On November 15, The Belgian Royal House celebrated its King’s Dayan event that has been celebrated on the name day of San Leopold since the 19th century, and an occasion on which the Royal Family meets. However, Princess Delphine was not on the guest list headed by her father, Albert II, and her half-siblings, King Philippe of the Belgians, Prince Laurent and Princess Astrid. It should be remembered that the sculptor Delphine Boël managed, on October 1, 2020, after a long judicial process, to be granted the title of princess of Belgium, with the treatment of Royal Highness. Finally, a paternity test, which was a great scandal, showed that she was the daughter that Albert II of Belgium had with Baroness Sybille de Selys. Despite the fact that justice ruled her right, and the meetings she held with King Philip of Belgium, at the Royal Castle of Laeken, and with Albert II and Paola at Belvédere Castle, Delphine of Saxe-Coburg is not satisfied and publicly declares that she does not feel “welcome” in her family.
© Getty ImagesAfter King’s Day, Princess Delphine uploaded a message to his social networks that made evident his deep displeasure at what he considers unfair treatment: “The press reminded me again yesterday why they did not invite me to celebrate King’s Day (…) The fact is that I am not welcome because, in Essentially, at the time I was born, my parents were not married. I write this again and raise my voice for the children. They do not choose the circumstances into which they are born. Our society and our laws must reflect values that embrace children equally, whether they are born in a marriage, in a third marriage, in a fourth marriage, out of wedlock, adopted or whatever. King Albert II had a long extramarital relationship with Princess Delphine’s mother for eighteen years, before his coronation as King of Belgium. You will remember that Albert II ascended the Throne in 1993, after the death of his brother, King Baudouin.
© Getty ImagesINTRASTORY OF A SCANDAL
Albert II, third of the six children of Leopold III and Astrid of Sweden, did not think he would become King of his country. For years, the Belgians hoped with hope that their Kings, Baldwin and Fabiola, would have offspring, but the hopes faded over the years. Therefore, when Baudouin died, while praying on the roof of his residence in Motril, all dynastic responsibility fell to Prince Albert, who, hand in hand with his wife, the Italian aristocrat Paola Ruffo di Calabria, assumed his destiny and ran his country from that distant 1993 to July 2013, the date on which he abdicated in favor of his son, Felipe.
“I note that my age and my health no longer allow me to exercise my function as I would like. It would be failing in my duties and my conception of the royal function to want to remain in exercise at any price,” said Albert II, 79, in a brief televised speech. For months, rumors had been circulating about a possible resignation of the Sovereign. In addition to the reasons that he gave in his speech, there was another that had been raising eyebrows among the Belgian royalty for years. In 1999, the journalist Mario Danneel wrote an unauthorized biography of Queen Paola, in which it was already noted that Albert II had not only had a long affair with Sybille de Selys, but that both had been parents of a girl, born in 1968.
© Getty ImagesIn his 1999 Christmas speech, the King of Belgians let his fellow citizens know that he had been involved in an extramarital relationship for years – he married Paola Ruffo di Calabria in 1959 – and spoke about the existence of Delphinebut it was not until many years later that he underwent a DNA test that confirmed his paternity.
For its part, Delphine Boel He discovered the identity of his real father when he was seventeen years old. At first, it seemed like it wasn’t going to be so difficult to be one of the family; In fact, he had private meetings with his father, but shortly after the news became public, Prince Albert made a U-turn in his ways and denied his paternity. It was precisely that turning point that prompted Delphine Boël to make an uncomfortable decision: fight for her rights through judicial means and request, in this way, a DNA test so that science could confirm what she knew very well: Alberto II was his father.
© Getty ImagesThe legal battle began in 2013as soon as the King abdicated and lost his immunity, and did not end until 2020. There were seven years of extreme tension between Delphine’s legal representatives and those of the Belgian Royal House. Albert II tried to escape the DNA test, but the Brussels Court of Appeal forced him to undergo it. If he did not do so, he would have to pay a fine of five thousand euros for each day he delayed doing it. The King ended up accepting, although he asked that the results be confidential. Logically, as soon as the courts recognized Delphine, at the age of fifty-two, the title of princess, as well as that of Royal Highness for his two children, Josefina and Oscar –the result of her relationship with the American Jame O’Hare–, immediately, without the need for words, the result of the test was revealed.
© Getty ImagesIn those days, Delphine’s lawyer, Marc Uyttendae, celebrated the family decision, but also drew a clear picture of the situation: “A judicial victory will never replace the love of a father, but it does offer a sense of justice.” On her social networks, Princess Delphine has just demonstrated the same thing, four years after her victory: she still cannot find a warm and cordial place in her paternal family.
DELPHINE’S LIFE
Aristocratic blood runs through Delphine’s veins from both her father and mother. He was always educated in the best private schools in England and Switzerland. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art and Design, London, and obtained his BFA with honors in 1990.
As he was about to come of age, his mother revealed the identity of his father to him. Perhaps she did not remember that, when she was a child, her father was present at some moments of her childhood and that she even shared a vacation with him on occasion. When she decided to request recognition of her paternity from her father, some sectors of Belgian society classified her as a “gold-digger” and, in reality, pursuing her future paternal inheritance. What later became known is that the businessman Jacques Boël, Delphine’s legal father, was a man with a fortune greater than that of the King Emeritus, so the idea that the only driving force that moved Delphine in her claims was economic seemed to dismantle.
© Getty ImagesOctober 2020 was the month of meetings and promises. It had a lot of media impact Delphine’s meeting with her brother, King Philipa meeting after which Albert II declared, through a statement from the Palace, that he felt “delighted,” as did Queen Emerita Paola that the brothers had met. In the same vein of warmth and cordiality, Prince Laurent expressed himself about his new sister: “She knows that our door, mine and my wife’s, is always open for her.” Regarding the meeting, held at Laeken Castle, between Felipe de los Belgas and Princess Delphine, they themselves issued a joint statement to share with their fellow citizens the terms in which it took place: “We talked about our lives and our common interests. This bond will continue to develop in a family context.”
© Getyy ImagesFor a year now, Delphine from Belgium has expressed her dissatisfaction with the treatment that, according to her perception, she is receiving. If this year, her anger has exploded on social networks, last year the situation was the same – she was not invited to King’s Day – but she tried to be more discreet when expressing her disagreements with the Royal House. In 2023, a letter from the princess addressed to her father was leaked, and probably copied to the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo, in which she explicitly expressed her discontent for feeling that she is treated differently from her three half-brothers, the King Philippe, and princes Laurent and Astrid. That first call to attention did not seem to have any repercussions – although it is true that last July attended the Belgian National Day and she was photographed with the Emeritus Kings and their family – because this year her name was not printed on the invitations to King’s Day either. Hence his public anger through cyberspace.