VRT’s 4-part documentary on the life of Belgium’s “Spare” started this week. "Laurent - Prince Surplus" delves into the turbulent life of the rebellious prince. Prince Laurent is King Filip’s younger brother and is known as the “enfant terrible” of the Belgian royal house.
The documentary series doesn’t shy away from sensitive issues: the prince’s traumatic childhood, his time as a popular prince around town, who is the only Belgian royal not to shun the media, his antics as a speedster and playboy, as well as his passions for animals and sustainability.
How Prince Laurent sees his own life, we don't find out from the documentary aired on the Canvas TV channel and available on the VRT MAX iPlayer. When our colleague, royal editor, Pascale Mertens gives him a bell and asks him how he looks back on his life, he is fairly brief at first. "I don't look in the rear-view mirror, I look in front of me."
But, after a while, he does loosen up. "I have indeed been through a lot of difficult periods in my life. But you should not expect me to be sad about that." And he adds. "I’m only saying this to you."
The series also touches on the prince’s appearance in court, admittedly as a witness, but still a first for a Belgian royal. That was in the fraud trial against his adviser, who embezzled money from the navy to renovate Laurent's Villa Clémentine.
The series also looks at the prince’s unfortunate foreign demarches that put him at odds with politicians. He makes a banned trip to Congo and in military uniform goes to the Chinese embassy to mark the 90th anniversary of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It lost him part of his allowance that year.
Laurent did not collaborate on the documentary
The prince did not collaborate with the Canvas documentary about him. He immediately wanted to make that very clear when Pascale called him last week. "The makers say I collaborated, but that's not true. Why should I? I don't care, I know my life. I don't need a TV programme for that."
Clearly, he is not happy with the series. "Too bad about VRT, that documentary only wants to generate ratings. There are always people who want to say something about everybody. But do those people know you? No, often not."
The series does provide a harsh wake-up call with regard to how disruptive Laurent's childhood was. Sixty years ago, the youngest of three is born into a life where he never gets to choose anything for himself. On top of that, in a cold nest, he suffers severe emotional neglect by his parents Albert and Paola. The crisis in their marriage leads to a broken family and absent parents.
"Many people have experienced hard times in their lives, people journalists are not interested in," Prince Laurent says, when Pascale tells him she was shocked when she heard about his childhood, even though we already knew a lot. "And yes, I went through a lot of bad things in my life. But you should not expect me to be sad about that. Every challenge makes you stronger" he concludes.