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Cape Town – The former king of Belgium has submitted a paternity test to avoid being fined in a court case brought by a woman who claims to be his love child.
Albert II – who abdicated in 2013 – submitted a sample of saliva on Tuesday after being penalised for refusing the test earlier this month, BBC News reports.
The 81-year-old finally agreed participate in the paternity test to avoid facing a daily fine of €5 000 (R82 876) in the case brought by Belgian artist, Delphine Boël.
In November 2018, Associated Press reported the former monarch had been given three months to provide a DNA sample which would be used to determine if he was the father of the 51-year-old.
READ MORE: Former Belgian King Albert requested to provide DNA in paternity case
A court verdict is not expected until the end of this year.
According to Washington Post, rumours of an affair between Albert and Boël's mother – who was the aristocratic wife of a well-heeled industrialist – had circulated for years.
But it was in 1999 that rumours of Albert fathering her child broke after a biography of Albert’s wife, Queen Paola, was published.
It was then that the former king – who’s eldest son, Philippe in the current ruling monarch of Belgium – confessed to his infidelity in the late 1960s.
