Princess Léa of Belgium


Princess Léa of Belgium is the widow of Prince Alexandre of Belgium. She is the aunt of King Philippe of Belgium.

Early life and family

Princess Léa was born on 2 December 1951, the daughter of Sigismund Wolman, merchant in Brussels, and Lisa Bornstein.

Marriages and issue

She married Russian aristocrat Serge Victorovich :ru:Спечинские|Spetschinsky on 27 May 1975 in Brussels, from whom she was divorced on 28 March 1980. They had a daughter, Laetitia Spetschinsky, who is now married to HE Didier Nagant de Deuxchaisnes, Ambassador of Belgium to Ethiopia, and mother of two sons and Alexandre ) and a daughter.
On 23 July 1983 Léa married Paul Robert Bichara in Uccle, and they had a son, Renaud Bichara, on 1 September 1983.
After her second divorce on 25 August 1987, she wed Prince Alexander, in Debenham, Suffolk, on 14 March 1991. They had been introduced in 1986 by former defence minister Léon Mundeleer. Alexander asked her to accompany him to the cinema. She vacillated initially, but they began to enjoy dining out together, Alexander being a gourmand, according to his future wife.
The couple had no children together, and the marriage was kept secret until 1998, as reportedly the prince feared his mother would disapprove. Alexander's marriage d Article 85 of the Belgian constitution, which deprived of the right of succession to the throne any descendant of King Leopold I who marries without the sovereign's permission.
In 2008 she published a book of photographs from the life of her husband and his family, titled Le Prince Alexandre de Belgique, because she felt that he was too little-known in Belgium.