July 18 1942 - November 29, 2009
Alexandre's life was difficult from the start. The Belgian people were devoted t his father’s first wife and resented his father marrying his mother. Alexandre and his two sisters were recognized as members of the Belgian Royal family, but excluded from any rights to the throne. During the war Alexandre and the rest of the royal family were deported to Nazi Germany where they ate inadequate food and lived in fear of imminent death. They were eventually allowed back to Brussels in July 1950 where his father was deemed unfit to reign after surrendering to the Nazis and he ultimately abdicated in 1951.
Alexandre planned to study medicine but settled on a business career. In 1992 he secretly married Lea Inga Dora Wolman of whom his mother disapproved and thereafter chose to invite her son to social occasions without his wife. He had wanted to assume official responsibilities, but had been excluded from these and instead he led the life of a bon vivant, enjoying fine food and the game of bridge.
He died suddenly at his home at Rhode-Saint-Genèse, near Brussels, on November 29. His funeral was held at the church of Notre Dame at Laeken in the presence of the King and Queen, Queen Fabiola and other members of the Belgian Royal Family, and he was buried in the crypt.
He is survived by his wife and his two children, and also by his sisters Princess Marie-Christine of Belgium who has eschewed her royal life and lives in Las Vegas, and Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium, Lady Moncada, who is a journalist, writing as Esméralda de Réthy.
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