Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau

In 1984, her mother remarried to Rabobank executive Peter Wisse Smit (15 October 1939 – 11 November 2000), whereupon Mabel and her younger sister, Nicoline (1970–2023), took their stepfather's surname.

Her parents were Hendrik Cornelis Los (27 April 1944 – 18 February 1978) and his wife Florence Malde Gijsberdina Kooman (b. 1944).

When she was 9 years old, Mabel's father died as a result of a drowning incident after trying to save his neighbor, who fell into a hole in the ice while skating.

Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau (Mabel Martine Wisse Smit; born Mabel Martine Los, 11 August 1968), more commonly known as Mabel van Oranje, is the widow of Prince Friso and sister-in-law of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

She spends her time in human rights activities such as co-founding War Child Netherlands, the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.

She served as the first Chief Executive Officer of The Elders, a grouping founded by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Kofi Annan.

Princess Mabel also has a younger half-sister, Eveline Wisse Smit (born 1982).

She grew up in the Gooi region in the central Netherlands.

After attending her secondary education at the Gemeentelijk Gymnasium Hilversum, she studied at the University of Amsterdam, where she graduated cum laude with a master's degree in economics and political science in 1993.

During her studies she also completed internships at the United Nations, Shell, ABN AMRO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In addition to Dutch, she speaks fluent English, Spanish and French.

During her university years, she showed special interest in human rights situations around the world, and later specialised in Balkan diplomacy and international relations.

During this period, she garnered further negative publicity by revelations about an affair, circa 1993, with married Bosnian UN Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey.

Wisse Smit was co-founder of the European Action Council for Peace in the Balkans in 1994, which was a non-governmental organisation that strove for peace, democracy, and stability in the Balkans, and had Margaret Thatcher, Simon Wiesenthal, and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing among its members.

In 1995 she was present at the peace conference in Dayton, Ohio.

In 1995, she was one of the co-founders of War Child Netherlands; she was on the Trustee Board until 1999.

In 1997, she was appointed director of EU affairs of the Open Society Institute (OSI) in Brussels, founded by George Soros.

From 2002 to 2008, she worked in the London branch of the Open Society Institute as the International Advocacy Director to help coordinate all international OSI advocacy activities aimed at international policy change.

The World Economic Forum in Switzerland counted her as one of the hundred "Global Leaders for Tomorrow".

She is a member of the worldwide Forum of Young Global Leaders, a thinktank and lobby group that aims to tackle global issues.

She is a founding member of the European thinktank European Council on Foreign Relations.

She is also a member of the Interpeace Governing Council.

After announcing the engagement of Prince Friso with Mabel in June 2003, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende wrote in a letter to parliament that Mabel Wisse Smit had given "incomplete and incorrect information" about the duration and extent of her contacts with known drug lord Klaas Bruinsma, and that because of this, the government had decided not to seek permission for the marriage from parliament.

In a letter to the Prime Minister dated 9 October, Prince Friso stated the couple had given some incomplete information, but had not given any incorrect information nor did they lie.

The couple admitted that the sailing friendship with Bruinsma was indeed closer than had been mentioned, but denied a love or sexual relationship.

This was later repeated by Wisse Smit in a number of interviews.

According to Dutch law, the government had to submit the couple's marriage request to parliament for its approval, a prerequisite for succession to the throne.

Prince Johan Friso said he would marry Smit regardless, and as a result lost his right to become king.

He had been second in the order of succession, after his older brother, Willem-Alexander, the Prince of Orange.

In a report later issued by the Stichting Nederlandse Nieuwsmonitor (Dutch News Monitor Foundation), it was alleged that the Dutch media had contributed to blowing things out of proportion after the prime minister made 'unnuanced' comments during two news conferences.

Mabel Wisse Smit and Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau married at Oude Kerk (Delft) on 24 April 2004.

In 2005, the World Economic Forum recognised her as a Young Global Leader.

Van Oranje is an advisor to several non-profits, including the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, the Malala Fund, Crisis Action and the Open Society Foundations.

She was born Mabel Martine Los in Pijnacker, the Netherlands.

From July 2008 until May 2012, she was the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Elders, a group of eminent individuals convened by Nelson Mandela to use their wisdom, independent leadership, and experience to tackle some of the world's toughest problems.

She oversaw the day-to-day operations for the Elders.

In May 2012, Mabel van Oranje resigned as CEO of The Elders following the February 2012 accident in which her husband, Prince Friso, was caught in an avalanche and remained hospitalised until his death on 12 August 2013.

She continues to be involved with The Elders as a member of its Advisory Council as Advisory Committee Chair of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.

In 2015, she was one of 35 signatories to an open letter addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, heads of the G7 in Germany and the African Union (AU) in South Africa, respectively, from the ONE Campaign.

As the G7 and AU prepared for the United Nations summit later that year, the letter called for them to put women and girls at the heart of international efforts to combat hunger and misery.