hi this is my first post due to computer problems(virus) several years ago a belgian princess named daphne did an interview on an american t.v. show in which she told a terrible story about being brutaly raped by a relative and how her mother locked her away instead of getting her medical or legal help. does anyone have any info about this .was her attacker ever brought to justice .how is she today,i was realy touched by her story and i would like to learn more about her such as what she does for a living and if she has worked to bring awareness to rape victims perhaps(very needed unfortuneately)
The only belgian Princess called Daphne that I find is the second daughter of the King Leopold III and Lilian Baels. Her name is Marie-Christine Daphne Astrid Elisabeth Leopoldine, but people call she Daphné. She born on february 6 th, 1951. I don't found anything abaut a raped.
thanks for the reply.after thinking about this a bit more some of the details i remember are that she was friends with princess caroline of monaco and she escaped to canada where she worked as a bar maid(i think)and that she had to learn life skills that most of us learn in childhoodsuch as how to make change as she had never had to handle money.she had also mentioned that she had some sort of private zoo.she also seemed proud to have made a life for herself without help from her family.i just dont understand how this could happen to a member of the belgian royal family.particlarly when you take into consideration that king bauduin(sp)was at the time still alive. everything i have read about him indicates him to have been a very descent man.
Princess Marie Christine (who is known to her family as Daphne) did an interview some years ago for Belgian tv (not American tv) where she talked about her life - and discussed being raped by an elderly distant relative at her coming out party. She mother, she claimed, was not sympathetic, and had her confined to her room at the family's home in France for three months, where she was isolated, and food was brought to her on a tray. She came to Canada where she met a piano player in a piano bar, Paul Drake (ne Drukker), who was divorced and had nearly grown children. As she was under some surveillance from the Belgians, and this relationship was not what Lilian would want for her daughter, the couple fled to Miami where they married. They returned to Canada -- this was in 1981, I think, but the marriage lasted for only a few weeks, as Marie Christine could not cope with being a house wife -- she was used to servants, fancy clothes etc.
The marriage ended in divorce, and Daphne came to the US to live -- she got bit parts in Hollywood and remarried, a French-born restaurant owner. She had limited contact with her father. If I recall, she was not allowed to attend her father's funeral, but was snuck into the church so she could pay her respects. By the 1990s, she had little money, but, despite her relationship with her mother, she did receive 1/3rd of her mother's estate.
I am not sure if Daphne and Caroline were good friends as Daphne is 6 years older (so they would not have been childhood playmates.) Daphne's younger sister, Maria Esmeralda, is the same age as Caroline.
Last I read, Daphne and husband were living in Nevada. No children.
I got this info off the web:
Marie Christine Daphné Astrid Elisabeth Léopoldine. The King's half-sister. Born on the 6 of February 1951. Princess of Belgium. Married 1st in 1981 (divorced the same year) to Paul Druker, born in 1938. Married 2nd in 1989 to Jean Paul Gourgues.
I also read that she was estranged from her mother, but it didn't say why.
I live in belgian, and from what they say about is that she received 40 millions old belgian franks (about 1 million euros or dollars) and she spent all, she's now a pennyless woman. Plus she isn't very popular with the royal family, she's kinda the black sheep.
I can't say a word good of Marie-Christine either.
When Princess Lilian, her mother died, M-Ch didn't want anything of her mother, she only wanted money to behave like a snob in America.
To give her the part wich she had the rights of, the royal family had to sell all those beautiful pieces of art, eveningdresses of lilian, books, all sorts of valuable things.
It is such a scadalous thing, it was so sad to see all this family possesions sold....
Here is a link with Princess Marie-Christine doing an interview about her life as a promotion for her newly published autobiography. The interview is in English with Dutch subtitles.
If something that bad hapened to her and her family then treated her badly afterwards she would hate them.
I have seen this story as a plot synposis in a book I read years ago. I had no idea it had happened to a real girl at her deb, I'm horrified. There is one name that springs to mind.
Found this ad for events in Toronto, Canada. Her first husband, "Paul Drake" is still playing piano.
Tuesday night through to Saturday night....on any of these evenings you may find me and others at the legendary Club 22 at the Windsor Arms. From 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, the man who in many ways is a fixture at the 22, none other than that great pianist Paul Drake will be appearing. At 10 p.m. Paul is followed up by a different Jazz Group each week and yes you can even dance. The original Club 22 and Courtyard Cafe were sold and torn down only to arise like Phoenix in this new format as part of the Windsor Arms. You'll find this elegant bar and setting at 15 St. Thomas Street, 1 block west of Bloor and Bay running south.
in weekly Flemish magazine Humo, not the most reliable magazine.
Pictures used from a previous interview in Flemish weekly magazine 'Dag Allemaal' in October 2004 at the time of the release of her autobiography "De Breuk" in Dutch / "La Brisure" in French.
Not much new information on her, apart that she claims she was staying in coma last year (no origins mentioned) and she didn't hear from her family. Princess Marie-Christine also states she didn't receive any money of the auctions the year after the death of her mother Princess Lilian, nor didn't she claim that she was up for cash. The money all went to beneficial organisations, according to Marie-Christine.
In my opion, the princess talks troubled and contradictory on her family and Belgium: on one hand she doesn't want to do anything with them and on the other hand she seems disappointed that her family/Belgium aren't interested in her anymore. I am reluctant on the author of the interview: Mario Danneels, who wrote the famous biography on Queen Paola. At the end of the week a new book by Mario Danneels will be released: "Het trauma van de troon. Het verdriet van de Van Belgiës", edited by Halewyck. (translation: "The trauma of the throne. The sorrow of the Of Belgium-s."
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