Cross the spine-chilling intrigues of King Henry V111’s court and Arabian Nights and you get a whiff of the atmosphere around the £500,000 divorce of Princess Haya, daughter of King Hussein of Jordan, and the youngest of six wives of Sheikh Maktoum, billionaire ruler of Dubai.
She fled Dubai in 2019 saying she was in fear of her life, after discovering the Sheikh had previously abducted two of his daughters – Latifa and Shamsa – and rendered them back to Dubai against their will. Though the affair she had with a British ex-military bodyguard may have soured the marital mood as well. The bodyguard and other security staff blackmailed her, threatening to expose the affair which cost her seven million pounds.
Princess Haya alleged her husband was trying to marry off her 14 year old daughter to Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.
She had claimed £1.4 billion to keep up the lifestyle she was accustomed to, running two multi-million pound properties in the UK and though she got less there is still plenty to cover a substantial “security budget” as well as holidays, salaries and accommodation for a nurse and a nanny, armoured vehicles for the family, and the cost of maintaining various ponies and pets.
The divorce judge didn’t mince his words about the threats she and the two children faced from Sheikh Al-Maktoum, prime minister of the UAE, influential horse-racing owner and erstwhile friend of the Queen.
It takes a fair amount of nerve/courage to face up to this situation and push through a stratospheric divorce claim. She was born 3 May 1974 in Jordan, and is a stalwart Sun Mercury in Taurus; with a hard-edged, used-to-scary-situations Mars Saturn in Cancer square Pluto Moon in Libra; with a hopeful Jupiter square Neptune, trine Mars and sextile Sun. She has a steely core.
It was never going to be an ideal match with her Uranus squaring the Sheikh’s Cancer Sun and her Mars Saturn conjunct his Mercury Uranus in Cancer with her Pluto Moon square – so she was always going to bolt at some point.
His chart, 15 July 1949, assuming the birth date is sound, is not quite as barbaric as his actions sound so it will presumably be the houses which root him in a mediaeval past.
She has a rocky road ahead with her Solar Arc Sun Mercury conjunct her Saturn, square her Pluto and then conjunct her Mars for several years up to the end of the decade.
Add obscene quantities of money to Royals and plant it in the Age of the Tudors you have a tale stranger than fiction.
See Previous post March 6 2020; August 18 2018.
In the cruel looks stakes, he wins hands down.
Indeed, he’s not doing himself any favours with the goatee which accentuates an unhappy look. But there are happier pictures of his when he’s not scowling deep in concentration.
Yet his chart suggests Cancer Sun – Pisces Moon he may be a very soft, caring person. The Venus-Pluto in Leo will love with deep affection and treats a spouse like royalty! But you cross someone like that and he probably feel absolutely betrayed.
All very different values given he has six wives (should satisfy his mars in gemini) and that’s culturally acceptable there. So who knows.
Transit Uranus on her Taurus Sun-Mercury – classic bit of divorce astrology. Her chart looks very trophy wife.