Prince Laurent has certainly become the enfant terrible of the Belgian royal family. Only last week he was stripped of his driver's license after being pulled over in Brussels for driving 19 miles over the speed limit.
Now comes word of further bad behavior by King Albert's youngest son. According to news report, the Prince and his wife, Princess Claire "regally settled into business class seats" on a Brussels Airline flight last June en route to the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria. Several members of the crew asked the Prince and Princess to "remove themselves to the back of the plane." The couple had purchased economy seats. Prince Laurent grumbled and called the crew "unprofessional." He also refused to pay for drinks, "leading Swedish passengers to do do the same."
Prince Laurent and Princess Claire did the same thing two months later, when they, their three children, and a nanny, booked economy seats on a flight from Italy, where they had been on vacation, but when they got on the plane, they "grabbed seats in the business section."
The crew did not want a scene, so they "kept quiet," and did not ask the couple to move to their ticketed seats.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j9_dNDsN-6lLTtBQpExAEDqEBC5g?docId=CNG.ea8010af50d5d8a644217606d142ed4c.111
Prime Minister Yves Leterme called the incidents "incorrect," and was distancing himself from the 47-year-old Prince. The Prime Minister's comments were reported by Belga news agency.
The original report was published in two Flemish newspapers, De Morgen and Het Laatste Nieuws.
Several questions: why didn't Princess Claire say to her husband, "darling, I think we are in the wrong seats. We should move to our right seats." Or was she a willing participant, and condones her husband's behavior. Perhaps there is a third view: is Princess Claire afraid of her husband's temper, and does not want to upset the royal applecart.
I'm fascinated that they bought economy tickets, I would have expected them to have a bit of money. In June, there was much chatter on the royal jewels boards about the tiara Claire wore to the Swedish wedding. It was never seen before on her; some speculated it was a new purchase, some speculated it was rented, and some that it was costume.
ReplyDelete