Belgian royal family recognises prince's secret son in quiet ceremony

A Belgian car salesman has been granted a royal title after Prince Laurent, the brother of Belgium’s reigning king, formally acknowledged the 26-year-old as his previously undisclosed son.

Clément Vandenkerckhove was legally recognised by 63-year-old Laurent, the second son of Belgium’s former monarch, King Albert II, at a quiet civil town hall ceremony around six months ago, with details of the recognition emerging only this week in Belgian news outlets.

The new prince now has equal inheritance rights to Laurent’s private estate alongside his half-sister, Princess Louise, 20, and half-brothers Prince Nicolas, 20, and Prince Aymeric, 19.

Despite receiving the royal title, Vandenkerckhove will not receive a royal allowance, take on official duties or gain any rights to the Belgian throne.

Vandenkerckhove was born in August 2000 to Belgian singer and socialite Wendy Van Wanten, whose real name is Iris Vandenkerckhove. She and Laurent had a high-profile relationship in the 1990s after meeting at a fashion show in Paris, before Laurent married his current wife, Princess Claire, in 2003.

The royal secret remained undisclosed for years until Vandenkerckhove appeared in a television documentary on Belgian broadcaster VTM last September, where he publicly confirmed that Laurent was his biological father. In the documentary, Vandenkerckhove said his mother told him that Laurent was his father only when he was 16. Several years later, he gathered the courage to reach out to his biological father and eventually conducted a paternity test. 

According to Belgian media, the newly recognised prince has not yet decided whether to adopt his royal father’s surname, Saxe-Coburg.

“If I were to sacrifice that family name, it would be a betrayal of everything my mother has done for me,” he said.

Before becoming a prince, Vandenkerckhove studied graphic design and subsequently worked as a car salesman at an Opel dealership.

Déjà vu of secret offspring

The latest royal family secret echoes Laurent’s own family history. His father, former Belgian King Albert II, spent years fighting a paternity case before acknowledging in 2020 that he had fathered a daughter during an extramarital affair.

Albert II abdicated as King of the Belgians in 2013, as the paternity dispute developed into a major royal scandal, with his eldest son, Philippe, subsequently ascending to the throne.

Royal families across Europe have had to face intense public scrutiny over children born outside marriage at various times, with some cases remaining hidden from the public for years.

A similar situation emerged in Monaco, where reigning Prince Albert II fathered two children from separate relationships before his marriage. One was born to an American waitress and the other to an Air France flight attendant from Togo. The Monegasque prince eventually acknowledged both children when they were 14 and two years old, respectively. He later had two more children with his current wife, Princess Charlene.

By Nazrin Sadigova