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Artist and sculptor Delphine Boel is about to officially become a Belgian princess after a Brussels court ruled in her favor this week in a decades-long royal paternity scandal that pitted her against former King Albert II.
His lawyer, Alain de Jonghe, confirmed in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the court gave his client full satisfaction, recognizing her as the daughter of the former monarch. A statement from her team of lawyers said she could be called a princess “Delphine of Saxe Coburg” and that she will stand on an equal footing with her royal brothers and sisters.
Thierry Charlier / AP
Artist and sculptor Delphine Boel, photographed here in 2008, is about to officially become a Belgian princess.
The decisive ruling came a month earlier than expected, but not too soon for Boel, 52.
“Legal victory will never replace the love of a father, but it does bring a feeling of justice,” his attorneys said in the statement issued after the ruling.
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The former king, whose son Philippe is the reigning monarch, could still file a final legal appeal in the Court of Cassation. A phone call and an email to the royal palace on Thursday night (local time) were not immediately returned.
Virginia Mayo / AP
Queen Paola of Belgium and King Albert II photographed in 2008 at the Royal Palace in Laeken, Belgium.
Such a decision had been on the horizon since King Albert decided in January to no longer fight the claim that he is Boel’s father, after he finally agreed to get a DNA test and received the results. His lawyers had said that “scientific findings indicate that he is the biological father of Ms. Delphine Boel.”
Rumors about Albert and Boel’s mother, the aristocratic wife of a wealthy industrialist, had circulated for years. But news that the king might have had a child with her came to light when a biography of Alberto’s wife, Queen Paola, was published in 1999.
In his Christmas message to the nation that year, King Albert alluded to past infidelity, saying that he and Queen Paola experienced a “crisis” in the late 1960s that almost ruined their marriage, but that “long ago time “they got over their marital problems.
Six years ago, Boel, who bears a striking resemblance to certain members of the royal family, opened court proceedings to prove that Albert is his father.
Lawyers said Thursday that the ruling should give encouragement “to numerous children who had to go through the same ordeal.”
Boel has always said that she filed the paternity case because she was angry about being rejected by the royal family.
