Belgium gets a new princess! Court grants princely title to ex-king’s illegitimate daughter

Princess Delphine of Belgium. Image from Wikimedia Commons

The Belgian Court of Appeals  has  granted the title of Princess of Belgium to Delphine Boël, the acknowledged illegitimate daughter of King Albert II of Belgium, her lawyer has confirmed. Hence, she is now known as Delphine of Saxe-Coburg (van Saksen-Coburg), while her two children, Josephine, 16, and Oscar, 12, was also recognized as Princess and Prince, each entitled to the style of Royal Highness.  

Delphine summoned then-King Albert, Prince Philippe (now king) and Princess Astrid to court in 2013 in a bid to obtain a DNA testing to prove that she is Albert's daughter with his former mistress, Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps . Since Albert then enjoyed court immunity, Delphine included Philippe and Astrid  in the summon. The ex-king, however, lost that immunity after he abdicated on July 21, 2013, prompting Delphine to relaunch the lawsuit against him. The court dismissed her claims in 2017, but she made an appeal. In 2019, King Albert was finally forced to undergo a DNA-test after being told by the court that he would have pay 5,000 euro a day as penalty for refusing to take the DNA-test. On January 27, 2020, the paternity test revealed that Albert was indeed, Delphine’s biological father.

Born on February 22, 1968, Delphine was officially recognised by her mother’s husband Jonkheer (a title equivalent to the British squire) Jacques Boël, a scion of one of Belgium’s richest families.  Rumours started circulating that she was really Albert’s daughter when he made reference to a crisis "thirty years ago" in his Christmas speech in 1999. The princess is believed to be an extremely wealthy woman,  even richer than her biological father.  In 2003, she married artist Dennis O’Hare. 

Delphine’s elevation to royal status by a court decision has never been heard of before. In fact, royal children borne out of wedlock were looked down and had slim chances of obtaining royal titles. Usually, illegitimate children were granted dukedoms. For example, illegitimate sons of King Charles II of England and Scotland,  were created dukes of Grafton, Northumberland and  St. Albans, but never were they given the style HRH.  

It is also surprising to learn that the court also granted Delphine’s two children with the princely title and the style HRH. A law passed in 1991 granted the title of princess or prince and the style of HRH to all descendants of Albert but it did not specify that they had to be born within marriage. In 2015, the 1991 rules were changed and the title of princess or prince was reserved for the children and grandchildren of ”the king”. The children and grandchildren of the heir to the throne are also entitled to the style, although it was not explicitly stated the use of royal titles are exclusive only to legitimate offspring.