Delphine Boël, daughter of King Albert II


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On 9 April Delphine presented her book to the press. Here she poses outside with her partnet James O'Hare.

Wed 09/04/08 - Nine years after being revealed as the out-of-wedlock daughter of the Belgian king, Delphine Boël, 40, says she no longer craves her father's acknowledgment that she is his daughter.



In a book published this week entitled "Cutting The Umbilical Cord" Delphine Boël says she "no longer obsesses" about the fact King Albert II has yet to accept her as his daughter.

Speaking on VRT television on Tuesday, the artist who currently lives in London, called her book "a trip back into time. I had so many questions about my origin, my parents, rejection etc."

"I had to cut the umbilical cord," she said, adding she was tired of being King Albert's "dirty laundry."

Delphine Boël's existence was revealed in a 1999 biography of Queen Paola, King Albert's Italian-born wife, as the daughter of the Belgian monarch and Sybille Baroness de Selys Longchamps, the wife of a former Belgian industrialist.

Read the entire article here.
 
She is so much resembling the late Queen Astrid. Can she ask for DNA test. Maybe the King will acknowledge her on the paper after he died. Currently, he could not do it because he want to save face for Queen Paula.
 
in my opiion both father and daughter need some growing up to do. albert needs to acknowledge her as his daughter already( the public is not blind you know, anyone can see the clear and obvious resembance between her and astrid, her grandmother) and delphine needs to stop trying to degrade the monarchy. its like she said- she needs to cut the cord...
 
I do apologise if I sound harsh…

I did have some compassion for Baroness Delphine Boel, but it has been disappearing fast. The whole country knows that she is an illegitimate child of the married person, who happens to be the King. This situation is as old as time. While Baroness Boel may bear resemblance to the late Queen Astrid, I dare to say that her behaviour tends to lack some essential characteristics of the social class she belongs to. All her actions indicate that Baroness Boel enjoys displaying her grief in public, which is unacceptable for real aristocrats. I am not sure what could possibly change at this point, even if King Albert recognises her. Nothing really...
 
i don't think she has the title of baroness though...you must be thinking about her mother who was one but miss boel is not a baroness...atleast not to my knowledge
 
I used the title, because she was referred to as Delphine, Baroness Boel on the photos provided by Paty (see post#89, click on a photo).
 
Delphine Boel came with three bodyguards to the opening of her exposition in Sint-Martens-Latem this saturday. She has been receiving annonymous phonecalls in which people call her names or threaten her. The gallery paid for the extra security.
Delphine is popular among the public, some of them were waiting ffor hours to get Delphine's autograph.

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Other Delphine-related news. The city of Kokszijde decided to remove a statue of Delphine for the upcoming visit of Princess Astrid. A spokesman denied that the King or the court had anything to do with this, it was a decicion of the city only.

Source for both items: Gazet van Antwerpen

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Apparently Delphine writes in her book how she 'lost' her father:
When her mother got troubles with her heart Delhine called the king to inform him. When she got the king on the line he told her 'you should never call me again, I don't want to hear anything else of this matter, you re not my daughter'. Delphine said she almost choked because she felt very offended and she said that that was rediculous. 'everybody can see I have Queen Astrids eyes'. The king replied 'Enough! Never sauy that you resemble my mother. Never say that again! How dare you? '

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And more Delphine-news. The book is a great succes, within 3 days all copies were sold out (article in Dutch here).
 
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Well, I don´t like so much Dephine Boel. I can understand her anger if it is true that her biological father rejected her just at the rough times when her mother was suffering a heart disease. Maybe she hoped her father might be supportive to a woman who had been his mistress for decades and, also, a woman who had borne him a daughter. The way Albert refused to hear anything from her daughter is really painful...the words "never dare to say you resembles my mother, how you dare to say this?" sounds very cruel to my ears. So, I feel sympathetic to his daughter at this point.
But the question is that if your biological father don´t loves you and don´t cares for you, there´s nothing you can do to change this. I don´t think, really, that king Albert rejected her daughter as a proof of love and respect to his queen Paola. If he wanted to show love and, I say more, respect to his wife, he never had fathered a children out of wedlock after a relationship which was strong enough to endure eighteen years. I can understand the mistress was banished from his heart and he made all that he could to safe his marriage with Paola, but I don´t understand why Albert and Paola never tried to have a fair relationship with Delphine. I mean...you can banish a lover from your life, but if you have a heart and a concience, you can´t banish a son/daughter from your life just because he/she was conceived out of wedlock.
The truth is that I don´t like Delphine behaviour...but I don´t like Albert behaviour, neither.

PD. Sorry for my mistakes writting english ;)
 
By the way Miss Boel will be the guest tonight of the french TV show "Vie privée, vie puplique" on France 3.
 
Tonight's thema is about father/son/daughter relationships in celebrity circles. Miss Boel is here of course about what you know.....
 
There is no surprise that Miss Boel truly enjoys basking in the attention of people who feel compassion for her "sad" situation. I am curious how long this hysteria will last ...
 
There is no surprise that Miss Boel truly enjoys basking in the attention of people who feel compassion for her "sad" situation. I am curious how long this hysteria will last ...
As long as these people will be alive or just will be...
 
Well, in Delphine's defence, she kept quiet for very long times, until a few years ago actually. And she has every right to be angry, he is her fatehr and that gives the King some obligations (esp. considering the King and Baroness Sybille had a relationship of 16 years), painfull as they may be for him, his wife and his family at the moment.

Delphine has every right to be angry and even to publish her side of the story. She seems to be very bitter and angry IMO. I think it would have been wiser if the king would have come to some sort of relationship with his daughter, in a discrete way of course. It would have been less damaging for the monarchy and I can not imagine that King Albert can be very happy with the present rift with a daugher that he saw secretly for one and a half decades or so.
 
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no offfence intended please

I used the title, because she was referred to as Delphine, Baroness Boel on the photos provided by Paty (see post#89, click on a photo).
sorry,if you are offended in any way......in all the articles that i've read about her she has always been referred to as miss boel.... maybe some of the belgian members could clear the confusion?
 
I am not Belgian but I can help out too, Delhine is not a baroness, just Miss Delphine Boël, but her mother is a baroness by birth, Baroness Sybille de Selys-Longchamps.
 
Marengo,
Thanks for explanations!:flowers:
The more I read about Ms. Boel, the more I am inclined to think that King Albert was not exactly thrilled by prospects of having a child with Baroness Sybille de Selys-Longchamps. It seems to me that King Albert wanted and wants to have nothing to do with his illegitimate daughter. All this rude communication between King Albert and Ms. Boel as well as the way he has treated her might serve as a clear indication that he did wish to have an affair, but without complications such as a child.
Well, I might be wrong...:)
 
Well, he had a relationship for 16 years with the Baroness, and he saw Delphine frequently and for quite some years too. I guess now things have been mended with Paola and he has become King he doesn't like to be remmebered about the affair or the child, but IMO he should take responsibility for his actions instead of walking away from them.
 
I fully agree with your opinion. It was rather short-sighted on King Albert's side to brew a controversy, which cast the shadow on the reputation of the Royal family during such uneasy times for the monarchy. Yes, Ms. Boel has got a full right to be furious, but at this moment she just capitalizes on her sad situation: PR campaign for art, which I do not understand or appreciate. Let her enjoy the life as her sufferings will soon be replaced with more exciting news... Still the way King Albert treated and treats Delphine signals me that he did want this child. Well ... I might be wrong in my assumptions...:)
 
Allright, I had typed up a post for this thread a few days ago, but then decided not to post it, but now I feel like I need to clear up some things.

I learned about Delphine Boel being king Albert's illegitimate daughter in 1999, when a book was published about Queen Paola's life by a young Royalty-fan, Mario Danneels (no family of Godfried kardinaal Danneels as far as I know). After publication of that book it became clear that it was a hidden secret in the Wetstraat among politicians and that rumours about such a love-child had been going around for quite some time now. That was around the same time as the announcement of Philippe's engagement to jonkvrouw Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz.

In his Christmas speech of December 1999 king Albert admitted that he and his wife had had problems at one point in their marriage. That was no surprise, it had been known for quite some time that the couple had grown apart at one point and that they got together again in the early 1980's.
The way it was said and the timing so close to the revalation of Delphine Boel being the daughter of Albert made it clear that she was and is his daughter.

Albert and Sybille (Delphine's mother) were both married to someone else when they started an affair in 1966. Two years later Dephine was born. Delphine has stated that Albert offered her mother to divorce twice, one time in the 60's and once in the 70's. Sybille refused that, because by then it was known what offers Albert would have to make before he would be allowed the divorce.

Albert's brother, king Boudouin told Albert that if he got a divorce then he would lose his title as Prince of Belgium as well as his place in the order of succession (he was first in line) and that he would lose costody of his three children Philippe, Astrid and Laurent. He would also have to promise that Sybille would never have access to either Philippe, Astrid or Laurent. Sybille didn't want that and moved to London with her daughter.

Delphine only got publicity with her work after the fact that she was Albert's daughter became public knowledge. It has been stated in an interview on VTM's Royalty with an art journalist that Delphine's work isn't top of the arts but that her connection with Albert makes the press go wild.

Yes her art is a way of wanting to connect with her father, but it's clear that she hasn't heard the Dutch expression "you can catch more bees with honey than vinegar" (je vangt meer vliegen met honing dan azijn). Otherwisely said: you can get more done with friendliness and politeness than with anger and publicity.

Legally she hasn't got anything to stand on, Albert can't acknowledge her anymore! It's stated in Belgian civil law that a child born in a marriage that that child is fathered by the woman's spouse unless that spouse claims he's not the father. Jacques Boel never filed a claim that he suspected Delphine not to be his, so therefore Delphine legally is Jacques Boel's daughter.

Besides that there were only two people who could have forced an opening in all of this: and that are Sybille and Delphine themselves!
After Delphine's birth Sybille could have filed a claim stating that her husband wasn't her daughter's biological father. At that point Delphine's birth records would have shown father unknown. Delphine would have been fatherless at that point, but later on claims could have been made or Sybille could have ordered bloodtests. But Sybille decided against it and didn't do anything...

Delphine knew at a very early age that her legal father wasn't her biological father and before she turned 18 in 1986 she could have taken legal action herself in order to get her birth certificate changed, but she didn't do that.

Unfortunatly that are the only times when legally the paternaty can be changed under Belgian law.

As far as I can remember the birth certificate of Alexandre Coste claimed "Father unknown". His mother wasn't married at the time of his birth and no one claimed to be his father, so therefore it was pretty simple for Albert of Monaco to step up and acknowledge him as his son. Don't remember the facts with Jazmin so...

My conclusion: yes she looks like Queen Astrid, but legally she can't do a thing. It's too late for action so now it might be better to stop causing a stirr and keep a low profile. It's always possible that a reaction from the Palace might occur, but for now, all doors are shut.
 
Daphine Boel

:ermm:She claims to be King Abert 2nd of belguim Illegitimate Daughter:belgiumstandard:
 
Are there any news about giving birth to her second child?
 
She doesn't claim it, she IS his daughter
Just look at the pictures, she looks sooooooooooo much like him
I like her

That's the sad and embarrassing part(for Albert, that is) She looks so much like Alberts mother it's just amazing. There is no way to deny that she is his daughter and he would be wise not to try.
 
Reply to Fie

Hi there Fie...I don´t agree with you...how can you demand such things of a young girl!! It´s normal that she now...at an age of 40 years have the strength to deal with this matter. She had been treated real bad...she hasn´t got the LOVE and CARE that a child has RIGHT to get from her real father! It´s very, very bad to act like Albert had done!

Ulf Sawert
 
While it is very sad that Delphine does not have a relationship with her father....she needs to stop acting out (i.e. talking about the lack of relationship with the press) because in my opinion its not going to make Albert seek a relationship with her. I do feel for Paola, to be constantly reminded of your husbands infidelity due to the presence of a child...but its not the child's fault. Delphine didn't ask to be here.

Say what you want about Albert and Bernhard at least they acknolwedged their children (in some form of fashion) and had some type of relationship with them.
 
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