Dorrit Moussaieff

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Dorrit Moussaieff on her way to a royal wedding in Copenhagen
Dorrit Moussaieff on her way to a royal wedding in Copenhagen

Dorrit Moussaieff (Hebrew: דורית מוסאיוף), (born 12 January 1950 in Jerusalem) is a jewellery designer and businesswoman and the second and current wife of Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, president of Iceland. She is the daughter of Shlomo Moussaieff and Aliza Moussaieff and is Iceland's second foreign-born first lady, as the first president, Sveinn Björnsson, had a Danish wife. She was young when she moved to London. She suffered from dyslexia so she didn't attend ordinary schools but was taught at home. Moussaieff has been very active in British and American cultural life, and has been a contributing editor to British society magazine Tatler. Moussaieff is also rumoured to have made a £45m profit through selling property in London's Canary Wharf. In recent years she has helped present Icelandic culture abroad.

In May 2006, while visiting Israel, Moussaieff was detained at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. According to reports, Moussaief got into an argument with security personnel who refused to acknowledge her British passport. Immigration officers stated that she was obliged by Israeli law to enter and exit the country using her Israeli passport only, or face prosecution. When Moussaieff could not produce an Israeli passport, it is alleged that staff became rude and aggressive, asking her suggestive, personal and racist questions. Moussaief reportedly responded with various insults of her own. Part of the incident was captured on film and shown on Israeli television. This caused a minor international incident since it involved the first lady of Iceland. [1] The Israeli Embassy in Norway, which handles diplomatic ties with Iceland, later expressed regret over the incident, though it restated the law that Israeli citizens must carry their Israeli passports when in the country.[2] Moussaief received Icelandic citizenship on 31 July 2006.