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BelgiumEuropean Royals

Queen Paola of Belgium experiences second fall in a year

Queen Paola of Belgium has been told to rest by doctors after having a fall. It’s the second time she has been treated following a fall in the past twelve months.

It also means that she won’t be able to attend a special ceremony for her grandson, Prince Gabriel in the coming days. She’ll miss the opening ceremony for the new academic year at the Royal Military Academy. 

Following his recent success in receiving his blue beret, symbolising graduation after the five weeks of training camp, Prince Gabriel will be among the military personnel, while his grandfather King Albert, his parents King Philippe and Queen Mathilde and his siblings Prince Emmanuel and Princess Eléonore will be among the public. 

The other person absent from the ceremony will be the heir to the throne, Princess Elisabeth, as she has recently returned to Oxford, in the UK, where she began her second year as a student of History and Politics at Lincoln College. 

In March 2022, Queen Paola broke her right arm in a fall, and, although surgery was deemed not necessary to fix the fracture, she was ordered to rest for 8 weeks. 

It is not currently clear if this fall has caused any breaks or serious injuries and there is also no word on how long Queen Paola will be out of public life, but her fall has been confirmed by Court officials to Belgian magazine HLN, which had sent an enquiry to the Royal Palace after realising that Queen Paola’s name was not in the list of people that will be attending the Royal Military Academy ceremony. 

Her Majesty has suffered several bone breaks since 2016, when it was revealed that she had fractured a vertebra. In 2017, she had to rest following breaking her hip and fracturing her femoral neck. She has also been dealing with other health scares, like when she was treated for a cardiac arrhythmia in 2015. In 2018, an undefined ”health problem” forced her to cut short a trip to Italy.