their art collection due to the cost of the divorce.

In 1999, Jorge relocated again, settling this time in London, England. Both the sons remained in New York.

At some stage early during the twenty-first century, Jorge Guillermo moved to the small town of Condom in the hill-country to the west of Toulouse in south-western France.