The sad story of Friso, the prince who died after a skiing accident

The Dutch Queen Beatrix used to have three sons. The second, Prince Friso, tragically died in the summer of 2013. What happened to him?

Prince Friso was born on September 25, 1968, as the second son of then-Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus. His older brother Willem-Alexander, also called Alex, would later become king.

Friso spent his childhood with his parents and two brothers in the royal Drakensteyn Castle. According to the newspaper Het Parool, he used to tell their friends: "You can beat up Alex, but you can't beat him to death, because then I'd have to become king."

According to Het Parool, Prince Friso was known in the media as Prince Nerd, because he completed no fewer than three university studies.

Friso did the Mechanical Engineering course at the College of Engineering at the University of California. He then studied aerospace engineering at the Delft University of Technology. In between, he also studied business economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

As if that wasn't enough, he took private lessons in parliamentary history and Dutch law, among other things. It is common for the second in line to also prepare for possible kingship.

With three university studies behind him and a noble title, Friso was bound to have a glorious career. He started at McKinsey & Company, then worked at Goldman Sachs International, TNO Space, Wolfensohn & Company, and URENCO.

Friso also had some philantropical positions. He was, among other things, honorary chairman of the Prince Claus Fund - an NGO that promotes culture and art in places in the world where it's having trouble developing by itself. He shared this leadership position with his younger brother Constantine.

In 2001, after years of rumors about his sexual orientation, the prince officially announced that he was heterosexual. According to the newspaper Trouw, he was tired of this gossip surrounding his identity.

Friso was a bit of an odd man among the three princes. In 2004, he officially announced that he no longer wanted to be called Johan Friso as he was named by his parents. He said he preferred that people would just call him Friso instead.

In 2003, the prince got engaged to Mabel Wisse Smit. She was a kind and educated woman, but still, the engagement embarrassed the royal family at the time, the newspaper AD recalls.

According to several investigative reporters, Mabel Wisse Smit used to hang out a lot with the top criminal and drug lord Klaas Bruinsma. The prime minister (image), who has to give permission for the royal marriages, backed out and said he could not do it.

The prime minister said he felt that Mabel and Friso had initially not been honest with him about this sensitive information. He was embarrassed to find out about her connection to the criminal through the media. Mabel then admitted in a statement that, although she had been involved with the criminal, they didn't have a romantic relationship.

Eventually, the couple got married. But to do so, Friso had to give up his senior membership of the royal family. He could no longer become heir to the throne. Again, he went his own way, compared to his two brothers.

Mabel and Prince Friso had two children: Luana was born in 2005 and Zaria in 2006. Their full names are Emma Luana Ninette Sophie and Joanna Zaria Nicoline Milou.

The royal family traditionally goes on a winter sports holiday in Lech, Austria every year. They have been doing this since the 1950s; a tradition that Friso's grandfather Bernhard had started.

Prince Friso participated in this annual tradition and was a very experienced skier, the newspaper AD reports. However, on the last day of his holiday in February 2012, fate struck the prince.

On that day, Friso decided to take a trip off the slopes with his local childhood friend.

Once off the slopes, an avalanche surprised Friso and his friend. They got buried under the snow. According to AD, Friso's friend managed to free himself very quickly because he was carrying an avalanche airbag.

Photo: Nicholas Cool / Unsplash

Prince Friso did not have an avalanche airbag, but according to AD, he did have an avalanche beeper with him. This way, rescuers could hear where he was located.

Photo: Pascal Treichler / Pixabay

Friso was buried under a snow layer of forty centimeters (16 inches) for 25 minutes before the rescue team could free him. Unfortunately, by that time, his brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long.

Prince Friso was resuscitated for fifty minutes. According to AD, his heart then started beating again and he was taken to a hospital in Innsbruck.

An MRI study showed that Friso had suffered serious brain damage due to the lack of oxygen. He was in a coma and it was unknown if he would ever regain consciousness.

The situation was heartbreaking for his mother - the Queen - and his wife and two daughters, only 6 and 7 years old.

On November 19, 2012, the RVD reported that it appeared that the prince occasionally showed signs of life. However, the situation remained very uncertain.

In July 2013, after being in a coma for 1.5 years, Prince Friso was taken to the royal Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague. Doctors had informed that further treatment no longer had any added value. The prince would die on August 12.

Friso died at the age of 44. His daughters Luana and Zaria are growing up without their father. They are now teenagers living with their mom in London.