On Fragments of Former Greatness: How Jordan Noor’s ‘Evil’ Ex-Lover Recalls First Awkward Meeting With Her Star King Husband

While Queen Rania (52), King Abdullah (61) and their four children are constantly in the public eye and at the center of events, Queen Noor (71) appears to have chosen a path of seclusion. The widow of King Hussein did not attend the royal weddings of children Rania and Abdullah, rarely posts on social networks and is practically not seen in public. In 2023, she was seen only twice – in January at a commemoration event for King Constantine of Greece and at the end of June at a meeting of the International Commission on Missing Persons in The Hague.

Noor and Abdullah’s frosty relationship is no secret. It all started at the wedding of Rania and Abdullah on June 10, 1993. For reasons not officially discussed, Noor was not allowed to pose with the family in official photographs.

Of course, when Abdullah suddenly ascended the throne six years after the wedding, Nur did not freeze because she had to give up her seat. Moreover, in 2004, things took a very unpleasant turn – the new king deprived Nura’s son, Prince Hamza, of the title of crown prince and heir. Abdullah accused his half-brother of “conspiracy” and “destabilizing the kingdom” and put him under house arrest in 2021, and the situation escalated to an extreme.

In 2022, Hamza, who lives under house arrest in Jordan, even decided to renounce his royal title. His mother, despite Hamza’s precarious position, always defended him fervently, denying any accusations that the prince was trying to usurp power. Thus it was that she became virtually the only member of the Jordanian royal family to remain on Hamza’s side. His own younger brother Hashim, the king’s half-brother, continues to perform royal duties and remains a confidant and loyal friend of Abdullah, condemning Hamza’s scandalous attempts to interfere in the administration of the kingdom.

Also read: What does Prince Hashim look like, the father of the most beautiful Jordanian princess Haala

The result of this split was the complete separation of Nur from her relatives. On the one hand, she remains a representative of the Hashemite court – but she lives and works alone. A painful situation for Abdullah and Rania who put family first!

Ever since her husband closed his eyes forever on February 7, 1999, it seems Queen Noor has had it pretty tough. After all, she was a rich, infinitely influential and certainly authoritative woman for almost 20 years – and it all ended in an instant.

In 2004, Noor published a book of memoirs titled In the Spirit of Reconciliation – A Life Between Two Worlds. And it is there that she warmly and movingly remembers in detail the moment of her first meeting with the man who became her only chosen one and the father of her four children.

In the winter of 1976, Lisa Chalabi accompanied her father, Najib Chalabi, an airline executive and director of the US Federal Aviation Administration, on a trip to Amman.

“When we first met, I saw my future husband through a lens. I was standing with my father on the runway at Amman Airport in Jordan when King Hussein came to greet us,” writes Noor. “My father always made decisions very quickly and then handed me his camera. “Take a picture of me with the king,” he ordered. I was terribly ashamed, because my father so resolutely turned to the head of state with a request to pose! But of course I took pictures. In this photo, my father and my future husband, as it turns out, are standing side by side, and in the background the king’s eldest daughter, Princess Alia.

Also read: Behind the scenes of Abdullah and Rania’s Happiness: The secrets and tragedies of the Jordanian royal family

The Queen’s father, Noor, was invited to a small celebration on the occasion of the purchase of the first Boeing 747, and he also eagerly organized the organizational preparatory work for a pan-Arab aviation school in Amman to reduce the region’s dependence on foreign specialists, and he discussed this very possibility at the reception. King Hussein and other enthusiasts of Jordanian aviation development liked the project very much. And Lisa Chalabi joined the work of this aviation school – at that time she had just left her job in Tehran and was glad to go to Jordan.

By a fateful coincidence, King Hussein’s adored wife Alia Toukan died in a plane crash in 1977 – the first airport in Amman was named after her. And in 1978, the widowed king married for the fourth and last time, and it was the young Lisa Halabi who became his chosen one… Many said that Hussein chose her because of her resemblance to Aliya, other evil tongues whispered that the American “rushed in time.” Be that as it may, it was Lisa who adopted the name Nur al-Hussein with Islam, she turned out to be a woman, hand in hand with her the Jordanian king was destined to meet in old age and rest in peace, surrounded by children and grandchildren.

However, her energetic nature and ambitions did not allow Liza-Nur to accept her fate, which is why she has been occupying her special place in the royal family for twenty years. And with true Eastern sophistication, he uses his silence as a weapon…

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