Delphine Boël - Astro-narrative of Belgium’s royal love child scandal
by Frank C. Clifford
I became famous by shame. I was the dirty laundry of King Albert.
So said Delphine Boël, the secret love child of Albert
II, King of Belgium. Her struggle for acceptance and her royal birthright
were an ongoing media story for over 20 years – one that was only brought
to a conclusion recently in an unprecedented, highly-publicised fashion.
Delphine’s natal Mars–Saturn conjunction speaks of her long-term fight for respect while her Pisces-infused t-square (Sun in Pisces opposite Jupiter, both square to Neptune in Scorpio on the MC) aptly reflects the mystery parent, her father’s escape of responsibility, the rumour and speculation surrounding her parentage (MC–IC), as well as her decades-long crusade to be believed, accepted and given the royal title due to her. (The name ‘Delphine’ has Sun–Pisces/Sun–Neptune connotations, being linked to the religious, divinatory sanctuary of Delphi dedicated to the Greek god Apollo.)
The seeds of the scandal were planted a short while after the fairytale wedding of Albert, then Prince Albert, and Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria on 2 July 1959. Albert had taken a mistress, Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps, who was married to a billionaire steel magnate. The love story lasted 18 years and produced a daughter, Delphine, in 1968. (According to Delphine, the Baroness ended the affair to protect the monarchy after Albert had shared his plans to divorce Paola and marry her.)
At 17, Delphine learned that Albert was her
real father (the pairings of Venus and Mercury, Mars and the North Node,
and Uranus and the zenith are all 17 degrees apart). The year 1985 was
also a time when transiting Uranus crossed back and forth over her Moon
in Sagittarius.
Eight years later, on 31 July 1993, and after 42 years on the throne, Albert’s brother King Baudouin died childless. Albert was sworn in before parliament on 9 August 1993 during his second Saturn return, two weeks before his Jupiter return, and at the time of the monumental conjunction of Uranus and Neptune (close to Delphine’s Ascendant degree).
In 1997, a magazine in Belgium reported that Delphine, now a recognised sculptor and artist, was the King’s illegitimate daughter, but it took two years before the story gained momentum. Sixteen-year-old researcher Mario Danneels (born 21 March 1981) had been granted access to the royal household to write about Queen Paola and, during various interviews, a former courtier revealed the royal scandal. In a slightly cryptic, single sentence in his book, the teenage writer shared what was an open secret in many circles. (Danneels was born with Uranus at 29°59’ Scorpio, exactly conjunct the monarch’s MC, and Mercury on Delphine’s Sun and Mars conjunct her Mars in Aries.)
Upon the publication of the book (19 October 1999), the press now had an excuse to run with the scandalous story and to descend onto Delphine’s home in London. It was days before the Full Moon at 1° Taurus, close to where the King’s natal Uranus is placed, where transiting Jupiter was, and where solar arc Saturn had reached. Royal (and publicity-fond) Jupiter had directed to oppose the King’s Sun in the 5th house of children and love affairs, the Saturn–Uranus square hooked into his nodal axis, and transiting Neptune was on his solar arc Midheaven (the degree of Delphine’s Venus). For Delphine, her life would never be the same again (SA Sun was conjunct Mars, and her SA nodes aligned with her natal MC–IC axis).
Delphine reached out to her father. She
asked for protection for her mother from intrusive journalists. King
Albert allegedly replied, “Leave me alone with that story. You are
not my daughter”. Branded a troublemaker by the public and vilified
by some of the press, Delphine retreated from view but eventually sought
to redress the snub. Six years later she gave her first interview, then
published a book in April 2008 (as tr Pluto crossed the SA MC) but it
wasn’t until June 2013 that she took the extraordinary step of
summoning the King to appear in court. As monarch, complete immunity
protected Albert at the time but his persistent love child pursued the
case after his abdication on 21 July that year (as SA Uranus squared his
Moon, and transiting Uranus was close to his SA Ascendant).
A court ruled against Delphine in March 2017, but the tenacious, gutsy woman won the final few rounds. On 25 October 2018, just after SA Neptune crossed Albert’s MC and the month of his Uranus return, the abdicated monarch was ordered by the Court of Appeal to undergo DNA testing. Humiliated, he refused to do so – until a Belgian court ruled that he would be fined €5000 a day until he complied.
On 27 January 2020, a royal press release confirmed that Delphine was his daughter: “King Albert now has four children”. Transiting Jupiter was at 12° Capricorn, the degree of Delphine’s SA Midheaven. On 1 October 2020, as tr Jupiter crossed her Ascendant and SA Uranus reached her MC, a ruling officially recognised Delphine as a princess of Belgium, ending an embarrassing, retracted royal saga that could have been handled so very differently from the start.
Image sources:
Delphine Boel: Luc Van Braekel, CC BY 2.0
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia
Commons
King Albert II: Voka Kamer van Koophandel Limburg, CC BY 2.0
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia
Commons
Charts provided by the author, data from Astrodatabank, Rodden rating:
AA
Published by: The Astrological Journal, Jan/Feb 2021
Author:
Frank
Clifford was honoured with The Charles Harvey Award for
Exceptional Service to Astrology in 2012, a writing award from
ISAR in 2016, and a Regulus Award nomination in 2018. His
books include the interpretation manual, Getting to the Heart of Your
Chart, and a guide to forecasting, The Solar Arc Handbook.
Frank teaches astrology and palmistry online and in person, and his
courses are also available in Chinese, Japanese, and Turkish. To sign up
for free videos, articles, news and live Q&As, please visit londonschoolofastrology.com.
© Frank C. Clifford, 2021
