William and Kate head to the Jordanian royal wedding

The Prince and Princess of Wales have been spotted in a luxury hotel in Amman ahead of Jordan’s royal wedding today.

The British royals will see Crown Prince Hussein, 28, marry Saudi architect Rajwa Alseif, 29, at Zahran Palace, the same venue chosen by the prince’s father, King Abdullah II, and his grandfather, the late King Hussein.  

Prince William was expected to be there but it was not known if his wife would also attend until they were filmed walking through the bar of a 5-star hotel in the Jordanian capital last night.

Kate, dressed in a smart blazer and white blouse, is believed to have become close to Queen Rania of Jordan, the mother of the groom.

The nuptials come after a rough patch for the royal family of Jordan, including a public rift between the king and his half-brother, and are seen as a way of shoring up public support at a time of persistent economic difficulties. 

Ms Alseif (pictured left) has a degree in architecture and has lived and worked in Los Angeles. Her father is a founder of one of Saudi Arabia’s largest engineering firms and her mother is a relative of Saudi King Salman

Designed to convey a sense of continuity, Thursday’s ceremony is expected to include some of the same features as previous royal weddings, including a motorcade of red Land Rovers escorting the couple through the streets of Amman after the ceremony.

Palace officials have been tight-lipped about other elements of the wedding, including the complete guest list and details about the bride’s dress.

US first lady Jill Biden and several members of royal families from around the world have said they will attend, among them the King and Queen of the Netherlands.

Celebrations kicked off last week with a henna party for Ms Alseif, hosted by Jordan’s Queen Rania and attended by several hundred women.

Ms Alseif has a degree in architecture and has lived and worked in Los Angeles. Her father is a founder of one of Saudi Arabia’s largest engineering firms and her mother is a relative of Saudi King Salman.

On the wedding day itself, 140 guests, including members of the Royal Hashemite family, invited royals and heads of state, will watch the couple tie the knot in the palace garden. 

Thursday has been declared a national holiday, with celebratory events hosted in all 12 of Jordan’s governorates to allow citizens to share in the festivities.

The couple will be married at the Zahran Palace in an ‘elegant and understated religious ceremony’. 

It’s set to be the royal wedding of the summer – and now new details have emerged about Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan and his bride Rajwa Al-Saif’s big day tomorrow

King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan (pictured at King Charles’ coronation) will host thousands of guests during the events throughout the week 

The couple will then move to the Al Husseiniya Palace in a motorcade procession for the wedding reception, which will feature a diverse line-up of performers paying tribute to the Crown Prince’s military career, his bride’s Saudi Arabian heritage, and traditional Jordanian artistry.

The wedding reception will be hosted by King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, as well as the bride’s parents, with more than 1,700 guests. 

The remainder of the evening features a variety of performances by local and regional singers, a choir group, Jordanian bands, the national orchestra, and folk dance troupes.

The reception concludes with the bride and groom cutting the wedding cake. 

On Monday several thousand young Jordanians attended a free concert at Amman International Stadium. Performers included well-known Arab singers, including Egypt’s Tamer Hosny.

Midway through his set, Hosny took his performance offstage and encouraged the crowd to sing along.

“For his excellency the beloved crown prince let’s hear a huge round of applause,” Hosny said while surrounded by a roving entourage in the stadium.

Jordan holds special memories for Kate; The Middleton family spent three years there during the early 80s, when the Princess of Wales was just two years old, after her father Michael, a British Airways manager, was relocated to Amman for work.

Speaking of Kate’s childhood with the chief executive of Save the Children, Rania Malki, during a tour of the Middle East in 2018, Prince William said: ‘She loved it here, she really did. She is very upset that I am coming here without her.’

In 2021, Kensington Palace revealed William and Kate had taken Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on holiday to Jordan when they released their Christmas card.

The Palace revealed the photograph was taken in Jordan earlier that year when the royal family-of-five visited the ancient city of Petra.

The Jordanian royal family have shared a long-time close connection with the British royals.

King Abdullah and Queen Rania were among those included on the ‘slimmed-down’ guest list of 2,300 at Westminster Abbey on 6 May for King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Coronation.

The pair were also in attendance at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in September last year.

Queen Rania referred to the late monarch as the ‘Queen of the World’ in a sweet Instagram tribute and even admitted she ‘looked up’ to Queen Elizabeth during an interview with ITV News.

The Prince and Princess of Wales speaking to King Abdullah ll and Queen Rania during a pre luncheon reception for guests at Windsor Castle on May 18, 2012

A  family photo of Kate, now the Princess of Wales, aged four with her father Michael Middleton and sister Pippa in Jerash, Jordan

Prince William and Crown Prince Hussein looking at a blown-up version of the same photograph 

In 2021, Kensington Palace revealed William and Kate had taken George, Charlotte and Louis on holiday to Jordan when they released a Christmas card featuring this image

Elsewhere, she was asked about Kate during an interview with CNN which was recorded in London in September 2022, ahead of the late Queen’s funeral. 

Speaking of the mother-of-three, Rania praised the Princess of Wales for her sense of duty, saying she ‘gives from the heart.’ 

She also said there was a ‘sense of sincerity’ and ‘love’ in everything that Kate does in a clip of her interview.

‘Princess Catherine, when she talks about her work, her face lights up,’ Rania said.  ‘She does it out of a sense of duty but more importantly, she does it because she absolutely cares.’

Her praise didn’t stop there, as she said the Princess of Wales ‘gives from the heart.’ 

‘When she talks about her work, she’d say: “I’m just lucky to be doing this, I have the privilege of doing that”.’ she said. ‘So she gives from her heart. And again, there is a sense of sincerity and a sense of love in everything that she does.’

Queen Rania is also a council member for the Earthshot Prize, which was launched by Prince William in 2020. 

Today’s bride, Rajwa, received a degree from Syracuse University in New York, and studied at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles after completing her secondary education in Saudi Arabia.

She has worked at an architecture firm in Los Angeles and currently works at the Designlab Experience studio in Riyadh.

She is the youngest daughter of Khaled M. Al-Saif and Azza bint Naif Al-Sudairi.

Mr Al-Saif is CEO of the Al Saif Group, a privately company with a diverse portfolio of businesses across healthcare, construction and security services, and is a board member of the Saudi-British Joint Business Council, which promotes trade between the two countries.

Crown Prince Hussein, the eldest of King Abdullah and Queen Rania’s four children, is a graduate of prestigious Georgetown University in Washington DC, and served in the Army after graduating from Sandhurst in 2017.

In 2015 he made history as the youngest person to chair a meeting of the United Nations Security Council. He also made headlines when he hosted Prince William on a visit to the Middle East.

Queen Rania paid an emotional tribute to her son Hussein in a touching speech in the first celebration ahead of his wedding to Rajwa this week

His proud mother Rania shared her joy on Instagram after the announcement of their engagement in September. 

She posted a slideshow of images, writing: ‘I didn’t think it was possible to hold so much joy in my heart! Congratulations to my eldest Prince Hussein and his beautiful bride-to-be, Rajwa.

In Arabic, Rania continued: ‘I prayed to Allah – like me, like every mother – to… find the one you love, Rajwa came. 

‘Congratulations to my son, Prince Al-Hussein, and our precious and sweet bride Rajwa – May Allah bless you and make you happy.’ 

One of the last attention-generating royal weddings in Jordan took place in June 1993 when Abdullah married Rania, who was born to a Palestinian family in Kuwait.

They had met in Amman earlier that year, when he was not yet crown prince and she worked in marketing.

The couple’s trajectory changed in January 1999 when Abdullah’s father, who was near death at the time, gave the title of crown prince to Abdullah, his eldest son.

After Hussein died on February 7, 1999, Abdullah became king.