Rebecca Bettarini married the Grand Duke George Romanov

PARIS The imperial eagle of the Romanov embroidered in gold on the long train, the crown held for a few seconds on the head as required by the Orthodox rite, the candles, the crowd standing, and the marbles of St. Isaac’s cathedral in St.Pietroburgo: the bride of the first Russian Royal Wedding in over a century is Italian. Yesterday, the Roman Rebecca Bettarini, 39, international relations studies, polyglot, lobbyist in Brussels, daughter of the Italian ambassador to Belgium, Roberto Bettarini, married the heir of the tsars, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov. Rebecca was born in Rome on May 18, 1982, until she was five she lived in Paris, then in Baghdad. The bond with Rome, however, has always been very strong: after Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, Rebecca returned with her mother to the capital, and then followed her father, who was appointed consul general in Caracas. In 1996 she moved again to Brussels, to return to Rome in 2000, where she studied international relations and graduated with honors from Luiss. For 12 years, she subsequently worked on institutional relations for Finmeccanica. Finally, love at first sight. And the marriage.

The royal wedding in St. Petersburg

A glamorous event that of yesterday, widely followed by worldly news since the announcement of the engagement in January, and a historical symbol, a “first” from the 1917 revolution. On Rebecca’s head, who since July 2020, when she converted to the Orthodox religion, became Victoria Romanovna, yesterday a diadem shone, the Lacis tiara (white gold threads and 438 diamonds), recently created by Chaumet, a modern reinterpretation of the kokoshnik, traditional Russian headdress. A choice of the bride who for her wedding wished that “people not only see Russia in the nineteenth century, Anna Karenina and similar things, but that they see Russia today, very different from how many still imagine it”. Yesterday in St. Petersburg – chosen by the groom because “this city is the history of Russia and the history of the Romanov family” – crowned heads, aristocrats and jet sets from half of Europe were invited, in pure respect for the tradition of royal weddings of yesteryear .

Invitations were sent to Queen Sofia of Spain (godmother of the groom) to the descendants of the royal houses of Albania, and Bulgaria. Not only that: there were Aimone di Savoia-Aosta and Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, so the marriage provided the opportunity for the rapprochement between the two branches of the House of Savoy. Among the guests, the premier of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel with her husband, the French socialist and great friend of the Macrons, Stéphane Bern. In all: 1500 guests for two-day celebrations.

After the wedding, the couple gathered at the Romanov tomb, then in the evening a large reception at the Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg. Born in Madrid, George is the son of the Prussian Prince Francis William of Hohenzollern and of the Grand Duchess Maria Romanov, great-grandson of the Grand Duke Kirill, cousin of Nicholas II, the last of the Romanovs in Moscow, murdered by the revolutionaries with his family. The Tsar’s family was canonized by the Orthodox Church in 2000 and then officially recognized as a political victim of the Bolsheviks in 2008.

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin – who also accompanied and supports the return of faith to his homeland – nevertheless kept his distance from the royal wedding: “This marriage is in no way part of our agenda,” Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov dismissed. An Oxford graduate, George Romanov worked for European institutions, and was then a director of the Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel, before founding his own company, Romanov & Partners. He is now involved in philanthropic projects in Moscow.

THE MEETING
It is in Brussels that Rebecca and George met, about ten years ago. She worked as a lobbyist. “We had met several times for dinners or dances, and then one day we found ourselves at the French embassy in Brussels. There our friendship began and then our love story », he confided some time ago to Paris Match. «The Grand Duke was nice, I knew immediately that we would become friends. In reality, we have become much more, his exemplary upbringing, of yesteryear, and his generosity have won me over. And also: it makes me laugh … »she said in the same interview.