Princess Eléonore.Photo: Bas Bogaerts/Royal Palace
Birthday walkies are in order for Princess Eléonore of Belgium!
The youngest child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde turned 14 on Saturday, and the royal palace released an adorable picture of the princess cuddling two super-cute pooches to celebrate.
She’s not the only member of the royal family to be blowing out candles this weekend either, as dad King Philippe turned 62 on Friday, just one day before his daughter’s birthday.
Eléonore, who was born in 2008, is the fourth child of Philippe and Mathilde. She is currently attending high school in Tervuren in central Belgium.
Belgian Royal Family.Olivier Matthys/Getty
According to the Belgian royal palace, she is fluent in French, Dutch and English, and enjoys participating in sports and playing the violin.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Eléonore took time out from school to bake waffles for the elderly and the homeless. She also regularly called isolated elderly people in residential care centers to support and encourage them, the Belgian royal palace reports.
More recently the princess — who lives with her family in the castle of Laeken on the outskirts of Brussels — has been exploring the countryside of Spain.
Together with her parents and siblings —Princess Elisabeth, 20, Prince Gabriel, 18, and Prince Emmanuel, 16 — Eléonore has just completed a private 70km (44-mile) pilgrimage to the holy city of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.
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It’s not the only good deed the Belgium royal family has done recently: Last month, King Phillipe announced that the family are opening three of their homes toprovide shelterfor Ukrainian families fleeingRussia’s ongoing invasion.
According to the Royal Trust, a charity created in 1900 to manage royal family assets, some of the estimated 200,000 Ukrainian refugees heading for Belgium will eventually find refuge in royal properties in Brussels and the Wallonia region in the south of the country.
“These are accommodations whose original purpose was to be made available to social agencies to accommodate people on low incomes, " Jan Smets, president of the Royal Trust, stated during the announcement. “That mission corresponds well to what we wish to achieve with the Royal Trust.”
source: people.com
