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At one time or another, you've probably stepped onto a dealership lot looking to purchase a car and dealt with a salesman who believed they were better than you, as if they had a divine right to a commission. Maybe they just might. A 26-year-old former car salesman became a Belgian prince last week after a DNA test officially proved his father was Prince Laurent, the younger brother of the reigning King Philippe.
This story might sound ripped straight from "The Princess Diaries," but Belgium is a slightly more legitimate European kingdom than Genovia. Clément Vandenkerckhove had long known that Prince Laurent was his father. Wendy Van Wanten, a Belgian singer and his mother, revealed this information to him when he was 16. According to the BBC, Prince Laurent and Van Wanten were in a relationship during the 1990s before he married Princess Claire in 2003. Any uncertainty over paternity was settled in 2020, after Clément reached out to his father and Prince Laurent suggested they take a DNA test. The results confirmed a 99.5% DNA match.
Vandenkerckhove officially became a Belgian prince in a subdued town hall ceremony six months ago, which only became public knowledge last week. Besides the title and an eventual retirement, not much will change in Clément's life. He won't enter the Belgian line of succession, won't have official duties as a member of the royal family and won't receive a royal allowance.
Cars and philandering as European royal's perfect pairing
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The mystery identity of his father and the later inability to tell anyone his father's identity impacted Vandenkerckhove's mental health throughout his childhood and into his professional life. According to the Times, he said in an interview, "After school, I became a car salesman. I liked that job and did it well. But panic attacks were destroying me." While he no longer sells cars, his anxiety has lessened as he has connected with Prince Laurent, and the two have bonded over their shared love of cars.
Philandering car-loving European royalty isn't anything new. Albert II, Prince of Monaco, has famously continued his family's patronage of Formula 1 and inherited the Grimaldi family's massive collection of vintage cars. The son of Grace Kelly also had an equally impressive series of paternity disputes with two recognized illegitimate children. While par for the course on the Côte d'Azur, things are a bit different in Belgium. King Albert II, Prince Laurent's father, abdicated the Belgian throne in 2013 after he asked to appear in court to settle his own paternity dispute.
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