Dutch weekly Weekend, a cross between a family magazine and a gossip magazine, made headlines in the Netherlands on Wednesday by publishing recent pictures of Alexia Grinda. She is the sixth daughter of the late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.
She was born out of wedlock in 1967, as a result of a liasion the Prince had with a French woman, Hélène Grinda. Up to now Alexia had been able to escape public scrutiny.
Marc Van der Linden, a veteran royal correspondent of the magazine and RTL Boulevard television, tracked Alexia Grinda down in the West-African country of Senegal. He was tipped off that she was vacationing there with a friend.
Alexia Grinda, upon meeting Mr. Van der Linden and his crew, did not agree to an interview, but she talked with the reporter about her life. According to the magazine she has suffered from the fact that she had to keep silent about the true identity of her father, Prince Bernhard, who passed away in 2004.
In an interview published after his death the prince admitted to having fathered tow children out of wedlock, Alexia in France and Alicia de Bielefeld (born 1952) in the United States.
Alexia and her mother were visited by Prince Bernhard at irregular intervals, according to the magazine. Alexia would also spend time with her father at the Dutch royal holiday house in Italy. There she also met Princess Juliana, with whom Bernhard had four children: Princesses Beatrix (now Queen of the Netherlands), Irene, Margriet and Christina.
Alexia is said to have met her half-sisters. She was allowed to visit her father at Soestdijk Palace in the dying moments of his life. Alexia is often linked to the bribery scandal in which Bernhard was entangled with airplane manufacturer Lockheed; it has been claimed he took money from Lockheed in order to pay for the expenses of his family in France. © RB
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