
King Albert and Princess Delphine have been pictured greeting each other warmly for the first time in public.
The royals attended the annual Mass for deceased Royal Family members at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken in Brussels.
As the royals arrive at the church, Princess Delphine, 54, greets her brother, King Philippe, and sister-in-law, Queen Mathilde, with a kiss on the cheek. She then turns to her 88-year-old father and does the same.
Belgian reporter Wim Dehandschutter caught the moment on video and mentioned how, just a year ago, the father-daughter duo appeared to avoid each other at the same event.
Princess Delphine is the King’s youngest child through an extramarital relationship with Sybille de Selys Longchamps. King Albert did not claim her as his child until Delphine took him to court in 2013 once he was no longer immune to prosecution (after his abdication that year). After a years-long battle, in which Albert refused to submit to a DNA test, Delphine’s parentage was confirmed.
From then on, Delphine took the title of Princess of Belgium and will inherit the same as her older half-siblings. The Belgian Court of Appeals granted her a royal title and that of her two children. Delphine and her children are not in the line of succession, as Delphine was born out of wedlock.