King’s ‘lovechild banned from gala dinner’

24 June 2005

BRUSSELS — The out-of-wedlock daughter of King Albert, 37-year-old Delphine Boël was not welcome at a gala dinner of the Belgian employers association VBO on Thursday night.
 
In reaction, Belgian press were intensely speculating that her absence was due to the fact Boël’s half-brother Crown Prince Filip was to attend the event with his wife Princess Mathilde.

The presence of Boël was reportedly thought to be too provocative, prompting Boël’s mother to give an angry interview with French-language news service RTBF.

Sybille de Selys-Longchamps was also critical of the fact one of her daughter’s artworks had almost been banned from an exhibition to celebrate 175 years of Belgian independence. The event is being held at the Heizel centre in Brussels.

A Charleroi-based business was told that it might not be appropriate to use at its exhibition stand an artwork made by the king’s out-of-wedlock daughter.

The company also invited Boël to attend the VBO gala dinner at the Heizel. She was to be one of 2,250 guests attending the event.
 
But the firm was also told Boël’s presence would be too provocative, due to the attendance of Prince Filip and his wife.

De Selys-Longchamps said her daughter is being discriminated against and claimed it was not the first time either.

She had an affair with King Albert between 1966 and 1984 and Boël was born in 1968, some eight years after Prince Filip.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Belgian news