This Europe: Bitter princess sours the House of Orange by complaining in public

The image of family harmony within the Dutch royal household has been shattered after an embittered princess complained publicly that she was the victim of a smear campaign intended to destroy her marriage.

Princess Margarita de Bourbon de Parme, the eldest daughter of Queen Beatrix's sister, Princess Irene, told the respected weekly magazine HP/De Tijd that her home had been bugged and her husband's confidential records fed to the press to blacken his name.

"I was loyal to my family my entire life, but the moment I expected support there was none," she said in an interview published on Wednesday. "They have tried to destroy what makes me happy."

The row in the House of Orange was splashed across the front pages of national newspapers, which ran headlines quoting her as saying her father had an illegitimate child. She also claimed that Queen Beatrix had coldly rejected her pleas to stop the royal house from releasing damaging information to the media.

In an effort to end a string of negative media reports about her, Princess Margarita said she first went to the queen asking for help and then wrote to the former prime minister Wim Kok, who left office last year.

The article says she told him: "I have the feeling the flow of negative press is being fed by my own family. I am asking you to intervene."

The press reports led to a terse statement from the Dutch palace, which expressed regret over the articles and said it "doesn't recognise the family's portrayal" in them.

"Out of love for Princess Margarita, the family restricts itself to this reaction," it said.

Princess Margarita married Edwin de Roy van Zuydewijn, who is not of royal descent, in 2001 in a low-key ceremony.

In the article, the first in a series to run in the coming weeks, the princess said her family took such a dislike to him that the two have been frozen out.