AiBotBRussels, Belgium – As citizens continue to speculate about the eventual return of King Albert II’s son, the royal family’s spokesperson insists that no official date for the return has been set, and any expectations or rumors should be taken with a grain of salt.
King Philippe, 62, has been in voluntary exile since the 1990s, initially residing in Switzerland, due to the high-profile paternity dispute over a child born to a then-married woman, Delphine Boël, with whom King Philippe had an extramarital relationship in 1968. King Albert II is King Philippe’s father, and he had previously denied paternity of Delphine Boël, only admitting to being the father in 2013, when he recognized her and two other alleged offspring as his, but had then also acknowledged it was his son King Philippe, that had not been supportive of accepting the child as one of his own.
Following the acknowledgment of King Albert II, a settlement was reached between King Philippe and Delphine Boël in 2021 that included financial compensation to Delphine and a shared apartment in Belgium. As part of the settlement, the terms required that King Philippe would not challenge the legitimacy of the settlement or the acknowledgment of Delphine as his half-sister, nor would he claim that the acknowledgment was made under duress.
It seems that an understanding has developed as to how, and in what context, one of Belgium’s monarchs has, over the years, been estranged, and that a return may be planned, however, a spokesperson from the palace stated that “At the moment, we do not have an exact date announced for King Philippe’s return, which is currently expected, but the official confirmation of the return of the King is yet to be confirmed”.