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King Philippe of Belgium first met his secret stepsister Delphine de Saxe-Cobourg, the palace said, after she won a legal battle to be admitted to the royal family.
The meeting, held in a royal palace on October 9, resulted in a “long and rich exchange” that will allow the relationship to develop within a “family framework,” the statement said.
Former King Albert II, Philip’s father who reigned from 1993 to 2013, was forced to undergo a DNA test in 2019 after a long battle with the woman who had insisted for years that she was his daughter.
The test confirmed that he was in fact her biological father, which she had refused to admit since the 1999 revelation of a former extramarital affair.
A Belgian court ruled on October 1 that the 52-year-old artist can take her father’s name and call herself a princess.
The current king has publicly welcomed Delphine into the family, unlike her father until now.
The “warm” meeting between Delphine and the king took place at the official residence of the monarch’s Laeken Palace, the royal family said.
“We had the opportunity to meet during a long and rich exchange that allowed us to talk about our respective lives and our areas of common interest,” said a palace statement signed simply by Philippe and Delphine.
“This relationship will develop from now on in a family setting,” they added.
Daughter of a long adventure
Delphine was born in 1968 to a baroness, Sibylle de Selys Longchamps, and the future King Albert at the beginning of an adventure that lasted until 1984.
Albert had already married his future queen, Paola, and the illegitimate daughter was kept a secret.
Despite rumors and press reports, Albert continued to deny his paternity during his two-decade reign and after his abdication, until a court ordered a DNA test in 2019.
The result was finally unveiled in January, and the saga might be over, but the former king, now 86, kept turning his back on his daughter.
In a statement, Albert’s attorneys said “scientific findings indicate that he is the biological father of Ms. Delphine Boel.”
But they added that his legal paternity was not the same as being a father and noted that he had not made “family, social or educational decisions” in raising Ms. Boel.
When the former king informed his hidden daughter and the Belgian people, through a lawyer, that he felt no connection to her, it was “like a knife in the back,” he told reporters on October 5.
The princess said she had been in contact with her father until he brutally cut off contact when she was 33 years old.
Her dismissive rejection of the recognition she fought hard for was a step too far and she decided to push for legal recognition as a member of royalty.
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