Royals with children born out of wedlock | Gallery

It’s always fun to watch the royal families grow up (hello Louis, Charlotte and George!). But what about the children who were conceived outside the royal wedding? Join Wonderwall.com as we take a look at the royals around the world who have recognized their illegitimate children… Prince Albert and Princess Charlene said ‘yes’ in 2011, and three years later, they welcomed twins. But before being dad to Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques, Albert had two children with two different women. Today, while his marriage has had its ups and downs, the Monegasque monarch maintains solid relations with his illegitimate children: his daughter Jazmin Grace Grimaldi and his son Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste.

Read on to see adult Jazmin and Alexander, along with other royals who have had children out of wedlock …

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Jazmin Grace Grimaldi was born in 1992 after Prince Albert had a brief relationship with his mother, Tamara Rotolo. More than a decade later, in 2003, Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste was born to the flight attendant Nicole Coste. Although he initially kept Jazmin a secret and denied Alexander’s paternity until a DNA test proved otherwise, Albert kissed his two eldest children, even publicly dating Jazmin, who is now an actress and singer. Read on to see his half-brother …

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Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste’s mother is Nicole Coste, who was involved with Prince Albert for years before her marriage to former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock. Albert confirmed he was Alexander’s biological father in May 2005, just before his induction as Prince of Monaco. In 2021, Nicole told Paris Match that Albert has maintained a constant presence in her son’s life, including throwing him a lavish party in August 2021 to celebrate his 18th birthday. Half-siblings Jazmin Grace Grimaldi and Alexandre are close as they happily posed together at the party in a series of cute snaps she shared on Instagram.

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Captain Mark Phillips, the first husband of Queen Elizabeth II’s daughter, Princess Anne (seen here on their wedding day in 1973), became a father to daughter Felicity Tonkin in 1985 after an extramarital affair with the professor of New Zealand art Heather Tonkin. The captain was confirmed to be her father in a paternity claim in 1991. He and Anne divorced a year later. Her indiscretion made headlines again when New Zealand-based Felicity, who is the half-sister to royals Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, welcomed her first child, a son, in 2017.

Marina Ogilvy, goddaughter of Prince Charles and daughter of Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin, Princess Alexandra, sparked a major royal scandal in 1989 when she learned she was expecting with her photographer boyfriend Paul Mowatt, a commoner who is the son of a Scottish trumpeter. They got married while she was expecting, and their daughter Zenouska was born a few months later. Marina (pictured with Paul and Zenouska in 1996) has been the black sheep of the Windsor family for years after giving an interview claiming her royal parents gave her an ultimatum: forced marriage or abortion. Zenouska, now head of marketing for a British jewelry company, chronicles her fashionable life on the London social scene and regularly attends events with Prince William, Duchess Kate and the rest of the royal family. (She was in attendance at the Windsor extended family’s Christmas lunch in 2017 when Meghan Markle met the group!)

Prince George, Duke of Kent – the younger brother of Kings Edward VII and George VI and uncle of Queen Elizabeth II – had two children out of wedlock. A son, Michael Temple Canfield, was born in 1926 to American socialite Kiki Preston. A daughter, Raine McCorquodale, was born in 1929 to author Barbara Cartland (who was also married at the time). Prince George’s two illegitimate children went on to make a name for themselves: Michael married Caroline Lee Bouvier, the younger sister of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and Raine became Princess Diana’s stepmother.

When the young Princess Thyra of Denmark fell in love with Cavalry Lieutenant Vilhelm Frimann Marcher and became pregnant, the Danish royal family orchestrated a cover-up in the 19th century. Her mother, Princess Louise, arranged for Thyra to deliver the baby, named Maria, in Greece in 1871. The Danish press learned that Thyra was in Athens recovering from a bout of jaundice. Baby Maria was adopted by a Greek family and renamed Kate. Thyra married and had six children with her husband, Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, but has reportedly been haunted her entire life by thoughts of the baby she abandoned.

Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands had four daughters with his wife, Queen Juliana, including Beatrix (far right), who will one day become Queen. Bernhard also had two daughters born out of wedlock: Alexia Grinda-Lejeune, whose mother was Prince Hélène Grinda’s French mistress, and Alicia von Bielefeld, whose mother was never publicly identified but was believed to be American. Bernhard admitted to being the father of two illegitimate children in a series of startling confessions to reporters before his death in 2004.

King Albert II’s affair with Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps gave birth to a daughter, Delphine Böel. Albert – who abdicated the throne in 2013 and was replaced by his son, the current King Philippe – had long refused to recognize the Belgian artist as his own. But after a bitter seven-year legal battle and a DNA test that Albert agreed to undergo in 2019, he confirmed that she was his fourth child in early 2020. Later that year, Delphine went before the court to apply for royal status and won, becoming Princess Delphine. His two children, Oscar and Josephine, also became prince and princess. “A judicial victory will never replace a father’s love,” his lawyers said in a statement at the time, “but offers a sense of justice, further reinforced by the fact that many children who have gone through the same ordeals will regain the strength to face them. ” Albert is not the only Belgian royal to have been the victim of a love scandal. Read on for more details on Albert’s father, King Leopold III…

Like his son King Albert II, the Belgian King Leopold III had an illegitimate child, according to the book “Dramas in the Belgian Royal House (1935-2002)”. Author Leo Van Audenhaege argues that Albert had his daughter Ingeborg Verdun with Austrian skating star Liselotte Landbeck, making Ingeborg Albert’s half-sister. Leopold was a widow at the time of the secret romance, Van Audenhaege wrote in the book, which made headlines in Belgium. The king’s first wife, Queen Astrid, was killed in a car crash in 1935 in which Leopold was driving. The Belgian Royal Palace has never commented on Ingeborg, who has remained anonymous but is said to have settled in America.

Prince Carlos, Duke of Parma, fathered a boy named Hugo Klynstra in 1997. Hugo’s mother was the childhood friend of Prince Brigitte Klynstra, not the prince’s wife, Annemarie Cecilia Gualthérie van Weezel (view here with him in 2013). At 18, Hugo sought to change his last name to that of his biological father. After a long legal fight in which Carlos claimed that Hugo was the result of an unattached relationship, Hugo succeeded. He was accepted as a member of the Dutch royal family in 2016 when a court ruled in his favor, making him Prince Carlos Hugo Roderik Sybren of Bourbon-Parma.

Leandro Ruiz Moragas was the illegitimate son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and his mistress, actress Carmen Ruiz. Leandro was quietly supported by the royal family for most of his life, but after the relationship deteriorated he wrote the 2002 book “Royal Bast ***” about his secret legacy. “I refuse to stay in the darkness that has been imposed on me,” he writes in the book. “I ask for the recognition of the privileges to which my birth entitles me and which I will never give up.” In 2003, he successfully applied to use his royal family’s surname, Bourbon, and became a prince at 74. He died 13 years later of pneumonia at the age of 87.

In 12th-century England, mistresses were as much a part of royal life as a crown. King Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, would have fathered at least 22 illegitimate children, including 14 officially recognized. Many were given the surname Fitzroy, which translates to “son of the king” and was commonly used at the time by the illegitimate children of a monarch.

King Louis XIV had a child who survived to adulthood with his wife, Marie-Thérèse of Spain. But the French ruler has fathered more than a dozen illegitimate children with a number of women. Madame de Montespan, who eventually became the king’s chief mistress, had seven of her babies, while her rival Louise de La Vallière gave birth to five of Louis’ descendants. Louis eventually legitimized most of his children born to mistresses in the years after their birth.

Among the many illegitimate children that the King of England Henry VIII is said to have fathered, only one has been recognized by the powerful royal. Henry Fitzroy was the product of the monarch’s relationship with his mistress Elizabeth Blount, who was a maid of honor to the king’s wife, Catherine of Aragon. Born in 1519, Henri was bestowed with titles and honors by his father, for whom a male heir was an important asset. By all accounts, the king loved the boy and was shattered when young Henry fell ill with “consumption”, possibly tuberculosis, and died at the age of 17.

His marriage to Catherine of Braganza was childless, but King Charles II of England fathered many children out of wedlock with several mistresses. Some, like James Scott, First Duke of Monmouth, have succeeded in claiming the throne. But because of their illegitimacy, after Charles’ death in 1685, his brother Jacques, Duke of York, became king. Fun fact: Princess Diana was descended from two of the King’s illegitimate sons: Henry Fitzroy and Charles Lennox.

King Richard I, known as Richard the Lionheart for his bravery as a warrior and military leader, ruled England from 1189 to 1199. He did not have children with his wife, Bérengère de Navarre, but fathered a son, Philippe de Cognac, with a woman who has never been identified. Philip inspired the character of Philip the Bast *** in Shakespeare’s play “The Life and Death of King John”.