Details about the marriage of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard are being brought to light in a new book – Juliana & Bernhard. The story of a marriage, 1936-1956.

According to NRC Handelsblad, the parents of the current Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands are having their first 20 years of marriage recorded by royal historian Cees Fasseur.

The Dutch royal couple’s marriage had turned supremely sour, but during the early Fifties the general public knew nothing of the private lives of their royals. That changed in 1956, when the German magazine Der Spiegel broke the story of the tumultuous marriage and exposed faith-healer Greet Hofmans and his role in the royal relationship.

Apparently, Prince Bernhard felt he had lost his wife to Hofmans and believed his pacifist views and advice were harmful to Juliana’s reputation. They fought bitterly over Hofmans, and eventually a divorce and Juliana’s abdication became very serious – and very real – options. To save the marriage and avoid a constitutional crisis, Prince Bernhard and Queen Juliana agreed to the appointment of a commission. This was headed by the former prime minister Louis Beel.

While divorce was avoided, Queen Juliana did eventually abdicate in favor of her eldest daughter Beatrix in 1980.

Despite a parliamentary motion in January 2005, Beatrix refused access to documents and would not release details of the Beel report. Later that year she relented, and decided to allow Cees Fasseur to write about her parents and the findings of the commission.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende praised the decision by Queen Beatrix to open the archives even though it reveals “painful private matters for her and her sisters.”