Following the news that Delphine Boël, the former Belgian King’s love-child, has won the right to call herself a princess, she has finally been reunited with her father, the former King Albert II. It is the first time since the results of the legal tussle that they have come together.
A photograph released by the palace shows Princess Delphine de Saxe-Cobourg sitting socially-distanced alongside Albert II and his wife, Queen Paola, in their home Castle Belvédère in Laeken (the official residence of the Belgian Royal Family). In a joint statement, issued by the palace on Tuesday 27 October, the three said: ‘After the tumult, the suffering and the hurt, it is time for forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. Together, we decided to take this new path. It will require patience and effort, but we are determined.’
King Philippe also met Delphine earlier this month and the formerly estranged siblings shared an announcement on the official Belgische Monarchie Facebook page, described as a ‘Joint message from the King and Princess Delphine’. The statement read: ‘On Friday 9 October we met for the first time at the Castle of Laeken. It was a warm meeting. This extensive and special conversation gave us the opportunity to get to know each other. We have spoken about our own lives and our common interests. This bond will develop further in family context.’
Boël fought a seven-year legal battle to prove the former King Albert II, 86, is her father. The 52-year-old was told she could use the royal title as well as the surname of the former monarch in a ruling by the Brussels Court of Appeal on Thursday 1 October. Boël’s lawyers confirmed that the aristocrat would take King Albert II’s name and be known as Delphine Saxe-Cobourg and Princess of Belgium.
Ms Boël, who works as an artist, has been reported to be Albert's illegitimate daughter since 1997. She will now be addressed as ‘Her Royal Highness’, and her two children Joséphine and Oscar will also have the title Princess and Prince.
As reported in the Telegraph , Delphine’s lawyer Marc Uyttendaele said: ‘The court affirms that King Albert II is her father, her other requests that she be treated on the same footing as her brothers and sister were also granted. A judicial victory will never replace a father's love, but it does offer a sense of justice, which is further strengthened by the fact that many more children who have gone through similar ordeals may be able to find the strength to face them.’
The artist will be entitled to a share of the former monarch’s estate when he dies but will not get an endowment from the Belgian state as Albert’s other children do. Albert must reportedly pay court costs of £8,520.
After a decades-long legal battle, during which Ms Boël attempted to prove her paternity as the illegitimate daughter of Belgium's former king, a court ruled earlier this year that ‘scientific conclusions indicate that he is [her] biological father.’ Despite denying it for years, his hand was forced after he was told he would be fined £4,370 for every day he did not submit a DNA sample.
Delphine’s mother, Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps, a Belgian aristocrat, is reported to have had an 18-year long affair with the King and her daughter began court proceedings in 2013 – the same year he stood down for health reasons in favour of his son, King Philippe.
Rumours of a royal indiscretion first emerged in the late 1990s, following the publication of a biography on King Albert's wife, Queen Paola. It alluded to an incident that the couple had worked through in the 1960s, something that the King even referenced in his own Christmas speech that year.
The 52-year-old has already found support in the form of her black sheep half-brother, Prince Laurent of Belgium, who has frequently stepped out with her in public.
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