Belgian car salesman becomes prince after DNA test proves royal parentage

ninjagoo

So no merit, effort or capability-based gains; instead a straight title, prestige, wealth and inheritance gain through DNA, over which no offspring has any control.

xz18r

I'm Belgian, this has been public knowledge since the guy was born. At least it was dealt with a lot more amicably than the other case (Delphine Boël being the child of King (then Prince) Albert II), which was decades of bad lying and denial.

hrdwdmrbl

I'm king of the world. DM me if you want a title.

acheron

Oh, I saw this one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ralph

johnbarron

I love Hereditary Dentists....

stephbook

> “If I were to sacrifice [my] family name, it would be a betrayal of everything my mother has done for me.” Only a man could entertain this thought.

grubbs

Damn! All those Hallmark movies just became documentaries!

hmokiguess

So he knew when he turned 16 but only got recognized 10 years later. I hope when he was a teenager he got into some friendly brawl and said "Shut up my Dad is the King." and got laughed on and now the other person is seeing the news.

NDlurker

Saxe-Coburg? Are these guys cousins to the British royal family? Time to do some googling

throw21x

weird people are still treating some like kings/gods in this day and age

thomasfl

The Fresh Prince of Bel...gium.

shevy-java

Finally those emails from Nigeria were right after all!

TacticalCoder

As TFA pointed out, it's not the first time in the belgian royal family (which has no power btw and they're not anywhere near as rich as, say, the royal british family). A few years ago it was revealed that Delphine Boel was the daughter of the then belgian king. And contrarily to his son, prince Laurent, who's been classy and accepted immediately the DNA test, the king refused and went to court but lost his case and had to submit to a DNA test. He later on abdicated IIRC. It's interesting to think of the number of kids from kings and princes that, through the ages, never got recognized because DNA tests didn't exist and they could just deny it, even if the offspring was a near identical copy (in the case of the son of prince Laurent: he looks just like his father). But yup in Belgium we've got a monarchy and king/queen/princes/princesses (princes and princesses either from the royal family or not), counts/countesses, dukes, many barons, a lot of knights and some esquires (I think we have esquires). And even more "Madame/Monsieur": people from the nobility but without any title. The title appears on the identity card but that's basically it: it's more of an historical thing than anything else really. Several of my friends hold such titles: it is not uncommon and it brings you exactly jack fucking shit advantage in life (unless you're really from the royal family).

artisinal

Prince Laurent is likely very happy that his son is a completely normal guy. Illegitimate children of royalty typically end up a bit eccentric.

jdeibele

Was reading that many European countries have "forced heirship" which means that varying amounts - 50% to 75% is typical - have to be left to spouse/children. I was representative in the US for my aunt and she and her husband specifically disinherited his two daughters from his first marriage. It was interesting that this was simply not allowed in other countries. Anyway, time to take his dad mountain climbing, caving, scuba diving, ... https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=5d80ec56-4c29...