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Belgian King treated me like dirty laundry, says illegitimate daughter
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Last Updated: 2:11am BST 10/04/2008
The illegitimate daughter of the King of the Belgians has claimed that
her father treated her like "dirty laundry".
Delphine, Baroness Bo=EBl, an artist, claims that Albert II has snubbed
her and told her never to contact him again.
Revealing the depth of her feelings in a new book, Cutting the Cord,
she writes: "What sort of father is it who does not live up to his
responsibilities and who does not come to the aid of his daughter when
she is harassed?
"You are responsible for the child you produce. You do not abandon it.
That is what my father has done."
Baroness Bo=EBl also describes herself as being treated like "the King's
dirty laundry" ever since it emerged that she was the result of a
relation****p between the king and her mother Sybille, Baroness de
Selys Longchamps.
She claims that in 1969 - when she was a year old - Albert, who was
then Prince of Liege, considered leaving his wife Paola, now Belgium's
Queen. But she says that her mother persuaded him not to.
King Albert II
Albert II: affair in the 1960s
She and her mother moved to London in 1976, after the Palace
"suggested that it would be desirable that I disappear", she writes.
In 1999 a biography of Queen Paola revealed Baroness Bo=EBl's secret
royal lineage and, as her mother fell seriously ill, the young artist
called the king.
"You must never call me again," she claims he told her. "I want to
hear nothing of this whole thing any more. Besides, you are not my
daughter."
King Albert has acknowledged his extramarital affair in the 1960s but
has never recognised his daughter, while never formally disputing her
claim. He and Queen Paola have three children.
Belgium's Royal Palace had no comment on the latest disclosures.
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