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Former King Albert II of Belgium’s illegitimate daughter Delphine Boël is seeking a royal title. BBC reports that the 52-year-old Belgian artist has taken her case to the appeals court in Brussels in the hopes that a court will grant her the same rights and titles as her father’s legitimate children, King Philippe, Prince Laurent and Princess Astrid, whom he shares with his wife Queen Paola.
© ERIC LALMAND / Belga / AFP“Delphine’s position isn’t that she wants or doesn’t want to be princess,” Delphine’s lawyer Marc Uyttendaele said on Thursday (via BBC). “She doesn’t want to be a cut-price child, she wants to have exactly the same privileges, titles and capacities as her brothers and her sister.” However, Albert’s lawyer Alain Berenboom told CNN, “We believe that she has the right to be recognized but these requests do not fall within the competence of the court.”
After taking a court-ordered DNA test, King Albert II acknowledged in January that he is Delphine’s biological father. “His Majesty King Albert II has taken note of the results of the DNA sample he submitted at the requests of the Brussels Court of Appeal. The scientific conclusions indicate that he is the biological father or Mrs Delphine Boël,” Albert’s lawyer said in a statement, according to The Brussels Times.
© Getty ImagesThe 86-year-old King, who married wife Queen Paola in 1959, had an affair with Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps, which led to Delphine’s birth in 1968. Albert, who abdicated in favor of his son Philippe in 2013, had denied that the artist was his daughter for years. Following a seven-year long legal battle, the former King finally admitted in January that he had fathered a love child.
Speaking to AFP in August, Delphine admitted that her legal victory “really changed” her life. She said (via The Brussels Times), “For the first time, I felt taken seriously. I was finally heard. And then I found it extraordinary that justice can thus give hope to all those who are searching for their identity.”
