Queen Mathilde
Queen Mathilde was born on 20 January 1973 in Uccle. She is the daughter of Count and Countess Patrick d'Udekem d'Acoz. She was granted the title of Princess of Belgium on 4 December 1999, the day on which she married the then Prince Philippe.
The Queen went to primary school in Bastogne, followed by secondary school in Brussels, before studying speech therapy and psychotherapy. She worked as a speech therapist in her own practice in Brussels from 1995 to 1999.
Her interest in children gave rise to the creation of the Princess Mathilde Fund , designed to identify projects to help vulnerable people, and particularly children. The Queen has also given her Patronage to several associations that deal with issues affecting vulnerable people. She is passionate about education, literacy and projects encouraging children, adults and women to read aloud. The Queen attaches particular importance to health. In this regard, she served as Special Representative for Immunization for the World Health Organization Europe from 2011-2013.
Queen Mathilde has taken part in the United Nations Conference on the Rights of the Child as a member of the Belgian delegation. She also accepted the role of Ambassador for the United Nations for the International Year of Microcredit in 2005 and has consequently visited many projects worldwide. For several years, Queen Mathilde has been a Special Representative of UNICEF and UNAIDS.
In 2007, Queen Mathilde became a member of the Young Global Leaders, the World Economic Forum and took part in the Global Leadership and Public Policy Program in Boston.
Queen Mathilde became an honorary member of the Board of Directors of the Schwab Foundation for social entrepreneurship in 2010 and accepted the Honorary Presidency of the "Breast International Group", a network facilitating research into breast cancer.
Since 2014, The Queen has granted her high patronage to the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition.
In 2016, at the request of the UN Secretary General, she became a UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate with the aim of harnessing energies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. In this context, in 2021, she participated in the event "The Sustainable Development Goals as a tool for transition to responsible organisations: myth or reality?" in the presence of young Belgian academics. This opportunity allowed her to launch the debate and get young people involved in the issue of the SDGs.
In addition to these activities, the Queen accompanies King Philippe and participates in events to promote Belgium internationally.
The Queen is interested in music, plays the piano and also likes literature, sport and nature.
The royal couple live at the Palace of Laeken with their four children Elisabeth (born 25 October 2001), Gabriel (born 20 August 2003), Emmanuel (born 4 October 2005) and Eléonore (born 16 April 2008).
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