This 26-year-old former car salesman just quietly became a European prince

London: A man has become a prince at the age of 26 after the brother of the king of Belgium finally recognised him as his own.

Prince Laurent is the brother of King Philippe and has long been labelled the “cursed prince” of the Saxe-Coburg house.

He has registered his paternity of Clément Vandenkerckhove with the civil registry.

Vandenkerckhove was born to Iris Vandenkerckhove – better known as singer, actress and socialite Wendy Van Wanten – before Prince Laurent’s 2003 marriage to Princess Claire, with whom he shares three children.

While civil recognition makes the former car salesman a prince and gives him equal inheritance rights to Prince Laurent’s private estate alongside his half-siblings, the royal perks stop there.

Owing to Belgium’s 2013 royal endowment reforms, public funding is strictly limited to the reigning monarch and the direct heir. He will not be given a state stipend or official duties, and has zero rights to the throne.

Laurent met Iris Vandenkerckhove at a Paris fashion show in the mid-90s and began a high-profile relationship.

When their son was born in August 2000, the Belgian press immediately speculated about his paternity.

The name Clément was widely read as a direct nod to Villa Clémentine, Prince Laurent’s official residence in Tervuren, a Flemish town just outside Brussels.

Iris Vandenkerckhove also repeatedly hinted at hidden lovers in several of her pop ballads.

Last year, Clément Vandenkerckhove appeared in a Belgian television documentary where he addressed his parentage and admitted to being Prince Laurent’s biological son.

Laurent subsequently released an official statement confirming it, adding that he and his son had been having “open and honest conversations” in private in recent years to address his paternity.

In 2020, Princess Delphine, a Belgian artist, earned her title after a fierce seven-year legal battle against King Albert II of Belgium, who abdicated in 2013. The saga included a court-ordered DNA test under threat of a €5000 ($8000) daily fine.

During the peak of her long-disputed paternity, the artist defiantly created art installations emblazoned with “Love Child” and “F--- You, I Exist”.