Albert II is the son of King Leopold III and the last living child of Queen Astrid, born a princess of Sweden.

Prince Albert was born at the Château of Stuyvenberg in Laeken, northern Brussels, as the second son and youngest child of King Leopold III and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden.

When Prince Albert was one year old, Queen Astrid died in Switzerland in a car accident on 29 August 1935, in which King Leopold, who was driving the vehicle, was lightly injured.

In June 1944, at the time of the Allied landings, King Leopold, his wife Princess Lilian and the royal children were deported by the Germans to Hirschstein, Germany, and later to Strobl, Austria, where they were released by the American 106th Cavalry Regiment on 7 May 1945.

Owing to the political situation in Belgium, King Leopold and his family moved to the villa "Le Reposoir" in Pregny, Switzerland, when they left Austria in October 1945 and stayed until July 1950.

At a reception at the Belgian Embassy, he met Italian Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria.

In June 2013, Boël summoned the then King and his two older children (the then Duke of Brabant and the Archduchess of Austria-Este) to appear in court.

His lawyer announced that he would seek further advice about a possible referral to Belgium's Cour de Cassation / Hof van Cassatie.

[14][15] The results of these DNA samples were released on 27 January 2020 by Alain Berenboom, confirming Delphine Boël as Albert II's daughter.

[21] As King, Albert's duties included representing Belgium at home and abroad on state visits, trade missions, and at high level international meetings as well as taking an interest in Belgian society, culture and enterprise.

This was seen by several political commentators, as well as many Flemish politicians, as aimed implicitly at the large Flemish nationalist party, the N-VA.[25] Bart De Wever, the party's leader, called for the King's role in the formation of Belgian governments to be changed in the wake of this comment since he "could no longer see the monarch as playing the constitutional role of referee.

[26] At 6 pm (CET) the King announced in a recorded radio and television speech that on 21 July, Belgium's National Day, he would abdicate the throne for health reasons.