Meet Jordan’s Princess Rym, the former CNN journalist who was kicked out of Iraq by Saddam Hussein, has degrees from Colombia and the Sorbonne, and runs the Amman Film Festival

Aug 26 , 2022

Princess Rym of Jordan is a highly accomplished journalist and academic. Photo: AIFF/AFP

Her father is respected former UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and she was a war correspondent in Iraq before she became a Jordanian royal in 2004

She is president of the Amman Film Festival, got to take her family to the Star Wars film set and her son, Prince Abdullah, is eighth in line to the throne

The Jordanian royal family features plenty of intriguing personalities. Princess Rym Ali may not be the queen of their kingdom, but she has many qualities that make her a queen in her own right.

Even before tying the knot with King Abdullah’s younger half-brother, Prince Ali, she was already making a name for herself as a successful news correspondent.

Princess Rym and Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan were married in 2004. Photo: @royals_worldwide/Instagram

So what else is there to know about this multi-award winning journalist-turned-Jordanian-royal?

She is the daughter of a former UN special envoy and a diplomat

Princess Rym, formerly Rym Brahimi, is the daughter of Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, who headed the North African country’s ministry of foreign affairs for two years.

Princess Rym’s father is the respected former UN official and Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi. Photo: @TawfikJelassi/Twitter

Brahimi, who was also a well respected UN official, married half-Croatian and half-Armenian Mila Bacic. They had three children, including the Jordanian princess.

Princess Rym’s father is Lakhdar Brahimi, former UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria, pictured here at the UN headquarters in New York, in 2014. Photo: Xinhua

Princess Rym, born in Cairo in 1969, would then grow up in the United Kingdom and eventually study in the US and France.