The Privileged Lives of Europe’s Royal Love Children: From Car Salesman to Belgian Prince

A former car salesman has now been officially recognized as a prince after his father, Prince Laurent of Belgium, acknowledged him as his son. The revelation about the secret child coincides with the period in which Laurent began his relationship with his British wife, back in the 1980s, as he was romantically involved with a pop singer from that era.

At 26, Clement Vandenkerckhove finds himself among a select group of European royal offspring born from unconventional circumstances. These individuals often reap certain advantages from being the progeny of royalty, albeit illegitimately.

While the new royal family member, who is the nephew of Belgium’s King Philippe, will not receive a royal stipend or position in the official line of succession, other similar cases, such as Prince Albert of Monaco’s children, have been known to receive financial support.

Clement arrived into the world in 2000, marking the same year Prince Laurent, now 62, reportedly began his long-standing marriage with Claire Coombs. Claire, who shares British and Belgian heritage, was born in Bath and has been part of Laurent’s life for 23 years.

Although Prince Laurent’s past involvement with Smith’s mother, Wendy Van Wanten, an ’80s pop icon, was never officially acknowledged, the pair were seen publicly together at high-profile events during the late ’90s. Notably, they both attended the wedding of Prince Edward and Duchess Sophie.

But Prince Clement is by no means the only living royal love child. Prince Albert fathered two children before his marriage to Princess Charlene in 2011, whom he shares twins Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques with.

And closer to home, Captain Mark Phillips had a child with a New Zealand art teacher while still married to Princess Anne.

Read on to discover all the current, illegitimate royal children of Europe…

CAR SALESMAN TURNED PRINCE

The illegitimate son of Prince Laurent of Belgium has officially been given a royal title after his father publicly admitted to having a secret child with an 80s pop singer the same year he started dating his British wife.

Clement Vandenkerckhove, a 26-year-old former car salesman, is now legally a prince, according to town hall records seen by Soir Mag. 

King Philippe of Belgium’s younger brother Laurent had reportedly acknowledged the paternity in February. 

But despite the title, Clement will not receive a royal allowance nor will he appear in the line of succession. 

He had even posed for a photo with the royal earlier this summer for a sweet Father’s Day post, recognising both his dad and his mother’s husband Frans Vancoppenolle.

‘Today I celebrate two fathers who, each in their own way, play an important role in my life,’ he penned. ‘Thank you for everything. Happy Father’s Day!’ 

Last year Clement Vandenkerckhove identified himself in a documentary, confirming speculation that has been rife in local media for years.

He described the moment his mother told him the truth about his father, recalling: ‘She said, “Your daddy is a prince. Your daddy is that man.”‘ 

Prince Laurent, 62, himself confirmed the news in a statement, saying: ‘With this announcement, I acknowledge that I am the biological father of Clement Vandenkerckhove. We have spoken openly and honestly about this in recent years.

‘This announcement is based on a sense of understanding and respect for those involved. It is the result of joint consultation.

‘I kindly request that you receive this information with the discretion that the nature of this intimate matter requires. I will not make any further statements or provide any further explanation on this matter.’

Clement was born in 2000, the same year that Prince Laurent is understood to have met his wife of 23 years, Claire Coombs, who was born in Bath to a British father and Belgian mother. 

The Prince’s relationship with Clement’s mother, 80s popstar Wendy Van Wanten, was never officially confirmed, but the pair were spotted at events together in the late 1990s. Notably, they attended Prince Edward and Duchess Sophie’s wedding.

The Daily Mail contacted the Belgian Royal Family for comment at the time. It is understood that the line of succession will not be affected by the announcement, which comes five years after Prince Laurent’s father, King Albert II, publicly acknowledged his own love child, Princess Delphine.

ARTIST TURNED PRINCESS

Princess Delphine, 58, was born from an 18-year affair between King Albert II of Belgium, 92, who abdicated in 2013, and Belgian aristocrat Sybille de Selys Longchamps.

For decades, the former monarch distanced himself from his daughter and her mother to preserve his marriage.

After Princess Delphine was born in 1968, the King initially remained in frequent contact with his child and her mother. But when Delphine reached her 16th birthday, the King began to distance himself.

In 2013, the same year King Albert abdicated the throne due to health reasons and was succeeded by his son King Philippe, Princess Delphine launched a legal bid to be officially recognised as Albert’s daughter – which she won in October 2020.

Now, Delphine has the right to bear the royal name de Saxe-Cobourg and is formally recognised as a member of the Belgian royal family as are her two children Princess Joséphine of Belgium and Prince Oscar of Belgium, who she shares with partner James O’Hare.

Speaking to Tatler in 2023, the princess, who is an artist, revealed her father’s rejection when she was young still hurts, but added she doesn’t blame him and holds no ill-will towards him.

She argued that royal life is ‘isolating’ and she believed her father had been badly advised at the time. However, she said, ‘You don’t just have a child and kick it.’

Reflecting on her seven-year legal battle, Delphine said the action she brought was not about money or status but ‘principles’.

Delphine has started attending royal engagements and said her relationship with her father has healed after years of bitterness.

When she launched her legal action in 2013, she told Belgian radio show Matin Premiere, ‘I feel like I have a right to exist. Not to exist in the royal family but as me.

‘My decision to call for help through the law, I feel today that it was the right thing to do… The judicial system said that I was right and that I had the right to exist.’

Since the legal action has been settled, Princess Delphine has slowly become integrated into the Belgian royal family.

She met her brother, King Philippe of Belgium, who is one of 20 Belgian royals she is related to – in 2020, where they posted a socially distanced picture to Facebook, describing it as a ‘warm meeting.’

When she was granted her royal title Princess Delphine was also invited to Belvédère Castle in Brussels where she had an official meeting with her father and his wife Queen Paola.

She told a Belgian broadcaster in an interview that was recorded five years ago, but was only released in 2025: ‘Has the wound completely disappeared? No. A wound like that never completely disappears and becomes a scar. 

‘But the more I put myself in my mother’s or my father’s shoes – not completely, but I understand it better.

‘It became clear to me why and how things happened. And why it was such a long road, when it didn’t have to be that way. And when you understand that, you realise you can’t put all the blame on them.’

FLIGHT ATTENDANT AND MONACO PRINCE’S SON

Alexandre Grimaldi, 23, is the love child of Prince Albert of Monaco and Air France flight attendant turned fashion designer Nicole Coste.

Coste gave birth to her son in August 2003, two years before Albert, then heir to the Monegasque throne, started dating Princess Charlene, who he went on to marry in 2011. 

Nicole and Albert had dated for five years and the Togo-born beauty had made public appearances with her royal beau and even met his late father, Rainier III.

But Alexandre’s existence was only made public in May 2005 when Nicole gave an explosive tell-all interview to French magazine Paris Match, claiming her then two-year-old son was Albert’s.

Two months later, shortly before he was enthroned, Albert confirmed he had fathered Alexandre. The following year he also admitted he had a daughter Jazmin Grimaldi, now 34, born to American Tamara Rotolo in 1992.

In the decades since the 2005 interview, Nicole has raised Alexandre and his older half-brothers in Geneva, London and New York, and chosen to stay largely out of the spotlight.

Coste left Africa at just 15. One of five children, she was determined to make a better life for herself and so travelled to Paris to study. Her liaison with the Prince became the best-kept secret among Monaco society. 

Although they both attended red carpet events and mixed with socialites and celebrities, the majority of Albert’s subjects knew nothing of the relationship. However their initial passion waned and the relationship petered out. But in its final days, Nicole discovered she was pregnant. 

Nicole gave birth to Alexandre in August 2003 and in December that year Alexandre was officially recognised by Albert as his son, Nicole told Paris Match. 

Speaking previously, Coste said she spoke out because there had been an issue with obtaining the documentation proving Albert had recognised Alexandre as his son, which she wanted to rectify. 

On 6 July 2005, less than a week before he was enthroned on 12 July, the Prince officially confirmed via his lawyer that Alexandre was his.  

In the same interview, Nicole explained Albert has been a constant presence in his son’s life, despite reports to the contrary, and had been involved in everything from his education to his birthday parties.

‘Albert made a commitment from the start to be present, and to gradually bring his son into his family,’ she said, in an interview translated from French.

‘Very quickly, I was reassured when Princess Stephanie became Alexander’s godmother. Albert has honored his promise: things are building well and running their course, which I am delighted with.’

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However, there’s been no love lost between Nicole and former Olympic swimmer Princess Charlene, particularly over claims that she put Alexandre in the palace’s staff wing before her £53 million wedding in 2011.

Coste has often referred to Alexandre as ‘Paternally king’, a label he appears to embrace, as he has voiced his annoyance at being referred to as illegitimate. 

‘When I was born, neither of my parents were in another marriage, and they did not commit adultery,’ he said.

Both Alexandre and his sister Jazmin Grimaldi were struck off Monaco’s line of succession in return for financial settlements. 

OPERA SINGER WHOSE FATHER IS A PRINCE 

A DNA test back in May 2006 confirmed Prince Albert of Monaco was the father of Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, the result of an affair with Tamara Rotolo, an American estate agent he met while she was on holiday in the South of France. 

Her mother, then a waitress, had a fling with the monarch back in 1991, while on vacation. Jazmin was born in 1992. Now a real estate agent, Tamara took her daughter to California with her and she only met her father aged 11. 

Talking about meeting her father for the first time, Jazmin said back in 2015: ‘I wanted that moment to connect with my father, to get to know him, and to have him get to know me,’ Jazmin, a trained opera singer, said.

‘Not having had that figure around, I missed that. It’s wonderful that it happened when it did, and we’ve been enjoying a great relationship ever since.’ 

While Jazmin is the daughter of Prince Albert, she is not in the line of succession to the Monegasque throne due to being born out of wedlock.

She grew up in Palm Desert, California, and when she was younger her mother would reportedly show her pictures of her paternal grandmother – Grace Kelly – an American film actress and Princess of Monaco, and Albert’s mother.

‘One of my first and fondest memories involving my grandmother was watching High Society’ she told Harper’s Bazaar in 2015, speaking of the 1956 musical, in which Kelly starred alongside Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

‘It was the first time I realized we had a connection. I’m passionate about acting, singing, and dancing,’ added Jazmin. ‘I saw that in her in this movie. It was a real goose-bumps moment for me.’

While she is not in line to the throne, her father has said that his children will be taken care of financially, and stand to inherit part of his personal fortune thought to be more than $1 billion.

Despite her mother being open about her lineage, she did not connect with her father until she was 11 – visiting Monaco for the first time, saying she has enjoyed a great relationship with him ever since, and previously said she has developed a bond with Albert and his wife – Princess Charlene.

According to Article 10 of Monaco’s constitution, out-of-wedlock children are not in the line of succession to the principality’s throne. It specifies that only ‘direct descendants’ of Monaco’s monarch or siblings may inherit it.

Extramarital children are common among the ruling family of Monaco, with every Grimaldi generation for 100 years acknowledging a child that did not have legitimacy of birth.

Some of those children have gained succession rights through legitimization or adoption – including Princess Charlotte – but Jazmin could not have been legitimized because her mother’s divorce proceedings were not finalized by the time of her birth – and therefore even the subsequent marriage of her biological parents would not have been enough.

Furthermore, in 2002 Albert’s father Prince Rainier III (and Grace Kelly’s husband) made obtaining succession rights through adoption impossible with a modification to the constitution.

Her first on-screen performance was a role as a cashier in the TV series ‘Jay & Pluto’ in 2016, and in December 2019, she released her first single titled ‘Fearless’.

CAPTAIN MARK PHILLIPS AND HIS DAUGHTER 

Felicity Wade (née Tonkin), love child of The Princess Royal’s ex-husband Captain Mark Phillips, lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

It is thought the 40-year-old has had little to no contact with the Phillips family – including Princess Anne’s two children Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall – after growing up believing her father was dead until the age of eight – a lie her mother had reportedly gone along with on the advice of one of Mark’s aides. 

Felicity was the result of a one-night stand between Captain Phillips and New Zealand art teacher Heather Tonkin in an Auckland hotel room in 1984 while he was still married to Princess Anne.

Married to Tristan Wade, an accomplished British polo player who has previously played in front of the late Queen and Prince Philip at Windsor, Felicity, herself a keen rider, like her half-sister Zara, is a specialist equine vet.

The couple share a son, called James, thought to be around nine years old, and at one point lived in a ten-acre, £1.5million property with a string of horses near Felicity’s childhood home, where her mother Heather lives.

Though Felicity was born just four years apart from Zara, the pair are not believed to have been in contact, nor reportedly has Peter, who in stark contrast, has previously been described by his other half-sibling, Stephanie, as the ‘best big brother out there’.

Stephanie Hosier (née Phillips), 28, the daughter of Captain Phillips and his Hawaiian-born second wife, Sandy Pflueger, is thought to be remarkably close to both Princess Anne’s children.

Felicity’s grandmother, Dr Shirley Tonkin, told the Daily Mail at the time of Zara and Mike Tindall’s wedding in 2011: ‘Zara has never been in touch with her – nobody has.’ 

She continued: ‘She’s very happy leading her own life, so I don’t think they’ll be watching – they didn’t even watch William and Kate’s wedding.’

Captain Phillips divorced Princess Anne in 1992 after 19 years of marriage. The couple were wed at Westminster Abbey on November 14, 1973, and an estimated 500 million people watched their ceremony. 

Four years later, they welcomed their son, Peter, before the Princess Royal gave birth to their youngest child, Zara. 

In 1985, Captain Phillips fathered his love child, Felicity, with New Zealand art teacher, Heather. They met in 1983 when she attended a riding clinic he held in New Zealand. 

They met again the following year and spent the night together at his hotel – while he was still married to Princess Anne.

Ms Tonkin has previously said she was ‘infatuated’ with the princess’s husband and her diary entry for that night was filled with kisses formed into the shape of a horseshoe. 

The following month she discovered she was pregnant but when she rang the captain at his marital home, Gatcombe Park, he reportedly urged her to get an abortion, she claimed. She decided to go it alone and Felicity was born in August 1985.

Later, however, Ms Tonkin decided to seek financial support for her daughter and Captain Phillips secretly paid her £6,000-a-year maintenance for the next five years, which he wrote off as an ‘equestrian consultancy’.

However, when payments became erratic and the Captain apparently refused to be named on his daughter’s birth certificate, Ms Tonkin engaged lawyers and, in 1991, finally spoke in public. The result was a furore. 

Phillips and Anne had separated by then but courtiers grew increasingly alarmed at the damaging effect the scandal might have on a monarchy already reeling from stories of marital discord between Charles, then the Prince of Wales, and Diana.

Defending her decision to make the matter public and threaten Phillips with court action, Ms Tonkin said in an interview in 1991: ‘I am doing what I am doing for my child. I hope and pray Mark will do the right thing and make a proper and legally binding settlement on her.

‘I wish I could wake up one morning in the knowledge that the record had been put straight and I don’t have to worry any more.’

Felicity, known throughout her childhood as Bunny, would also grow up to share her father’s love of horses and with her blonde hair and blue eyes, there were startling similarities between her and Phillips’ other daughter, her half-sister Zara, only four years older.

Ms Tonkin, who was 32 when she fell for Captain Phillips, said at the time: ‘Nothing can compensate for the tears I have cried while trying to plan for Bunny’s future, when at any moment I could find myself penniless. 

‘Bunny throws her arms around me to comfort me, asking why I am sad. But I have never been able to tell her. My ambition is to get Mark’s public acceptance of her and to be able to enter his name on her birth certificate.

‘She thinks her father is dead. She is entitled to know the truth.’

It was all the more embarrassing for the Royal Family when it emerged that the Captain’s aide had tried to force the child’s mother to keep quiet. 

Ms Tonkin, after taking advice from her lawyers, taped five phone calls with Phillips’s business agent, during which he dismissed her concerns and threatened to sue her if she tried to put his name on the birth certificate. In one, the agent tells her: ‘If you want to cause a flap, everyone’s just going to deny it.’

He warned her that the ‘clout’ lay with Phillips and added: ‘When this thing hits the fan, your daughter’s life will be ruined.’

Instead of a formal agreement, the agent referred to a ‘gentleman’s agreement’, offering the so-called consultancy fees, an arrangement Heather referred to as ‘hush money’. And even this stalled when Felicity reached school age. 

Taking the advice of one of Phillips’s aides, Heather had taken the heart-rending step of bringing up Felicity to believe that her father was dead. Only when she was eight years old and conducting a school project on her family history, did Heather feel compelled to tell her daughter the truth.

Realising the lie could not continue, she showed her daughter a biography of Mark Phillips written by newsreader Angela Rippon.

Not that the truth did much to comfort Felicity, who had learned that her father wanted nothing to do with her and would never send her a birthday card or enquire about her health. 

A DNA test in 1991 confirmed Phillips as her father, paving the way for a reported £350,000 settlement from Phillips, money which helped pay for fees at one of Auckland’s finest private schools and some profitable property investments to secure Felicity’s future. 

The agreement also barred her from ever again publicly associating her name or Felicity’s with Olympic gold medallist Phillips, who has never openly acknowledged his daughter. 

‘[Felicity] has really had a lovely middle-class upbringing,’ her grandmother said. ‘She played a lot of sports at school but she loves horses and went to pony club. She had a lot of fun and won the odd ribbon but she doesn’t compete.’