‘TREATED DIFFERENTLY’

Delphine Böel, Illegitimate Belgian Princess, Demands Equal Treatment to Her Siblings

Delphine Böel’s mother is a Countess who had a long-running affair with King Albert II of Belgium.

An illegitimate child of the former Belgian king has demanded she be treated equally to her legitimate siblings.

Sculptor Delphine Böel, who is also known as Princess Delphine of Belgium, was recognized by King Albert II, her father, in 2020, after a long legal battle, when a Belgian court found she was the daughter of Albert and Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps.

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Albert and the baroness had a long-running extra-marital affair. Although Delphine has said she called the king “Daddy” growing up, she thought it was just a pet name and it was not until she was 17, in 1985, that she was told the truth about her parentage, shortly after the relationship between her mother and the king came to an end.

It was not until 2013 that she summoned up the courage to ask the king directly to acknowledge her, and she has said in a documentary that he “sneered” at her and made her cry in response, suggesting she was only making the request because her career as an artist had stalled.

She then demanded a paternity test and Albert abdicated in favor of his son, Philippe, partly to try and head off the scandal, however a court ultimately obliged him to take one. It showed she was his child and the court ordered she should have the same privileges as her siblings, including the title of “Her Royal Highness.”

Böel, who is independently wealthy and has never sought a financial settlement, was assured she was a “full” member of the Belgian royal house and has indeed since taken part in official and family events.

Now, however, Böel has complained through her lawyer that she is not being treated the same as her siblings, Laurent and Astrid, and is being excluded from some royal occasions. The London Times says her lawyer, Marc Uyttendaele, said the fact she wasn’t invited to the King’s Day celebration on Nov. 15 this year was a case in point in a letter to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

“She felt the need to address the uncomfortable situation of being treated differently from her sister Astrid and her brother Laurent,” Uyttendaele said, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.

De Croo has reportedly responded by saying that, unlike Laurent or Astrid, who have official functions, Delphine is a private individual, according to a report in the London Times.

In documentary, for Belgium’s VTM, Delphine said she felt an increasing need to settle the question of her paternity after she had children in 2003 and 2008 with her partner Jim O’Hare, an American businessman.

“My life and that of my children had become unnecessarily difficult and at one point it became unbearable… When I wanted to open a bank account for my children, it was a problem. I saw that my son Oscar was referred to as PEP: a ‘politically exposed person’ who had been blacklisted.”

Her daughter Joséphine and Oscar are now also recognized as princess and prince.

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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