Belgium’s former King Albert II admits that he is the father of artist Delphine Boel

Belgium’s former King Albert II has finally admitted that a well-known sculptor is his illegitimate daughter – putting an end to a seven-year legal battle.

The 85-year-old royal made the admission on Monday in an attempt to end ‘painful’ proceedings ‘with dignity’, after submitting to a court-ordered DNA test last year. 

The move makes 51-year-old Delphine Boel a princess, puts her 15th in line to the Belgian throne, and entitles her to a share of Albert’s estate when he dies.

While Albert did not confirm the exact circumstances of Ms Boel’s birth, she is thought to be the result of an 18-year affair between the former monarch and Belgian aristocrat Sybille de Selys Longchamps that began in the 1960s. 

Albert II, former King of Belgium (left), has admitted for the first time that 51-year-old artist Delphine Boel (right) is his love-child from an affair he is thought to have had in the 1960s

Ms Boel is though to have been the product of an 18-year affair between Albert and Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps (pictured left, with husband Baron Malsen Ponickau at Osterberg castle in Germany, 1998) that began in the 1960s

That affair is believed to have begun in 1966 when Albert was not yet king but was married to Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria, whom he wed in 1959. 

Delphine was born in 1968, and the affair is thought to have ended in 1984. 

Albert ascended the throne in 1993, following the death of his elder brother, King Baudouin, from heart failure.  

Ms Boel had been trying to establish paternity via the courts since 2013 – the same year that Albert abdicated for ‘health reasons’.

Albert never publicly denied being her father, but she claims he told her at least once during a private phone call that ‘you are not my daughter’.

He had long refused to provide DNA for testing.

In November last year, the monarch was told by authorities that he must comply with the DNA ruling and would face a fine of €5,000 for each day he didn’t provide a sample.  

Albert II said on Monday that even if there were judicial arguments left to pursue, legal paternity is not necessarily equal to biological fatherhood.

He added that even if the case could be continued on procedural grounds, he decided not to do so ‘to end with dignity this painful procedure’.

Ms Boel’s lawyer Marc Uyttendaele said on RTBF network that ‘her reaction was one of relief, emotion but also shows a wound that will not heal’.

Sybille de Sélys Longchamps (far left) had an alleged 18-year affair with Albert II in the 1960s, after which daughter Delphine (pictured left with her mother in 2001, and right at an awards show in Paris in 1999) was born

Albert (right) has alluded to problems with his marriage to Paola, former Queen of Beligum, in the past but has refused to admit Ms Boel is his daughter until now

Rumours about Albert and Ms Boel’s mother, the aristocratic wife of a well-heeled industrialist, had been around for years, but the news that the king may have had a child with her broke into the open when a biography of Albert’s wife, Queen Paola, was published in 1999.

In his Christmas message to the nation that year, he alluded to a past infidelity and said he and Queen Paola lived through a ‘crisis’ in the late 1960s that almost wrecked their marriage, but they overcame their marital problems ‘a long while ago’.

Six years ago, Ms Boel, who bears a striking resemblance to some members of the royal family, opened court proceedings to prove that Albert was her father.

Six years ago, Ms Boel, who bears a striking resemblance to some members of the royal family, opened court proceedings to prove that Albert was her father

Ms Boel claimed in 2005 that she called her father in order to appeal for help for her mother, who was being harassed by journalist, and was told ‘you are not my daughter’

Ms Boel stands next to a neon sculpture she made in 2011 entitled ‘Love Child’ which went on display in a Belgian gallery in 2012

She has always said she brought the paternity case due to anger since she was being cold-shouldered by the royal family, she is now 15th in line for the Belgian throne.

Her lawyer, Alain De Jonge, told Belgian newspaper De Morgan in 2014 that his client’s ambitions were not to be a royal, but to end a stigma. He said: ‘If the royal family got in a plane together and had an accident or, as in Nepal, were killed by a mad man, then she could be queen. 

‘But her ambitions do not stretch that far. It is more about the ending of a stigma.’

Mrs Boel can now legally call herself a royal princess and is entitled to a share of King Albert’s estate when he dies. 

In his Christmas message to the nation in 1999, the King alluded to a past infidelity and said he and Queen Paola (pictured together in 2008) lived through a ‘crisis’ in the late 1960s

Ms Boel is pictured alongside her husband, American James O’Hare, in Brussels in 2008. The pair will now be entitled to a share of Albert II’s estate when he dies