IT'S ON: Billionaire Carlos Slim and Queen Noor in Love

Transracial is in Mexico City where we’ve heard conclusive details about one of the most interesting romances NEVER to be told.

It appears as if local billionaire Carlos Slim — the world’s second wealthiest man after Bill Gates — has been involved in a golden-years romance with Queen Noor of Jordan.

The two have apparently been dating for almost a year now — a fact that has become near common knowledge among Mexico’s chattering classes.

She visits often, is said to be studying Spanish, stays in the hip Hotel CondesaDF (above, with a staffer) and they either rendezvous at the private homes of friends, or in luxury resorts in Latin America — including Sivory Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, where Noor had visited last year just before Transracial arrived.

Slim — as you might have read in a recent exhaustive New Yorker profile – is Mexican of Lebanese descent and has kept very close ties to the local Arab community (of which folks like Salma Hayek are members). Indeed, virtually none of Slim’s family have married non-Mexican Arabs, so the Noor romance makes sense.

She is not only an Arab queen, but a bona fide Arab, having been born to a Syrian father and once known as Lisa Najeeb Halaby – Halaby being derived from the word “Haleb”, a city in Syria where many expat Arabs originate.

If Slim wanted a true Arab Queen — in Noor he got one in spades.

And, most intersting, each lost their respective spouses within a day of each other in 1999.

Karmic!

The real story here is how and why this relationship — which should be one of the most talked-about on the planet — has stayed on the DL.

Despite clear-cut reports of the two together in New York — no American media has gone with the story, despite breathless reporting in the Arab and Spanish press.

Indeed, the only mention has been a tiny sentence in the February New York Times article describing Slim’s recent bail-out of the paper:

And even when newspapers ran columns criticizing him for his recent negative comments about the Mexican economy, the front pages of leading papers in Mexico City all ran reports on Thursday of a rumored romance between Mr. Slim and Queen Noor of Jordan — speculation that was quickly quashed by Mr. Elias, his son-in-law and spokesman.

And that was that. No follow up, no dirt-digging, no further details.

Clearly in need of Slim’s millions, the Times simply took Mr. Elias’ word for it and left the Noor story cold.

And apparently the entire rest of the English-language media followed their lead.

Gawker even went as far as to call rumors of their relationship proof of the dangers of relying on Twitter as a news source.

While we understand why the Times would hold-off on the Slim-Noor romance, we’re wondering why the rest of the English-language media has remained mum on a story which — at least South of the Border — is considered fait accompli.

With his fingers in nearly every segment of Mexico’s economy, are Slim’s American concerns far more elaborate than previously known? As a major owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, for instance, has Slim threatened to pull Saks ads in any American media outlet that reports on his romance.

Could that explain why over more than one-half dozen New Yorker pages this June, no mention was made of the couple.

Spill the beans on Slim and Noor, and no more Saks ads for Conde Nast?

Who’s being paid to keep this affair silent? And when might it all come out?

And why — with both of their spouses long buried — keep it all a secret in the first place?

The world needs a hot, later-in-life, Latin/Arab couple.

A real Arab queen and Mexican magnate king would be a welcome arrival indeed.