Ex-Belgian King finally agrees to DNA test demanded by secret daughter
King Albert II will take a test to prove if Delphine Boel is his daughter or not (Picture: EPA; AP) ..
Belgiums former King has agreed to a DNA test demanded by a woman who claims to be his daughter.
The test could be a decisive breakthrough in the case that has followed King Albert II, 84, for decades.
Albert, who abdicated in 2013 for health reasons, had been facing a daily fine of 5,000 euro (£4,400) for failing to provide his DNA in the case brought by 51-year-old Delphine Boel.
Ms Boel has been trying to establish paternity for years and her story has often made headlines.
Albert has never publicly denied being her father but so far had refused to provide DNA.
A statement from Alberts lawyer said after the former monarch had taken note of the judgment two weeks ago, which imposed the daily fine, he would submit to the test out of respect to the judicial authorities.
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It was made clear the move did not imply any admission of guilt.
Ms Boels lawyer, Yves-Henri Leleu, said she reacted very positively, because with the DNA test, the biological evidence is now there.
The lawyer for the former monarch said the DNA results would have to be sealed until later in the legal case.
Rumours about Albert and Ms Boels mother, the aristocratic wife of a well-heeled industrialist, had been around for years.
But the news the King may have had a child with her broke out into the open when a biography of Alberts wife, Queen Paola, was published in 1999.
In his Christmas message to the nation that year, King Albert indirectly confessed to a past infidelity and said he and Queen Paola lived through a crisis in the late 1960s that almost wrecked their marriage but that a long while ago they overcame their marital problems.