Secret royals leading normal lives – from Zara Tindall’s half-sister to princess who says dad ‘left her to the dogs’
FOR most royals, having blue blood means a life of privilege and wealth – but what if you are not officially recognised as one of the family?
Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste, the son of Monaco’s Prince Albert, was the product of an romance between the royal and Air France attendant Nicole Costa.
Ahead of his 20th birthday, this week, the university student said he considers himself ‘lucky’, blasting the label “illegitimate” and insisting he is close to his family.
Alexandre is the Monaco ruler’s eldest son but is not included in the line of succession for the throne because his parents were not married.
But his father has always acknowledged him, and he often spends time with his twin siblings Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, eight, who Albert shares with wife Princess Charlene, and half-sister Jazmin, 31.
“When I was born, neither of my parents were in another marriage, and they did not commit adultery,” he says.
“Using that word [illegitimate] is insulting! One bears the name of one’s father when one has been recognised since birth.”
While Alexandre has always been welcomed into the Grimaldi fold, the fate of other outlying royals can be far from a fairy tale.
Never met dad until 11
Jazmin Grimaldi was born in the US after Prince Albert had a brief fling with American waitress Tamara Rotolo, who he met at a Monaco tennis tournament in 1991.
Although privately acknowledged by her royal dad – who sent messages through her mum – Jazmin was not publicly recognized until 2006 and didn’t meet him until she was 11.
She travelled to Monaco to meet him, in 2006, after Prince Albert publicly revealed he had a child living in the States.
“I wanted that moment to connect with my father,” she told Harper’s Bazaar, “to get to know him, and to have him get to know me.”
Reflecting on her early years, she added: “Not having had that figure around, I missed that. It’s wonderful that it happened when it did, and we’ve been enjoying a great relationship ever since.”
Now 31, she has grown close to her father and his wife, Princess Charlene, as well as her twin half siblings, Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques, and her older half-brother Alexandre.
In 2021, the Prince was reportedly hit with a court case claiming that he fathered a third child with an unknown Brazilian woman, in 2005. His lawyers dismissed the claim as a hoax.
Zara Tindall’s half-sister
Princess Anne’s first husband Mark Phillips was reportedly still in the marriage when he fathered Felicity Wade during a one night stand with New Zealander Heather Tonkin in 1984.
The art teacher is said to have first met the then-royal at a riding clinic in her home city and became friends, before having a brief fling with him in his hotel room a year later.
Phillips had no contact with Felicity, although he paid her £6,000 a year through an associate, MailOnline reports.
Felicity was unaware of her royal heritage and thought her father was dead, until she was doing a school project on her family history, at the age of eight, and Heather decided to tell her.
In 1991, when the payments became erratic, two years after Princess Anne and Mark Phillips separated, Heather launched a lawsuit.
“I hope and pray Mark will do the right thing and make a proper and legally-binding settlement on her,” she said at the time.
“I wish I could wake up one morning in the knowledge that the record had been put straight and I don’t have to worry any more.”
The court ordered a DNA test, which proved Phillips was the child’s father, leading to a settlement worth a reported £350,000.
Felicity – half-sister to Zara Tindall and Peter Philips – inherited her father’s love of horses and, ironically, went on to marry polo player Tristan Wade. She has also worked as a vet.
Duke’s secret affairs
Queen Elizabeth’s uncle Prince George, the Duke of Kent, was rumoured to have fathered two children during secret affairs, although mystery surrounds both.
Michael Temple Canfield, born in 1926, was rumoured to have been the result of a long affair with Alice ‘Kiki’ Preston in 1926, a glamorous American socialite known as the “the girl with the silver syringe”, due to her addiction to cocaine and heroin.
Michael was adopted by publisher Cass Canfield and the Duke’s brother, later Edward VII, was one of the many who believed Kiki to be the child’s mother.
However, it later emerged Michael’s mum was Violet Isobel Christine Evans, the daughter of a Canadian coal merchant, with whom the Duke was also rumoured to have had a fling.
She gave up her son for adoption after marrying army officer Ian Karslake, during her pregnancy.
Michael, who followed his adoptive dad into publishing, went on to marry Lee Bouvier – sister of Jackie Kennedy – before moving to England and marrying Laura Charteris, ex wife of the Earl of Dudley.
After they married in 1960, she took her new husband to lunch with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Laura said: ‘The Duke never stopped staring at Michael. So much so that I asked: “Is anything the matter?” The Duke quietly replied: “Yes. I am certain your husband is my brother’s son.” ’ Michael passed away in 1969.
The Duke was also rumoured to be the father of novelist Barbara Cartland’s daughter, Raine McCorquodale, born in 1929.
Raine was born after Barbara wed first husband Alexander McCorquodale, but she later claimed “Sachie” was barely capable of performing the sexual act. “I was never in the slightest danger of getting pregnant by him,” she said.
Barbara believed Prince George, later the Duke of Kent, was Raine’s father, saying: “He was absolutely adorable as well as being the most amazing lover.”
Raine went on to become a Countess three times over by marriage and, after marrying Earl Spencer, in 1976, she became stepmum to the future Princess Diana.
‘Left me like a piece of meat‘
The parentage of Belgian sculptor Delphine Boel, now 55, has always been considered an “open secret” in royal circles.
She is the result of King Albert II of Belgium’s 18-year affair with Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps, and while she knew the King, her mother waited until she was 18 to reveal he was her father.
A few years later, when a biographer exposed the truth, she claims the royal called her to shout: “You are not my daughter!”
“I was taken aback. It was surreal and very disturbing,” she said. “You don’t have a child and then kind of… kick it… He kind of left me like a piece of meat to the dogs.”
A seven-year paternity battle ended in 2020, after DNA evidence proved her case, and she was accepted into the royal fold, enjoying a warmer relationship with her dad who now “buys me flowers.”
On their first meeting after the case, she said: “It was like nothing had happened. It was really strange. He has a brilliant sense of humour. He’s a very easygoing guy, and so interesting.”
Prince’s battle
Prince Carlos, a member of the Dutch royal family and head of the House of Bourbon-Parma, fathered 26-year-old Carlos Hugo Roderik Sybren Klynstra, during his relationship with Brigitte Klynstra, before he wed his current wife Princess Anne-Marie.
Two years after his birth, in 1999, his paternity was confirmed through a lawsuit brought by Brigitte Klynstra but Prince Carlos told Dutch media that Hugo’s birth was “his mother’s wish” and an “independent decision”, denying his son any rights.
In 2015, when he turned 18, Hugo petitioned the court for the right to adopt his father’s surname and be named a prince.
A court judgement in 2016 granted him the name His Royal Highness Prince Carlos Hugo Roderik Sybren of Bourbon-Parma.
Unlike his three half-siblings, he is not a member of the royal family or eligible to inherit the throne.
DNA test scandal
The former King of Spain’s alleged love children joined forces to bring paternity claims against him, which he has always denied.
Waiter Albert Sola, born in 1950, and Belgian housewife Ingrid Sartiau, born in 1966, were Juan Carlos’s children and launched lawsuits in 2015, after his abdication meant he was now stripped of the immunity which allowed him to avoid DNA tests.
Albert, who was adopted as a child and claimed Spain’s former king met his birth mother during a trip to Barcelona in the 1950s, claimed a DNA test proved he was a 99 per cent match to the former monarch.
But In January 2015, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled the tests invalid and an appeal to the country’s Constitutional Court failed.
Two months later the same court threw out Ingrid’s claim.
Last year, Albert dropped dead at a bar near the Catalan city of Girona aged 66.
Victory after 74 years
It took Leandro Ruiz 74 years to be recognised as a member of the Spanish Royal family, despite the King’s name being on his birth certificate.
Born in 1929, he was the son of actress Carmen Ruiz, a mistress of King Alfonso XIII before he was deposed and fled abroad in 1931.
He didn’t know who his father was until he was 10 years old, but the King used a Swiss bank account to transfer funds to him during his childhood.
He revealed his royal parentage in a 2002 book, Royal Bastard, and was officially recognised a year later.
“I demand recognition for the privileges to which my birth entitles me and which I will never renounce,” he wrote in the book.