All the Royals With (Rumored) Children Out Of Wedlock

It’s apparently an “open secret” (although a paternity test has never been done) that Belgian sculptor Delphine Boël is the daughter of King Albert II of Belgium. The daughter is said to be the result of an affair the king had with Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps.

Delphine says her mother didn’t tell her who her father was until she was 18 years old, and she’s been trying to get in contact ever since. She’s currently in court trying to prove that he’s her father. As of May 2019, King Albert II has agreed to submit a DNA test.

When the book Dramas in the Belgian Royal House came out, it suggested that King Leopold III, who’s the father of Albert II, had an illegitimate daughter.

As the story goes, Leopold got in a car accident in 1935 and lost his wife because of it. After the incident, he then started a relationship with Austrian skating legend Liselotte Landbeck, which brought their daughter, Ingeborg Verdun, into the world.

The Royal Palace in Brussels has yet to comment.

The Duke of Kent, Queen Elizabeth’s uncle, is rumored to have had two illegitimate children.

The first, Michael Temple Canfield, was born from an affair with American socialite Kiki Preston in 1926. He was adopted by Cass Canfield, an American publisher. Prince George’s brother, Edward, the Duke of Windsor, and Laura, Duchess of Marlborough, whom Canfield married in 1960, have hinted to the press about this.

The second child, born in 1929, Raine McCorquodale, is the daughter of author Barbara Cartland, who was still married to her husband Alexander McCorquodale. If the last name McCorquodale sounds familiar to you, that’s because Raine is the stepmother of Princess Diana.

A man named Robert Brown believes Princess Margaret secretly gave birth to him on January 5, 1955, hiding the later stages of her pregnancy with a body double. He claims he was sent to Kenya to be raised because, at the time, the princess was unmarried and getting over her breakup from Peter Townsend. Brown has never been confirmed as the son of Princess Margaret, but even if he was, he’d still have no chance to take the throne.

Spain’s former king Juan Carlos has three kids—Felipe, Princess Elena, and Princess Cristina. Felipe recently took the throne after his father abdicated it. Just a year after Carlos’s abdication, a man and a woman—Alberto Sola and Ingrid Sartiau—came forward to say they believed they were his illegitimate children. The two had been campaigning for years and just wanted Carlos to acknowledge them. Carlos claims to have never cheated on his wife, Queen Sofia.

There’s been speculation that Prince Harry’s father is not actually Prince Charles. It’s believed that Princess Diana was having multiple affairs while still married to the Queen’s oldest son (but Charles was too). In an interview, she’d even confessed to an affair with army officer James Hewitt, to whom people think Harry bears a resemblance. If it were ever confirmed that Charles wasn’t Harry’s father, that would make him an illegitimate royal.

Marina Ogilvy almost tore the British royal family apart with the announcement that she and photographer Paul Mowatt were expecting. Ogilvy’s parents, Sir Angus Ogilvy and Princess Alexandra (the Queen’s cousin), told her she could either have an abortion or marry Mowatt immediately. The parents-to-be were married in February 1990, and their daughter, Zenouska, was born a few months later. While she wasn’t born out of wedlock, Zenouska was most definitely conceived out of it.

Leandro Ruiz, born in 1929 as the illegitimate son of King Alfonso XIII, finally received recognition as a member of the royal family…74 years later. In 2003, a judge ruled that Ruiz was a Bourbon, making him the uncle of Spain’s former king Juan Carlos. The House of Bourbon is a long-standing European royal house of French origins.

Ernest II and Princess Alexandrine of Baden had a childless marriage, although he did have several illegitimate children who were not identified. He is said to have produced three offspring total out of wedlock.

Robert FitzRoy, the 1st Earl of Gloucester, is one of the few confirmed illegitimate children of King Henry I. Henry I had only one legitimate daughter named Matilda but was said to have fathered at least 22 other children while not married. The surname FitzRoy was often used by the illegitimate sons and daughters of a king or queen.

Henry FitzRoy, the first Duke of Richmond and Somerset, was the illegitimate son of King Henry VIII and his mistress Elizabeth Blount. FitzRoy died when he was 17 years old, and the cause of death was never confirmed, although it was speculated that he could have been murdered.

While he was married to Maria Theresa of Spain, he fathered four children with a woman named Catherine-Henriette Bellier, a daughter with Claude de Vin des Œillets, and seven kids with the Marquise de Montespan. In addition to those 12 children born out of wedlock, he had 6 with his wife.

The Danish princess and her royal aid Vilhelm Frimann Marcher were romantically involved, and she wound up pregnant with his baby. Since marriage to him was out of the question, Princess Thyra’s mother devised a plan for her to deliver the baby in Greece. Thyra gave birth to a baby girl, Maria, in 1871. Her name was later changed to Kate after she was adopted by a Greek family.

Bernhard was originally born in Germany, but he married Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, becoming a prince consort. They had four children together. But he wasn’t faithful. Alexia Grinda was the prince’s first known daughter born out of wedlock. Unlike her illegitimate half-sister Alicia (click next to read more), Alexia had a relationship with her father.

Right before his death in 2004, Prince Bernhard admitted to having a second illegitimate daughter. When the news broke, his daughter Alicia de Bielefeld was 50 years old and working in America as an architect. In the revealing interview, the prince said the affair happened during a “major crisis in his marriage.”

Taking the crown (pun intended) for most potential children born out of wedlock was King Charles II. He was married to Catherine of Braganza, but they never had any kids together. All 14 to 17 (the number was never confirmed) of his offspring came from his many mistresses.