King Albert IIQueen Paola Mathilde Marie Christine Ghislaine Countess d'Udekem d'Acoz[a] (pronounced [matild dyd(ə)kɛm dakɔ]; born 20 January 1973) is Queen of the Belgians as the wife of King Philippe.

Jonkvrouw Mathilde Marie Christine Ghislaine d'Udekem d'Acoz was born on 20 January 1973 at Edith Cavell Hospital in Uccle, Brussels, Belgium.

[2][3] Her parents are Count Patrick d'Udekem d'Acoz (1936–2008), a politician, and his wife, Countess Anna Maria Komorowska (b.

[12] From 1991 until 1994, Mathilde attended the Institut Libre Marie Haps in Brussels, where she studied speech therapy and graduated magna cum laude.

[11] She earned a master's degree in psychology at the Université catholique de Louvain in 2002 with honours (cum laude).

[13] Jonkvrouw Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz met Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant while playing tennis in 1996.

[12] Upon her marriage to Prince Philippe in 1999, King Albert II of Belgium elevated the d'Udekem d'Acoz family from the baronial to the comital rank, hereditary in the male lineage.

[16] The couple have four children: Princess Elisabeth, the couple's eldest child, is the first in line to the throne and ahead of her younger brothers and sister, who are second, third, and fourth in line to succeed, owing to a change in Belgian succession laws in 1991, allowing for the eldest child to succeed, regardless of sex.

[18][19] Queen Mathilde is also a godmother to girls named Hyle-Mathilde Blakaj, Zaineb Tebbi and Madinah Mohammed Ibrahim, the seventh daughters of families from Charleroi and Ghent.

[20][12][21][22] Belgian tradition stated that the seventh daughter from an uninterrupted line of girls has the privilege of asking the Queen to be her godmother.

Their eldest child, Princess Elisabeth, became heir apparent and is expected to become Belgium's first queen regnant.

[4] The Queen is the honorary president of Child Focus, a foundation for missing and sexually exploited children.