Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium

Princess Marie-Esméralda
Born (1956-09-30) 30 September 1956
Brussels, Belgium
Spouse Sir Salvador Moncada
Issue Alexandra Moncada
Leopoldo Moncada
Full name
French: Marie-Esméralda Adelaide Lilian Anna Léopoldine
House Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Father Leopold III of Belgium
Mother Lilian Baels

Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium, Lady Moncada (Marie-Esméralda Adelaide Lilian Anna Léopoldine, born 30 September 1956 in Laeken, Belgium) is a member of the Belgian Royal Family.

Family

She is the youngest child of the late Leopold III of Belgium and his second wife, Lilian Baels (known as Princess of Réthy).[1] Her full siblings are the late Prince Alexander of Belgium and Princess Marie-Christine of Belgium. Her half-siblings include the late King Baudouin of Belgium, Belgium's former monarch King Albert II, who is also Marie-Esméralda's godfather, and the late Princess Josephine-Charlotte of Belgium (Grand Duchess of Luxembourg).

Personal life

Princess Marie-Esméralda is a journalist and author, writing under the name Esméralda de Réthy. After studying law at the Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis in Brussels, she graduated in journalism at Université catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve and moved to Paris to pursue her career, working as free lance for international magazines.

She married Sir Salvador Moncada, a Honduran-British pharmacologist, in London on 5 April 1998. They have a daughter, Alexandra Leopoldine (born in London on 4 August 1998), and a son, Leopoldo Daniel (born in London on 21 May 2001).

Princess Maria-Esmeralda is very active in the field of environment and women's rights. She is the President of King Leopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation since the death of her father in 1983. She is also Honorary President of Delphus, an association offering every year to autistic children a week of assisted therapy with dolphins.

She is also patron of The Princess Lilian Foundation which was established in 1958 by her late mother with the initial objective of sending Belgian children with heart condition to be operated in the United States. In the seventies, the foundation focused on organizing high level scientific meetings. Since the death of Princess Lilian, the foundation has created a visiting Professorship.

Books written by Princess Maria-Esmeralda:

Filmography:

Titles, styles, and honours

Styles of
Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium
Reference style Her Royal Highness
Spoken style Your Royal Highness
Alternative style Madame

Titles and styles

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ "H R H Princess Liliane of Belgium", Daily Telegraph, 10 June 2002. Retrieved 10 August 2014


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