Princess Léa of Belgium
Princess Léa | |||||
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Father | Sigismund Wolman | ||||
Mother | Lisa Bornstein | ||||
Born |
Brussels, Belgium | 2 December 1951
Princess Léa of Belgium (born Léa Inga Dora Wolman on 2 December 1951) is the widow of Prince Alexander of Belgium.
Born the daughter of Sigismund Wolman and Lisa Bornstein, she married Serge Victorovich Spetschinsky in 1975 (son of Victor Sergeyevich Spetschinsky, President of the Russian Nobility Association in Belgium), from whom she was divorced in 1980. They had a daughter Laetitia Spetschinsky (born in 1976), who is now married to Didier Nagant de Deuxchaisnes and mother of two sons (Charles-Albert (2009) and Alexandre (2013)) and a daughter (Louise (2010)). In 1982 Léa married Robert Bichara, and they had a son Renaud Bichara on 1 September 1983.
After her second divorce she wed Prince Alexander, in Debenham, Suffolk, on 14 March 1991. They had been introduced in 1986 by former defence minister Léon Mundeleer. Alexander asked her to accompany him to the cinema. She vacillated initially, but they began to enjoy dining out together, Alexander being a gourmand, according to his future wife.[1]
The couple had no children together, and the marriage was kept secret until 1998, as reportedly the prince feared his mother would disapprove.[1] Alexander's marriage contravened Article 85 of the Belgian constitution, which deprived of the right of succession to the throne any descendant of King Leopold I who marries without the sovereign's permission.[2]
Although the royal title of "Princess" is prefixed to her name occasionally, as for other females who have married into the royal family, this style is not used at the Belgian court nor by the government, and she is otherwise referred to as "Princess Alexandre of Belgium". She explained in a May 2008 interview with Point de Vue, that "[on] 2 December 1991, a royal decree declared that henceforth the title of Prince or Princess of Belgium would no longer be transmitted by marriage, but would be created by royal decree. We have no regrets, no rancor."[1]
In 2008 she published a book of photographs from the life of her husband and his family, titled Le Prince Alexandre de Belgique, because she felt that he was too little-known in Belgium.[1]
Notes
Sources
- Royal House of Belgium
- "Monarchies of Europe". Archived from the original on 30 June 2012.
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