In spring of 1997, Bella Swan was running late for class. She stopped at gas station to fill up her car between her job as an assistant at a local preschool for needy children and her evening class. She paused at the cash register and for a reason she later described as "this feeling of something lucky", she asked the cashier for a lottery ticket. At 750 million American dollars, the lottery was the biggest ever. One can forgive anyone for feeling lucky about that amount given the horrible odds of winning. But as we will come to see, luck and a knack for being in the right spot at the right time were swiftly becoming Bella's trademarks.
The experience of her winning is best summed up in her own words, which she gave at the engagement interview.
"I don't know why I even bought a ticket. I had never done so before. But I just felt, almost as if someone had leaned in and whispered to me to buy it. I just felt this incredible surge of luck. So I bought it and tucked it away into my purse. I was late for class and finals were approaching. I didn't give the ticket much thought until I woke up the next morning and my roommate was going on about the Lottery winner having bought the winning ticket at the local gas station. My first thought, a bit cloudy upon being woken, was that this was fantastic! A local person had won the lottery. It wasn't until later that afternoon when I remembered I had purchased a ticket and that's when I checked the numbers. I can't even recollect what my first thoughts were. I mean, how could anyone upon learning they were 750 million dollars richer? It was all very surreal. And to this day, it still feels like it happened to someone else or that it happened in some alternative world."
But Bella didn't quit her last year of studies and blow through her money. At just over 450 million American dollars after tax, the amount of money she had in her bank, Bella graduated with a degree in Social Work and began her task of making the world a better place. She gave her parents 5 million, which may seem like a small amount given her vast new wealth, but as Bella explained later on in the same engagement interview, her parents were at the core, simple people. They paid off their house and socked the rest of the money away, but her father, kept his Chief of Police job and her mother opened an art studio and school for those in need and at risk children. Bella herself went ahead with the task to start foundations for those in need and at risk.
In the Fall of 1999, with the help of a team of 10 dedicated board people, she started 'The Foundation'. Its main cause was to open free health and education clinics for local Native Americans and the needy. Services provided were health screenings, immunizations, nutrition classes. Staffed by board certified doctors and registered nurses, the clinics offered local residents the ability to get top quality health care at free costs. The Foundation also opened a series of daycares and preschools for parents who were unable to pay for their children to attend other places and also had work training classes for the same parents so they could broaden their job skills.
On December 1st, 1999 The Foundation went global. Opening health clinics in Africa and South America. Bella spent most of her time traveling between the various clinics and schools. In August of 2000 she opened the first Foundation health clinic and school in Australia. She had planned to spend six months in Australia, setting up these clinics. By the end of August, she had set up a house in Sydney, Australia. Just in time. September 2000 marked the Olympics and that year, the Olympics were being held in Sydney.
"She was a busy thing. Flying here and there for openings of her clinics. She was kept busy, but I know she was always thinking of her ranch in Montana. She bought it soon after winning the lottery. 10,000 acres. It was her biggest purchase. And it seemed fitting for her, she was always rather quiet. She had her horses and cattle and I think she was content there. The little that she was there," her aunt Julia Swan says. "Her ranch gave her the rest and solitude she liked in those days. She used to call it her haven."
Six months in a land so far from her own must have seemed a lonely prospect for Bella. But she persevered. Meetings were held with local businesses to offer support for her clinics. Interviews were given to the newspaper. She made a few friends and on one September night she was asked to go a local pub.
"I was asked to go. I had wanted to put it off, I had planned to look over proposals that night. But my friends were adamant I go, to have some fun. So I did. I had no idea that the Jutland team would be there, or did I know that royals would be there. I think there were 2 or 3 Crown Princes at that bar that night. At the time, I didn't know that. I only went to get away from my paperwork." The Crown Princess of Jutland, Isabella, recounting the first night she met her future husband. "It was about half an hour later of being there that one of my friends rushed up to me and announced that a large group of royals was there."
That pub was the Slip Inn. Crown Prince Edward was at the Slip Inn that night. So was Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, his brother, Prince Joachim of Denmark and Crown Prince Felipe of Spain. Also present was Princess Martha Louise of Norway and Prince Nikolaos of Greece.
It is something of note that on that night, in that Australian pub, two Crown Princes, although unknowingly, had found their future wives. The two princes of the Nordic countries of Denmark and Jutland were close friends. They were both around the same age and had grown up under similar conditions.
Dressed in a ruby silk halter and dark wash jeans, the lovely Bella with her fair skin and dark hair must have made a lovely sight. How she and her friends found themselves at the same table as the Crown Prince is a bit of mystery. We were allowed a small sample of their first meeting via Bella at their engagement interview.
"I found myself at this table, surrounded by people I didn't know. Loud talking, music playing. I leaned over to the person next to me and said "You know, I've heard there is supposed to be a group of royals here." And the person replied back to me, "Really?" I remember saying to that person, "I'm an American, royalty doesn't impress me. Give me a person who dedicates their lives to helping others, that impresses me." From that point on, we kept up a lively conversation. He introduced himself simply as Edward. It was only later, when we were leaving and we were exchanging numbers did I learn he was a prince."
Prince Edward did call Bella the very next day. They spent the afternoon at her rented house at a barbecue Bella threw.
"She was having this barbecue and asked me to come over. She said she was having some friends over and that I should come," her friend Lori Whitting tells. "It was a fun party. I had no idea, until later that Edward was even a prince. He fit in very well with our small crowd and seemed to be enjoying himself."
"I think he liked the normal lifestyle that she had. He probably craved this sort of life, coming from a royal household. Probably one of the biggest reasons their relationship continued to grow was how normal and low key Bella was. It must have been very refreshing for Edward to sit and drink a beer and just talk without having to worry about protocol and photographers capturing his every move. The fact that Bella had her own private house was something that helped their relationship."
But Edward only spent two weeks in Australia at the Olympics before leaving to go home to Jutland. He and Bella kept up frequent communications via email and the phone and in November of 2000, he made another trip to spend the week with her. Once again, no one found out about this meeting and for the next year they would keep up their secret meetings before the press found out.
In March of 2001, Edward visited Bella at her ranch in Montana. They have both said the two weeks that followed were one of the happiest of their lives. To Edward, the privacy of her ranch and his anonymity at doing things such as dining out and going to the movies must have seemed liked a world removed from his.
"The nature of Bella's job allowed her the freedom to spend all the time she could with Edward. He probably liked all the attention she gave him and I'm sure being on her ranch seemed like heaven to him. No one knew him. He was treated like anyone else. He could walk around without being ghosted by bodyguards. It must have been very freeing for him." Lori Whitting goes on to say, "I think, moreso than the privacy the ranch allowed Edward, was Bella's own attitude that she didn't treat him like a prince. She made him help around the house and muck out the horse stalls. She wasn't scared to have an argument with him. I think, overall, her treating him as a human being, rather than a prince is what made him fall in love with her."
Her plain talk may have endeared the Prince to her, but he was also supportive and very proud of her work for the disadvantaged. One of Bella's close friends who also worked with her on her the board of The Foundation had this to say.
"I remember we had an opening for a new clinic. It was April or May of 2001 and we were in Montana. It was our first clinic in Montana. Edward had flown in just for a few days, complete surprise to Bella. But she had this opening to attend. Edward came with her, but he hung back a bit. The local press was there, and even though no one knew who he was, he wanted to be sure. He wanted the day to be all about Bella and her good works. He spent the whole day in her shadow, watching her give a speech to the citizens of the town, cutting the ribbon to the new clinic and speaking to press. I think he was awed by her ability and poise and I think maybe, on that very day, he began to see that she could work well as a Princess. That she had what it took. And I think from there, it was simple for him to decide that she was the one."
If Edward had made up his mind, he kept it to himself. Instead, he and Bella continued on with their long distance romance. In June of 2001, Bella flew to England to take part in a seminar addressing water resources in Ethiopia. She made a quick stop to Jutland, undetected by the Jutland press. In August of 2001, she flew back and this time, spent a full month near Edward. She visited Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Keeping a sort of home base in Denmark, she and Edward spent their time completely under the radar of the local press.
Edward made one last trip to Montana in October 2001. This would be their last time they were ever to be alone together without anyone outside of their family and friends knowing it.
Curiosity was peaked in the Jutland press. Someone had been looking closely at the royal calendars. Edward was the Regent of the Crown whenever his parents were out of country. In his absence, his sister, Princess Rosalie acted as regent. A young reporter couldn't quite figure out where Crown Prince Edward was going and why his sister was being regent so often. And it wouldn't be long before that young reporter seeking her first big story would sniff out the love life of Edward and Bella.