FORMER KING TO MARRY

Press, Volume C, Issue 29604, 29 August 1961, Page 2

FORMER KING TO MARRY

Spanish Bride Has Property Empire

Margarita Gomez Acebo. who will marry the exiled King of Bulgaria, Simeon 11. is a strikingly attractive giri. Unlike Fabiola (another Spanish girl who recently married a king, Baudouin of Belgium) she is tremendously high-spirited. She likes riding, water-ska-ing End golf, writes a London correspondent. These qualities, and because she is one of the richest people in Spain, make 22-year-old Margarita eminently suitable to be a king’s bride. Simeon says he is the poorest former king in Europe. But with his title, even bis former title, he is still very eligible. Finding a bride for 26-year-old Simeon has been a popular aristocratic parlour game for years. The Swedish princesses were, in turn, favourites in 1959. Last year, they were replaced by Anne de France, the French Pretender’s daughter. Margarita is already something of a ruler in her own right. She inherited a great property empire from her parents, the Marques and Marquesa of Cortina, who were killed by anti-Franco forces during the Civil War. She spends much time abroad watching over the property—some of it as far away as Japan. The couple met in Madrid, where Simeon has a house, and will probably live there after marriage. There is a strong possibility that Spain may once again have a monarch in a few years—and royal people like to live in a royal atmosphere.