Is Belgium’s future Queen dating a fellow university student?

Rumors of a romance between Princess Elisabeth  of Belgium and fellow college student Nicholas Dodd have been shut down.  HLN  and  The Sun  recently reported that Queen Mathilde and King Philippe’s 22-year-old daughter was romantically linked to the Lincoln College pupil.

According to The Sun, it was reported that Elisabeth and Nicholas’ relationship “transcends friendship” with a source saying, “There was an instant connection.”

© OLIVIER MATTHYS/Belga/AFP via Getty Image

However, a relative of Nicholas’ has said that the relationship rumor is “false.” Speaking to the  Manchester Evening News , the relative said, “They just go to the same college and study together,” adding, “Just like all his other friends, I can’t comment any further.”

According to Het Laatste Nieuws (via  RTL ), the Princess and Nicholas met in 2021 during the school’s Matriculation Day, which “signals the start of the academic year.” Elisabeth, who is first in line to the Belgian throne, began her three-year program at Lincoln College, a college of the University of Oxford, in October of 2021. The future Queen of Belgium is studying history and politics at the university in the United Kingdom.

Elisabeth’s page on the royal family’s website notes that the “United Kingdom is familiar territory” for the Princess. In 2020, the Belgian royal graduated from UWC Atlantic College in Wales, where Spain’s Princess Leonor and the Netherlands’ Princess Alexia also studied.

Elisabeth is the eldest of Queen Mathilde and King Philippe’s four children. Their Majesties are also parents to Prince Gabriel, Prince Emmanuel and Princess Eléonore.