Bilawal Bhutto to marry Austrian princess? PPP leader clarifies

Social media in Pakistan was rife with speculation that Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is getting married to a European princess. However, Karachi Mayor and senior PPP leader Murtaza Wahab dismissed the speculation as “incorrect and unfounded”.

The clarification was in response to social media rumours that Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari had travelled to Liechtenstein, a small sovereign state located between Switzerland and Austria, to finalise wedding dates and arrangements. The rumours intensified after the Pakistani Presidency confirmed on August 27 in a post on X that Asif Ali Zardari “has proceeded abroad on a private visit”.

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The prospective bride was supposed to be 26-year-old Gloria von Habsburg, a former Austrian archduchess and a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Gloria von Habsburg is the daughter of Archduke Karl of Austria and Francesca von Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the great-great-granddaughter of Karl I, the final reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.

The Pakistani Urdu daily Daily Ausaf initially published a report claiming wedding preparations were underway, but the publication subsequently deleted the article. So far, there has been no comment on the speculations from Bilawal or his family.

Now, why is there so much buzz about Bilawal Bhutto's marriage? He comes from one of Pakistan's most prominent families, being the son of ex-PM Benazir Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari. Following the assassination of his mother in December 2007, He was appointed as the co-chairman of The Pakistan Peoples Party at the age of 19, when he was a student at Oxford university. He is a two-time member of Pakistan's national assembly and even served as the country's foreign minister from 2022 to 2023.

When asked about his wedding plans during his visit to US In 2022, Bilawal affirmed that he had plans to marry but didn't say when he intended to tie the knot. However, with Karachi mayor and Bilawal's spokesperson Murtaza Wahab calling the wedding reports ‘incorrect and unfounded’, it appears that this much-talked-about marriage in Pakistan remains in the realm of speculation.