Delphine Boël reacted on Wednesday, through her lawyer, to statements by one of the attorneys of Albert II that the king was suffering as a result of the paternity lawsuit she had filed. “My client has taken cognisance of the public statements regarding the suffering felt by Albert II following the legal proceedings between them,” Marc Uyttendaele, one of Delphine Boël’s lawyer, told the Belga news agency. “Her wish was never to hurt anyone and certainly not the person she considers her father.”
"Modesty will not allow her to speak publicly, for the moment, on the effects this situation is having on her family,” Uyttendaele said. “She regrets more than anyone that what should have been a private matter is forcibly sparking public debates. And she is striving to protect her family from the latter.”
He added that his client also “regrets that the procedural choices of King Albert II have drawn out considerably the resolution of this dispute.”
On Wednesday, Guy Hiernaux, one of Albert II’s lawyers, said his client was worn out and “suffering enormously from this lawsuit”, adding that he had been “persecuted” in this way for many years.
In a ruling issued on Thursday last, the Brussels Court of Appeal ordered King Albert II to undergo a paternity test immediately in connection with the paternity suit initiated by Boël.
Delphine Boel filed suit in 2013 to be recognised as the daughter of Albert II, with whom her mother, Sybille de Sélys Longchamps, had a relationship in the 1960s.
The Appeal Court ordered that the DNA test must remain secret until a decision by the Court of Cassation, which has to rule on the legality of another ruling by the Appeal Court, which had found that Jacques Boel was “no longer” Delphine’s father.
The Brussels Times
