A Belgian car salesman has gained a royal title after Prince Laurent formally recognized 26-year-old Clément Vandenkerckhove as his previously undisclosed son.
Laurent, 63, the younger brother of King Philippe, legally acknowledged Vandenkerckhove as his son and heir during a low-key town hall ceremony roughly six months ago, though the details have only now come to light, The Telegraph reported Wednesday.
The recognition gives the newly titled prince the same inheritance rights to Laurent’s private estate as his half-siblings: Princess Louise, 20, Prince Nicolas, 20, and Prince Aymeric, 19.
His new status, however, does not come with a royal allowance, official palace responsibilities or any claim to the Belgian throne.
Vandenkerckhove has yet to decide whether he will adopt Laurent’s Saxe-Coburg family name.
“I might want to do that, but I am proud of the name Vandenkerckhove,” he recently told Het Nieuwsblad.
“If I were to sacrifice that family name, it would be a betrayal of everything my mother has done for me.”
The long-running royal secret became public last September, when Vandenkerckhove appeared in a documentary on Belgian network VTM and confirmed that Laurent was his biological father.
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 he married Princess Claire in 2003.
In the documentary, Vandenkerckhove said his mother finally told him Laurent was his father when he was 16.
Four years later, he worked up the nerve to call the prince, and the pair eventually took a DNA test that showed a 99.5 percent match.
“We went to the hospital together and I remember him saying ‘I’ll go first so you’re feeling at ease,’” Vandenkerckhove told VTM.
Laurent later confirmed that Vandenkerckhove was his biological son, saying they had been having “open and honest conversations” privately in recent years.
Vandenkerckhove had actually crossed paths with Laurent at a shopping center in 2013, without realizing the man was his biological father.
Before becoming a prince, Vandenkerckhove worked as a car salesman at an Opel dealership in Deinze, building a life far removed from the Belgian royal family, according to Het Nieuwsblad.
He studied graphic design and is known for his love of fast cars and horses.
The latest royal family secret echoes Laurent’s own family history.
His father, former King Albert II, 92, spent years fighting a paternity battle before admitting in 2020 that he had fathered a daughter during an affair.
Delphine Boël, 58, eventually won her legal fight and was granted the title of princess.
She now uses the name Delphine de Saxe-Coburg.
