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BRUSSELS – Delphine Boel grew up certain to be a princess. Now, a court decision and a DNA test could make it true.
Ms. Boël, 50, is a Belgian visual artist who claims to have been conceived during an extramarital affair between King Albert II of Belgium and Mrs. Boël's mother, Baroness Sybille of Selys Longchamps.
The court's decision, released Monday, gave credit to his request and ordered Albert to submit DNA evidence to determine if he was Ms. Boël's biological father.
Like some European countries, Belgium still has a king who is theoretically above the law and can not be arrested, prosecuted or sentenced. The protocol states that no one can even ask a question in public. But the court's decision shows that even a king can be held responsible once he has surrendered to the throne – which Albert did in 2013.
After the abdication of the king, Ms. Boël filed a lawsuit to obtain the recognition of her biological daughter. If successful, the lawsuit could eventually place it legally within the royal family and potentially become the sixteenth successor to the throne.
At the end of the 1960s, at the time of the alleged affair, Albert was Prince Albert of Liège and was married to Paola Ruffo di Calabria, an Italian princess with whom he had three children. But he did not expect to become king because his brother was in the front line.
He was known for traveling the coasts of southern France as part of the "Golden Youth", a high society of dazzling young people, rich in moral and casual wealth during the 1960s and 1970s.
It was at this time that Albert had a "long love affair" with Baroness Sybille, who then gave birth to Ms. Boël, according to Ms. Boël's lawyer, Marc Uyttendaele.
"For quite a long time, this girl was hidden by her mother," said Uyttendaele, referring to Ms. Boel, "while Albert visited him regularly and was present in his life."
In 1993, Albert became king unexpectedly after the death of his brother, King Baudouin, at the age of 62, of heart failure, leaving no child. At that time, the ties between Albert and Baroness Sybille ended and Boel's existence became a "state secret," said Uyttendaele. Ms. Boel felt rejected, he added.
In 1999, a journalist, Mario Danneels, published a book about Queen Paola titled "Paola: from La Dolce Vita" to Queen, revealing the existence of Mrs. Boel to the general public.
Albert never explicitly denied the allegation and even seemed to refer to it during his Christmas speech that year, claiming that the royal couple had experienced a "crisis" about 30 years earlier, that He had overcome it, adding that "this period was recalled to us not long ago."
However, a wave of public criticism of the king and support for Ms. Boel ensued. This convinced her to express herself and, after Albert abdicated the throne and became an ordinary citizen again, sue.
In its decision on Monday, the Brussels court gave the king until February 2019 to provide a DNA sample.
Albert's lawyer, Guy Hiernaux, said Albert would "think about the appropriate reaction to today's decision, which is not favorable to him".
"Either His Majesty accepts the decision and gives his DNA within three months, or he refuses a DNA test – which is fully his right but would plead against him – or he appeals the decision to the highest judicial instance of Belgium, "said Mr Hiernaux. In any case, bringing to justice a king or a former king is unprecedented in the history of Belgium, he said.
Asked about the fact that Mrs Boel can claim an inheritance on the Belgian throne, Mr Hiernaux said that "if it turns out to be his biological daughter, it could hypothetically take his aristocratic name", namely Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
But to become a member of the royal family and claim the succession to the throne, she would firstly need the agreement of the Belgian government – and "we are not there yet", has it -he declares.
