A Belgian artist who says she is the daughter of Belgium’s former king yesterday asked a Brussels court to establish the identity of her biological father, a ruling that could put her 15th in line to the throne.
Delphine Boel, 46, has fought for more than a decade to gain the royal family’s acceptance and end what she says is prejudice because of the question over her paternity.
Boel’s lawyer, Alain De Jonge, told Belgian newspaper De Morgen that she was not motivated by money, saying that financially she would be better off as a Boel, a Belgian industrial family worth about $1 billion.
“If the royal family got in a plane together and had an accident or, as in Nepal, were killed by a mad man, then she could be queen. But her ambitions do not stretch that far. It is more about ending a stigma.”
The family law suit hearing was held behind closed doors.