28/05/2026
In 1999, a teenager unintentionally revealed that the king of Belgium had a secret child...
Just one sentence in 18-year-old Mario Danneels’ unauthorised biography of Belgium’s Queen Paola unleashed a royal scandal.
"Every single magazine had this exploding on the covers, and I was like, "What is happening?'" Mario said.
While researching Queen Paola, he discovered that her husband, King Albert II, had fathered a child outside of his marriage - and journalists went crazy for the story.
“I was just in secondary school. It was extraordinary,” said Mario.
He had begun his book three years earlier as a research project. Each evening after he'd finished his homework, he dedicated his spare time to writing and research. And when he interviewed people, they opened up to him.
"They didn't take me seriously,” he said. “And as a result, told me more than they should have.”
People he spoke to passed on contacts, and before too long, Mario was talking to royal insiders - and discovered there had been problems in the royal marriage. He wanted to know more.
Eventually, a retired senior figure from the palace told him, “Everyone knows Albert has another daughter".
Mario was amazed. But he didn't want to write a scandalous book, so in the end, he just included one sentence, saying Queen Paola's children had a half-sister.
That sentence caused headlines across Europe.
The Belgian media claimed the woman was Delphine Boël, an artist in her late 20s living in London.
When King Albert II abdicated in 2013, it meant he no longer had legal immunity in Belgium. In proceedings against him, Delphine demanded he take a DNA test.
A court ruled he had to pay a fine of 5,000 euros (US$5,700) a day, for every day he refused to take the test.
Finally, he took the test, and in 2020 it was proven that Delphine was his biological daughter.
The seven-year legal battle weighed heavily on Mario.
"I was thinking, what if she loses? What if she fails, and she'll forever be the illegitimate child? She'll always be this stain, this scandal, this taboo. And I thought to myself - you are to blame for that if that happens."
So, when the case was finally resolved, he felt a huge wave of relief. "It was incredible. I was so happy for her," he said.
🎧 Witness History https://bbc.in/4dA9NaP
