Discreet contacts
The arrival of Fabiola meant for Boudewijn the loss of his father and his step mother. He did not show himself with his father in public anymore but there were some discreet contacts. On a day the king went to Argenteuil, he made it clear that he did not want to see anybody there apart from his parents. When he arrived he saw a girl: why don't you stick to what we agreed? He asked. Lilian replied that the girl was his half sister! It came that far!
Informer 1: There still were small moments of contact. Sometimes Albert and Boudewijn would go to Argenteuil and said 'bonjour papa' , sat down and watched television. Either Leopold would fall asleep or he would lecture Boudewijn: you are allowing yourself to be bullied by socialists They are the undertakers of Belgium! The atmosphere was icy.
By the way, at the palace I never heard anybody say that the Flemish are ruining the country. Not Boudewijn, neither Albert, not Leopold. The royal family spoke in french but the atmosphere at the palace was not anti-flemish. No, the antipathy was mainly against the socialists, though they made an exception for somebody like Willy Claes, who could make beautiful music and who had so much common sense.
In the deepest of their hearts the royal family preferred Flanders over Wallonia. Because Flanders was catholic, no nonsense. They understood why these young Flemish men went to the eastern front, under pressure of their pastors: to fight the communists!
Five miscarriages
The first task for a monarch and his wife is to get children. Boudewijn and Fabiola did not succeed in this. Recently the Queen referred to that during a diner: she had 5 miscarriages. CdV remembers: those were very painfull moments. Once pope John XXIII announced the pregnancy while nobody in Belgium knew about it. Eveybody was angry. Prime minister Theo Lefevre solved it well, he said: which woman does not tell this firstly to her priest? The mumbling ended immidiately, but it ended in a miscarriage. It wasn't easy as press secretary to communicate about this. I didn't know the details I once had to call a doctor to ask what that was exactly, a miscarriage.
Informer 1: I remember that sentense they once said:it is impossible for us to get children, but that way we can open ourselves more for other all those children. A beautiful sentense that shows how much they suffered under their childlesness.They were so religious, they accepted their fate as the will of God.
BCdL: These days a couple like that would be able to get children, back then it was very difficult. Kings arent always treated the best way you know, it is delicate for them to leave a specialist, that can attract publicity you see? As a normal patient you are luckier.
CdV: After a visit to Argentina I told scientist Ilya Prigogine that we went to the city of Salta. I know that place he replied, Argentinian women who can not get any children go there. It was halfway the 60-ties, the childlesness became an obsession already.
Informer 1: Fabiola kept on trying, up to a high age. With all the risks. ' Elle risque gros' was said on the palace, and she did of course.
Informer 2 says: miscarriages, they are the big sorrow of her life. If you lose a child over and over again, that hurts. And as mother and queen you will be longing more and more for something you can not get. In your suffering you attach more value to the life of the unborn, esp. when you lost your mother at an early age. All this accumulated led him not to sign the abortion law.
Informer 1: I think esp. Fabiola felt guilty. That was also the reason why king Boudewijn did not take care of his nephews and niece sooner. It went bad from fairly early on between Paola and Albert, it lasted from 1965 to 1983. In 1965 Boudewijn did not look after Filip, he only started that 10 years later, when Filip was 15. He didn't want to hurt Fabiola's feelings. He didn' t want to give the impression that he was adoptig his brothers children, that would have been humiliating for her.
HUMO: but weren't Boudewijn and Fabiola a sort of foster parents for a long time for Filip, Astrid and Laurent?
Informer 1: you can not say it like that. The entire court did something in their upbringing, and the parents where there too of course, every now and than, never together. It was very seldom that Albert and Paola even ate with their children.
HUMO: Rudy Bogaerds said that Fabiola made Filip the shy man that he has become.
Informer 1: Bogaerds was the coach of Laurent, he didn' t know Fabiola and Boudewijn well. He overreacted a bit. Fabiola was for Filip a distant aunt, a grandmother almost. Sometimes he went for diner with Boudewijn and her and the king would speak about his profession. They were never very close with him. Also not with Astrid and Laurent, there was no intimite contact: the children were raised by chauffeurs and governesses.
HUMO: Did Boudewijn and Fabiola have a different kind of contact with Filip than with Laurent?
Informer 1: They never loved Laurent, they mistrusted him. He wasn't treated very well but he was a very unpleasant and unstable child, spoiled. He is dangerous. Astrid they did like, she was calm, docile, very much the style of Laeken. Mathilde has that style now too, she preferably speaks on a whispering tone these days.