A new chapter of unpublicized change has emerged in Belgium’s royal household, more than half a year after Prince Laurent quietly completed legal proceedings to recognize 26-year-old Clément Vandenkerckhove as his biological son and official heir. Details of the quiet town hall ceremony held six months ago have only recently come to light, shedding new light on the decades-long secret relationship between the royal and Belgian singer Wendy Van Wanten, whose real name is Iris Vandenkerckhove.
Clément’s journey to becoming an officially recognized prince is a years-long story of gradual connection. Born out of Prince Laurent’s relationship before his 2003 marriage to Princess Claire, Clément grew up unaware of his father’s true identity. It was not until he turned 16 that his mother revealed the royal lineage running through his blood. A chance unexpected encounter with Prince Laurent in a Belgian shopping center in 2013 passed without Clément recognizing who the man in front of him was. Four years after learning his father’s identity, Clément gathered the courage to reach out by phone, and a series of conversations eventually led to an in-person meeting. To confirm their biological connection, the pair agreed to take a DNA test at a local hospital. Clément later recalled that Prince Laurent volunteered to give his sample first to put him at ease. When the results came back, they confirmed a 99.5% match, cementing their paternal bond.
Now formally recognized as a prince of Belgium, Clément’s new status comes with significant limitations. Unlike Prince Laurent’s three children with Princess Claire – Princess Louise, Prince Aymeric and Prince Nicolas – Clément holds no place in Belgium’s official line of royal succession. He also will not participate in any official public engagements on behalf of the monarchy, and per Belgian royal financial rules, he will not receive any annual public royal allowance, a provision that aligns with 2013 changes to Belgian law that restrict public royal funding to only a small circle of core royal family members: currently King Philippe, former King Albert II, Prince Laurent himself, and Princess Astrid.
The 26-year-old former car salesman, who rose to public attention after a Flemish VTM documentary chronicled his story last September, has made clear he holds complicated feelings about adopting his father’s family name, Saxe-Coburg. In an interview with local newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, Clément explained that while he has not ruled out taking the royal name in the future, he remains deeply proud of his existing surname Vandenkerckhove, which he shares with his mother. Giving up that name, he said, would feel like a betrayal of everything his mother has done for him over the course of his life.
This recognition echoes a high-profile paternity case that rocked the Belgian monarchy just a few years ago, involving Prince Laurent’s own father, former King Albert II. After a years-long public legal battle, King Albert II formally acknowledged in 2020 that he had fathered an out-of-wedsted daughter, artist Delphine Boël, during an extra-marital affair. Boël eventually won her court fight for official recognition, gained the title of princess, and now uses the royal surname Saxe-Coburg. The ongoing paternity scandal was one of the key factors that led Albert II to abdicate the Belgian throne in favor of his son Philippe in 2013, marking a major turning point in modern Belgian royal history.