Clément Vandenkerckhove was nobody until last fall, when he came forward as the secret son of Prince Laurent of Belgium — a truth he himself didn't learn until he was 16. The physical resemblance between father and son is impossible to miss, and as far as royal scandals go, this one is relatively mild: Laurent had Clément before he married Princess Claire.
© Getty ImagesIn a country where King Albert II was forced by court order to recognize Princess Delphine as his daughter, the existence of a secret son who isn't even in the line of succession barely registered as an institutional shock. The real story was always going to be about the young man himself. Just before he officially became a Belgian prince, he introduced the world to Guadalupe, the Venezuelan-born woman he's in love with.
An interview from Italy, at a journalist's summer house in Puglia
© BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty ImagesThe setting itself is almost a story in its own right. Clément gave an interview from Puglia, where he'd been invited to the Italian home of journalist Thomas Siffer, a contributor to Het Nieuwsblad who each summer gathers a handful of Belgian public figures at his villa in southern Italy to get to know them away from the media noise. It was there, in that seaside villa, that Clément looked back on the moment he found out who his father really was. His mother, the singer and model Wendy Van Wanten, told him the truth when he was 16, and he carried the secret quietly for years afterward.
Clément didn't work up the nerve to call Laurent until he was 20. The relationship between father and son has grown close and surprisingly natural by his account. For Clément, the revelation wasn't a scandal so much as a relief. He's also been careful to note that while Laurent is his biological father, his dad is Frans — the man who actually raised him.
Anxiety, panic and misophonia: coming forward in a moment of real vulnerability
© @clement_vandenkerckhoveWhat's most striking is that Clément chose to step into the spotlight at the moment he was opening up about living with anxiety, fear, and an extreme sensitivity to noise. In interviews with Het Nieuwsblad, he's described nights spent waking up shaking, unable to function. He's spoken about misophonia, a neurological condition in which everyday sounds can trigger an intense emotional reaction. It's against that backdrop that Clément introduced Guadalupe Borrero Ferreira, the woman he says has been his anchor through all of it.
Guadalupe arrived in Europe due to Venezuela's economic and political crisis, landing in Belgium almost by accident. She first lived in Portugal, where she lived with relatives. She then moved to the Belgian town of Aalter, where she took a supermarket bakery job.
Guadalupe and Clément met by chance on a chat platform. What started as a conversation, sparked by Guadalupe, stretched into years of long-distance confidences, until Clément drove from Belgium to Luxembourg to meet her in person for the first time. He's since told Het Nieuwsblad that the moment he saw her, he knew that she was the one.
© @clement_vandenkerckhove
