Dutch prince had two illegitimate daughters

Controversial Dutch Prince Bernhard acknowledged he had two illegitimate daughters – one in France and another, previously unknown, in the United States - in an interview published posthumously today.

Bernhard said his estate of around €195m will be split equally among his six children – including Dutch Queen Beatrix and three other daughters he had with the former Queen Juliana, Beatrix’s mother.

The German-born Bernhard married Juliana in 1937 and is best-known for his service to the Dutch during the Second World War. He died earlier this month of cancer and was interred in the family crypt of the House of Orange on Saturday.

“It doesn’t matter if people think back on me as a nice guy or a philanderer,” Bernhard told the national newspaper De Volkskrant. “If the image is that I was a scoundrel now and again, I’ll give people that. But it would trouble me if people think: He was no good.'"

The Volkskrant said its interview was “the result of nine long discussions” with the prince between the start of 2001 and the spring of 2004.

Bernhard had previously acknowledged having a daughter in France. Her name is Alexia, and is now 37.

But the interview revealed that he also had an illegitimate daughter in the United States – a 50-year-old landscape architect called Alicia.

Alicia “must be left alone”, Bernhard told the paper.

He said that Alicia was fathered during a major crisis in his marriage with Juliana, when she fell under the influence of a faith healer called Greet Hoffmans.

The crisis sparked an inquiry by a special panel appointed by Dutch parliament. Eventually Hoffmans was expelled from the court and Bernhard and Juliana reconciled.

Bernhard was a dapper dresser, with glasses and a trademark carnation in his buttonhole, an avuncular presence in his adopted country throughout the second half of the 20th century.

Outside the Netherlands, he was seen as a jet-setting ambassador for Dutch industry but fell from grace for accepting bribes from US aircraft manufacturer Lockheed. He helped found the World Wildlife Fund in 1961 and became its first president.