AMSTERDAM, (Reuters) – Dutch Queen Beatrix, who turns 75 on Thursday, announced she was abdicating in favour of her son, Prince Willem-Alexander, who will become king on April 30.
Willem-Alexander, 45, is married to Princess Maxima Zorrigueta and has three young children. Decades of grooming for the throne involved shaking off his image as a beer-drinking fraternity boy whose blunt comments upset the press and politicians.
Beatrix said in a television broadcast to the nation that she was stepping down because she felt her son was ready to take her place on the throne.
