Dutch King’s Sister-in-Law Accused of Mistreating, Intimidating Staff 

Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, who is married to the Dutch King’s brother, is under fire for mistreating staff. Dutch media are reporting that the Princess’s organization, The Equally Worthy Recovery Foundation, is gripped by a “culture of fear” and that staffers navigate through a “pattern of intimidation.” 

A popular Dutch newspaper investigated working life at the Foundation and uncovered a culture of name-calling and refusal to accept dissenting opinions. The paper also alleges that worker complaints are ignored. A spokesperson for The Equally Worthy Recovery Foundation dismissed the newspaper allegations as a “personal attack” on the Princess. 

The Dutch government established the Foundation following a 2021 scandal that left families financially devastated after they were wrongly accused of fraud. More than 26,000 parents were forced to pay tens of thousands of Euros after paperwork errors determined that they had fraudulently obtained social security payments. Then-Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the episode “shameful” and the country’s entire cabinet resigned in the aftermath. 

The Finance Ministry, which oversees the Foundation, has responded to the abuse complaints, saying emotions sometimes run high. However, it would not provide details of the complaints, saying the civil servants who made them should be able to rely on government confidentiality. 

Meanwhile, Princess Laurentien has threatened legal action against the investigating newspaper, AD. “We hold the freedom of the press in high regard. But the AD cannot simply say something without substantiating or proving it,” a spokesperson said. AD’s editor-in-chief hit back, however, saying, “We would never publish unfounded statements.”

Princess Laurentien married into the Netherlands’ Royal family in 2001. She is the daughter of the former Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Laurens Jan Brinkhorst and has previously served as UNESCO Special Envoy on Literacy for Development. In 2010, she won the Major Bosshardt Prize for her work in combating global illiteracy. The Prize is named after Alida Margaretha Bosshardt, who was the public face of the Christian charity, the Salvation Army, in the Netherlands. 

The Princess, who graduated from the University of California in 1991, is currently President of Flora and Fauna, an international wildlife conservation group.