Who is Princess Delphine of Belgium? The ‘illegitimate love child’ of King Albert II is a controversial artist who fought her father in court for an official royal title
- Her mother Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps had an affair with King Albert while he was married to Paola Ruffo di Calabria, an Italian princess
- She appeared on Dancing with the Stars, her art includes a Lamborghini racing car driven by Esteban Muth, and she’s raised two teen children, Princess Joséphine and Prince Oscar
The story told by Princess Delphine of Saxe-Coburg’s social media accounts is one of love, family and art, as well as an appreciation of all the good (and bad) things in her varied life.
Her background is as colourful and intriguing as her art. She was born Delphine Boël out of wedlock in 1968 after her mother, Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps, had an affair with the former King Albert II of Belgium while he was still married to the Italian princess Paola Ruffo di Calabria.
It was only in 2013 that she began a battle to be recognised as legitimate. “The first time I visited him [King Albert] and his lawyers, he was very nasty and made me cry. I never thought I would go to court. But I did it out of a certain principle,” she shared later in a VTM documentary, according to The Times.
Eventually, in January 2020, Boël prevailed, lawfully becoming a princess of Belgium on October 1, 2020, a moment she marked by changing her Instagram account handle from @delphine_boel to @delphine_de_saxe_cobourg.
But even before becoming a princess, her life was nothing short of a fairy tale in many ways. Don’t believe us?
1. She makes super-controversial art
