Jordan’s King To Marry English Girl

Press, Volume C, Issue 29503, 3 May 1961, Page 15

Jordan’s King To Marry English Girl

(A .x. h* rest Assucui tioo—-Copyny nt > LONDON, May 2. A 20-year-old English girl is to be Queen of Jordan, the “Daily Mail” reported. Last night 25-year-old King Hussein announced his engagement to Mouna el Hussein ... “a Moslem but not an Arab.”

Her name is really Toni Gardiner, the “Daily Mail” said. Her father is LieutenantColonel W. P. Gardiner, of the Royal Engineers, who is on the staff of military advisers to the King. It will be King Hussein’s second marriage. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1957.

The newspaper said that the people of Jordan were delighted to hear the King tell them over Jordan Radio last night that he planned to remarry But within seconds the delight had turned into shock as the King said his fiancee “is Moslem but she is a stranger to this country." He led up to the announcement by telling the people: “I have endured this great loneliness for a long time, but now I have found the girl of my dreams. There is nothing political in my

decision. It is my own personal desire to marry her." King Hussein said he had been engaged to his fiancee “for some time." He said he fell in love with her “because of her good and loving qualities. She is a stranger to this country, yet she has opened her love to the love of this nation." He and his fiancee wanted a wedding without ceremony or pretentiousness, he said.

"How many times did I know loneliness eating my days and nights, and how many times did I fee] my spirit tearing and burning In the fire of gloomy loneliness and pitiful isolation? I felt I needed affection. "She Is foreign but a faithful Moslem. She is the girl I have chosen to make my family life once again. She is the girl of my own choosing. the choice of your King " The newspaper said a strong guard was placed around the house of her father in Amman early last night.

Miss Gardiner’s Moslem name was chosen by King Hussein himself, the newspaper said. In Moslem, the name Mouna means “wish” or “desire.” The newspaper said the young King wooed Miss Gardiner for several months, taking her on hunting trips and Inviting her on many occasions to watch him racing at a private race-track he had built just outside Amman. The King, who succeeded to the throne in August, 1952, has a daughter. Princess Alfa, by his first wife. Queen Dina.