Prince Laurent of Belgium has publicly acknowledged fathering a 25-year-old son, telling the Belgian news agency Belga on Tuesday that he "publicly recognizes" the young man as his child.
The prince, 61, said the son is Clement Vandenkerckhove, whom he fathered with Belgian actress and singer Wendy van Wanten, whose legal name is Iris Vandenkerckhove. Laurent becomes a father of four; he and his wife Claire Coombs, married in 2003, have three children together — Princess Louise, 21, and 19-year-old twins Prince Nicolas and Prince Aymeric. The admission, he and aides said, does not affect the line of succession to the Belgian throne.
Rumors about Laurent's paternity circulated in Belgium for years, with speculation that he had fathered a child before his 2003 marriage. The confirmation follows decades in which members of the Belgian royal family have faced similar questions about private relationships and offspring.
Clement Vandenkerckhove, now 25, has not been a public member of the royal household. Media reports identified his mother as Wendy van Wanten, 65, who has had a long career as an entertainer in Belgium. Laurent’s statement to Belga was short and formal, stating that he publicly recognizes his paternity of Clement.
The revelation echoes a high-profile paternity case involving Laurent’s father, former King Albert II. In 2020, Albert, who abdicated in 2013, was legally recognized as the father of Delphine Boël after a Brussels court ordered DNA testing and subsequent rulings granted her royal titles. Delphine, now Princess Delphine, had pursued a legal claim for recognition for years; a 2020 court of appeal decision granted her the same titles and privileges as Albert’s other children.
That earlier case drew attention across Belgium and abroad for its legal and personal dimensions, including the court-ordered DNA test and the years-long dispute over private relationships within the royal family. Belgian succession laws and the structure of the monarchy mean that such private acknowledgments do not automatically change the formal order of succession, a point officials reiterated after Laurent’s announcement.
Palace spokespeople did not immediately provide additional details about plans for Clement’s public role, if any, or about any formal changes in household arrangements. The royal palace has increasingly sought to handle such matters with brief official statements in recent years.
Prince Laurent, the younger brother of King Philippe, has had a lower public profile than other members of the family in recent years but remains a public figure whose personal life has attracted media attention. King Albert and Queen Paola are also parents to Princess Astrid, 63. The family’s handling of past paternity controversies had prompted public discussion in Belgium about privacy, inheritance and the constitutional role of the monarchy.
The admission closes a chapter of speculation about Clement’s parentage that had circulated in Belgian media and society for more than two decades. Officials and aides to the royal household indicated that the recognition was a private family matter that was now being acknowledged publicly, and they emphasized that Belgium’s constitutional arrangements and succession rules remain unchanged.