Father Sigismund Wolman Mother Lisa Bornstein | Name Princess of | |
 | ||
Born 2 December 1951 (age 72)
Brussels, Belgium ( 1951-12-02 ) Spouse Serge Victorovich Spetschinsky
(m. 1975; div. 1980)
Robert Bichara
(m. 1982; div. )
Prince Alexander of Belgium
(m. 1991; his death 2009) Issue Laetitia Spetschinsky
Renaud Bichara | ||
Princess Léa of Belgium (born Léa Inga Dora Wolman on 2 December 1951) is the dowager of Prince Alexander of Belgium, she is the aunt of King Philippe of Belgium..
Contents
Early life and family
Princess Léa was born on 2 December 1951, the daughter of Sigismund Wolman and Lisa Bornstein.
Marriages and issue
She married Serge Victorovich Spetschinsky in 1975 (son of Victor Sergeyevich Spetschinsky, President of the Russian Nobility Association in Belgium), from whom she was divorced in 1980. They had a daughter, Laetitia Spetschinsky (born in 1976), who is now married to Didier Nagant de Deuxchaisnes and mother of two sons (Charles-Albert (b. 2009) and Alexandre (b. 2013)) and a daughter (Louise (b. 2010)).
In 1982 Léa married Robert Bichara, and they had a son, Renaud Bichara, on 1 September 1983.
After her second divorce 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 contravened 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.