Albania’s Crown Prince announces royal engagement 6 months after divorce

Crown Prince Leka of Albania announced his engagement to his photographer Blerta Celibashi, which happened on October 11, according to an Instagram post. The news of the engagement came six months after the Prince's divorce from his first wife.

Crown Prince Leka of Albania gets engaged to photographer Blerta Celibashi

The engagement ceremony took place in Ksamil, Southern Albania, in the presence of family and close friends, according to the same post.

"The Royal Family shares their happiness with the Albanian people and extends heartfelt gratitude to all who have conveyed their kind wishes on this joyful occasion," the post concluded.

There were two pictures to accompany the post. In one pic, they formally posed together in an airy room, and the second showed Leka hugging Blerta outside.

This marks the second engagement of Prince Leka, who was previously married to Elia Zaharia for eight years. They married on 8 October 2016 in Tirana. In 2024, they revealed they were getting a divorce, which got finalised in a year's time.

Blerta posted a reel on October 13 on her Instagram account, set to the song So This Is Love by Sneha, where she set in a glam chair to get her hair and makeup done. However, she applied the mascara on her own.

The couple, Prince Leka and his ex-wife Elia, said their “marriage has lost its function” and that they decided, by mutual consent, to initiate divorce proceedings. However, they claimed to want to remain committed to their daughter Geraldine’s spiritual and physical well-being. Other media sources also said that there were rifts between the couple due to constant conflicts, lack of communication and interruption of cohabitation.

Only September last year, Crown Prince Leka II of Albania went public with his romance with Blerta and this summer, they shared a rare glimpse of his new relationship on Instagram. Blerta also joined the Prince on a visit to the Queen Géraldine Foundation, which champions educational initiatives and charitable work across Albania. There are rumours suggesting that their relationship was also a reason behind his divorce.

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