Prince Bernhard's Illegitimate Children

[lucien]

Originally Posted by Blog Real

What kind of relationship the Princess Beatrix with her stepsisters?

None.Each have their own lives and are OK with that.

[Duc_et_Pair]

Originally Posted by Countessmeout

[...] Considering they are their dad's kids from affairs, and he never publically acknowledged them, its not surprising they don't have a relationship. The girls did visit their father in the last years.

The Prince did publicly recognize his two daughters. In a series of interviews with journalists in 1999-2003 he stated: "They must be left alone. My legacy must be shared by six. That is how I have stipulated in my testament." At that moment it was assumed the Prince's private fortune was worth around 200 million Euro (he had inherited part of Queen Juliana's private wealth earlier that year).

At the backcover of the book De Prins Spreekt (The Prince Speaks) he confirms the contents with a letter:

Soestdijk Palace
23 May 2003

I did not want to leave a biography.

The talks with the gentlemen Broertjes and Tromp in the past years were -for myself- meant to explain my point of view regarding a number of aspects in my life about which I would like to tell something more.

I do not consider the impact of this as a biography, but as a journalistic report. I can agree well with the contents of this.

Bernhard

Front cover

Back cover

[melina premiere]

Prince Berhnard recogniezd his two daughters and it became public after his death in a vidéo.
We cannot compare the cases of William because, Charles is not the father of the children of Camilla

Nicolai and Felix are the sons of prince Joachim and his former wife Princess Alexandra, they are born in the wedding of a marriage , their fatehr divorced and married again and had 2 other children with his second wife.it is a family where they are grown up with the other children.

Alicia and Alexia are illigitimat daughters , born after the affair of their father with their mother , their father being maried with the queen Juliana. They perhaps saw their father, we had no proofs. The princesses Béatrix, Irène, Margriet and Christina loved their father but we cannot ask them to love their half sisters and to have contacts with them, we don't know their feelings they also loved their mother and were not perhaps very happy that their father had affairs with other wifes.

[Duc_et_Pair]

Originally Posted by melina premiere

[...]

Alicia and Alexia are illigitimat daughters , born after the affair of their father with their mother , their father being maried with the queen Juliana. They perhaps saw their father, we had no proofs. The princesses Béatrix, Irène, Margriet and Christina loved their father but we cannot ask them to love their half sisters and to have contacts with them, we don't know their feelings they also loved their mother and were not perhaps very happy that their father had affairs with other wifes.

The eldest extra-marital daughter, Alicia Hala de Bielefelde, lived far away in America. But the youngest extra-marital daughter, Alexia had frequent contacts with her father. Prince Bernhard purchased an expensive appartement at the Avenue Raphaël in Paris for his poupette Hélène and his daughter Alexia.

The couple joined the Prince at his yacht in Antibes and also met the other sisters at the villa Il Elefante Felice in Porto Ercole, the royal summer residence in Italy. When Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard made a State Visit to President Pompidou, also le baron et la baronne Stanislas Lejeune were official guests and presented to the President and the Queen... The current 7th Baron Lejeune, Cyrille, is the a son of Hélène and therefore a halfbrother of Alexia. (Picture of Cyrille and Alexia).

The sister of poupette Hélène, Francine Grinda, married Henri Roussel. Their son Thierry married Christina Onassis and is the father of Athina Onassis. Small world...

http://www.lexpress.fr/region/les-grinda_481070.html

[melina premiere]

I read somewhere that the baron Stanislas Lejeunewere was ambassador of Niederlands at that time.

But we never saw Alexia at the 'privat events' as the weddings of the grand children of the prince Berhnard nor at the big family meetings . Perhaps Alexia and his mother joined P Bernhard and queen Juliana in hholidays( which is very strange for me, but I am an oldfashion wife but I think that the four sisters had anymore contacts with the daughters of their father.

[Lee-Z]

Originally Posted by melina premiere

We cannot compare the cases of William because, Charles is not the father of the children of Camilla
.....

Alicia and Alexia are illigitimat daughters , born after the affair of their father with their mother , their father being maried with the queen Juliana. They perhaps saw their father, we had no proofs..

The reference to P.Charles' family was made by previous poster to explain the difference between step- and half-siblings, not to compare them to P.Bernhard's situation

About P.Bernhard's two out-of-wedlock daughters we actually we have a lot more proof and facts than of several other similar situations, most have been posted earlier in this thread, as an example this article of an interview with daughter Alicia
Koningin Beatrix heeft geen contact met halfzussen | Binnenland | de Volkskrant

I'd say the only situation i know of where the out-of-wedlock children are similarly acknowledged is that of P.Albert of Monaco and his eldest two children

[Lee-Z]

Originally Posted by melina premiere

I read somewhere that the baron Stanislas Lejeunewere was ambassador of Niederlands at that time.

But we never saw Alexia at the 'privat events' as the weddings of the grand children of the prince Berhnard nor at the big family meetings . Perhaps Alexia and his mother joined P Bernhard and queen Juliana in hholidays( which is very strange for me, but I am an oldfashion wife but I think that the four sisters had anymore contacts with the daughters of their father.

Alicia and Alexia both joined their father and P.Juliana on vacation in Italy from 1994...

About the relationship with the in-wedlock daughters we know less, other than they are not as close with them as they were with their dad and P.Juliana...

[melina premiere]

I never saw this article , I understand that Prince Bernhard saw her daughters, it is normal but I did not believe that queen Juliana met and passed some days with the daughter and the lover of her husband, but as it is shown, I believe it, queen Juliana was a great woman with a big heart, I always appreciated her.
But I am shocked , I am an old oldfashion woman, personaly I would never meet the daughter of my husband if he had one also it is why I said that Queen Juliana was a warm person.

[Duc_et_Pair]

Stanislas and Hélène Lejeune indeed were presented to Queen Juliana at a State Banquet with President Pompidou. I have seen pictures of the Queen shaking her hands during the passage.

The Queen also welcomed Alexia at her holiday villa in Italy and aboard of the yacht in the Rivièra. Apparently Queen Juliana accepted the existence of her husband's extramarital adventures. But we need to understand that the whole marriage between the Queen and the Prince was arranged from A to Z. Almost every historian agrees that Queen Juliana was in love, deep love, with the mondaine German Prince. Almost every historian agrees that this feeling was not vice-versa.

When you read the correspondence of the German Ambassador in The Hague, Julius Graf Zech von Burkersroda, with the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonkheer Andries de Graeff, before and during the engagement, one can see both states were elbow-deep involved in this "spontaneous" affair.

[Tatiana Maria]

Thank you to everyone who has shared. Duc, could you elaborate on this?

Originally Posted by Duc_et_Pair

When you read the correspondence of the German Ambassador in The Hague, Julius Graf Zech von Burkersroda, with the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonkheer Andries de Graeff, before and during the engagement, one can see both states were elbow-deep involved in this "spontaneous" affair.

[Countessmeout]

Originally Posted by melina premiere

Prince Berhnard recogniezd his two daughters and it became public after his death in a vidéo.
We cannot compare the cases of William because, Charles is not the father of the children of Camilla

Nicolai and Felix are the sons of prince Joachim and his former wife Princess Alexandra, they are born in the wedding of a marriage , their fatehr divorced and married again and had 2 other children with his second wife.it is a family where they are grown up with the other children.

Alicia and Alexia are illigitimat daughters , born after the affair of their father with their mother , their father being maried with the queen Juliana. They perhaps saw their father, we had no proofs. The princesses Béatrix, Irène, Margriet and Christina loved their father but we cannot ask them to love their half sisters and to have contacts with them, we don't know their feelings they also loved their mother and were not perhaps very happy that their father had affairs with other wifes.

For the love of I was not comparing anything. I was Correcting the OP. She asked what relationship Bea has with her STEP SISTERS. Bea has no step sisters, neither parent was married twice to give them any. I used Joachim and Charles to explain difference between step and half. Nothing else

And we do know in private he acknowledged the girls (no public relationship, names and such known after he died). Vacationed even with Juliana.

[melina premiere]

Countessmeout, I did not see the comments before, I was wrong, excuse me

[Marengo]

And there is another... or so he claims.

The author Oscar van den Boogaard says in an interview with NRC Handelsblad that he is a son of the late prince Bernhard. He says that his source is his mother, who told him as much. He rhetorically asked: "Why would she have made something up which I was not allowed to tell anybody? It is a terrible secret that is impossible for a child to carry on his own".

Mr van den Boogaard has written about the story in his new novel. He claims that he is trying to deal with a "trauma". According to the author, his mother was invited in the 50s by Queen Juliana to come along on a ski vacation.

The marriage of his parents was a bad one. During the affair of his mother and the prince, the entourage of the prince 'coupled' her to a man, who she married. They divorced when he was 13 and his father moved to Suriname. After the divorce his mother was invited to Soestdijk palace and greeted like the "prodigal daughter". He joined his mother for the party at the palace and it appeared that Prince Bernhard had been following his life from a distance. On the way back from the party, his mother was upset, started sobbing, stopped the car and told him: "Oscar, Bernhard is your father".

He says he did not want to share his story earlier, to protect his 'father'. His parents have both died now. The RVD says that they do not know and can not trace anything about a meeting of Van den Boogaard or his mother with the prince.

Source: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2018/02/09...rauma-a1591727

[Marengo]

He is now being interviewed on television by Eva Jinek:

More details:
- his mother was the secretary of the mayor Utrecht. That is how she met Juliana and Bernhard.

- his mother became depressed and an alcoholic.

- The prince and his entourage respected the 'father', who was a military man who served during the war.

- he was asked in how far he could trust his mother: she was an alcoholic, did she tell the truth?

- the prince visited his mother on her sickbed.

- they asked why he wrote a novel and not a autobiographical book. How can the reader now know what is his/the truth and what not? He says he does not care if people believe him or not, he wanted to be released from his trauma and now feels liberated.

He seemed reasonable enough, not what I would expect an attention seeker. He seems a sensitive character as well. I don't know what to make of it. For what it is worth: there seem to be some facial similarities between the prince and the author.

A logical question -which was not asked- is why the prince would recognize Alicia and Alexia but not this man. I assume that Mr. Van den Boogaard would have answered that his other father was still alive.