Dejan Stankovic Kralj Marries Doctor Branka in Belgrade

Dejan Stankovic Kralj married today, August 8, in Belgrade. His bride is Branka, a doctor he had kept out of the spotlight for years. The couple first took part in a church ceremony, then got straight into a car and headed to the registry office for the civil wedding.

A group of photographers waited outside the church. The groom wore a black suit with a red tie and carried a bag of wedding candles. The bride chose a cream colored gown with floral details and a long veil. Dejan’s parents, who rarely appear in public, posed for the cameras alongside his sister.

Branka gave reporters just one sentence, the one everyone had been waiting for.

“I feel wonderful, happy and in love,” the bride said outside the church.

Dejan kept it shorter than expected. “I’m emotional, thank you for respecting us and for coming. I’m speechless,” he said, before excusing himself and moving on: “We’re heading to the registry office now, so we make it on time.”

Who Is Doctor Branka

He spoke about his chosen one just before entering the church. He said Branka is a doctor who has worked in the profession for years and that she graduated with nearly straight A’s. He also stressed that she is a normal person, which in his vocabulary is clearly the highest compliment there is.

He hid the relationship on purpose. He explained that he made the decision once he stepped back from the media and, as he put it, moved into more serious waters. For someone the public first met through reality TV, that is not a turn that happens often.

A Wedding Without Fairies or Trucks

The celebration will not resemble what has defined celebrity weddings here over the past decade. No fairies, no trucks, all the guests sit in the same hall. The groom made it clear in advance that he did not want expensive gifts, and he told his guests as much.

For him, he says, the church ceremony was the most important part of the day. Everything else was just logistics.

Was Dejan Stankovic Kralj Ever a Priest?

For years, claims have followed his name that he became a priest. There is no confirmation of that.

What is known is that a few years ago he announced himself that he was considering that path, then chose a different calling. In Brussels he worked as a religious education teacher and as a court interpreter. No record points to ordination, so it is more accurate to say he considered the priesthood than that he ever held it.

That is why his statement today carries a weight it would otherwise lack.

“I thought about becoming a monk,” he said before the wedding.

He added that God showed him a different path through Branka, and summed it up in five words that answered everything.

“I want to fulfill myself as a father.”

From Reality TV to Brussels

Audiences remember him as the host of Luda kuca and as a reality show contestant. That was the first chapter. The second played out in Belgium, far from the cameras at home, and got far less coverage here than the first.

According to Serbian media reports, he was elected president of the Flemish Christian Democrats in the Brussels municipality of Molenbeek, and in last year’s European Parliament elections he ran as a candidate and won more than 11,000 votes.

The road from a celebrity estate under the cameras to politics in the Belgian capital is not a typical biography for someone from the entertainment world. Today he added to that biography a wedding he had stayed silent about while it was happening.

He named the next step himself. He said he wants children, and that was the only announcement he made today.