Credit: Lillian Gissen
For: Dailymail.Com
Feb 25 2022
An American woman who married an Ethiopian prince after meeting in a Washington, D.C. nightclub is now offering a sneak peek into her lavish life style - which includes attending elite parties and going on extravagant trips - despite her insisting she doesn't want to be called a princess.
Ariana Austin and Prince Joel Makonnen's love story seems like it's straight out of a Lifetime movie.
Ariana, now 38, met Joel - an Ethiopian prince, now 39 - at a nightclub in Washington, D.C. back in 2005, after he attempted to hit on her using a cheesy pickup line.
At the time, she had no idea that Joel - a great-grandson of Haile Selassie I, the last emperor of Ethiopia - was a royal.
Eventually, after months of dating, she found out after one of his friends spilled the beans - but it didn't defer her.
After 12 years of dating, the two wed in September 2017. Now, the pair are living together in Washington, D.C. and they spend their time traveling the world, staying in luxury hotels, and partying with other royals.
But Ariana said she doesn't like to call herself a princess since the title 'wasn't given to her by the Ethiopian people.'
'If it's just me independent of him, I don't feel as comfortable with it, and don't feel like it was given to me by the Ethiopian people to use [like] that,' she explained to Insider during a recent interview.
Ariana grew up in Washington, D.C. and was born into a family of professors, philanthropists, and politicians.
His Imperial Highness Prince Joel was born in Rome in 1982 while his parents, Prince David and Princess Adey Imru, were in exile from Ethiopia.
He grew up in Switzerland, keeping 'a low profile' throughout his childhood.
'It was our instinct not to broadcast [that we were royals] ... to start a new life and to carry on,' he explained.
In 2005, he was studying at the American University in Washington, D.C., when he met his future-wife on the dance floor in the nightclub Pearl - after he approached her and a friend and told them they looked like models.
'I said, "You guys look like an ad for Bombay Sapphire," or whatever the gin was,' he recalled to New York Times in a 2017 interview.
Prince Joel, who was 23 at the time, instantly felt a connection with Ariana, who was 21 at the time, but she wasn't so sure their relationship would last.
'We were just so young; that's the thing,' she told ABC News in 2017 while discussing the night they met.
'Within five minutes, I said, "You'll be my girlfriend,"' added Joel.
'It was more like an assertive question. I just had a really good chemistry with her right away. I felt like I already knew her.'
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