According to the Radical Royalist blog:
She may be Europe’s least known Queen and she celebrates her 75th birthday today “dans l’intimité” – “in private” as the court announced – without public celebrations. But her Italo-Belgian charm can easily match that of the more famous European Queens.
Queen Paola was born Princess Ruffo di Calabria, on 11th September 1937, at Forte del Marmi in Italy. She is the youngest of seven children of Prince Fulco Ruffo di Calabria, a First World War flying ace, and Countess Luisa Gazelli. Her grandmother on her father’s side, Laure Mosselman du Chenoy, was Belgian.
To read the entire article on the Radical Royalist blog, please click here.
The queen stepped into her royal role in 1993 on the death of King Boudewijn.
For a short video about her life from FlandersNews, please click here.
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HM Queen Paola of Belgium. Photo by Royalbelgium
