Mathilde Marie Christine Ghislaine d'Udekem d'Acoz (pronounced [matild dyd(ə)kɛm dakɔ]; born 20 January 1973) is Queen of the Belgians as the wife of King Philippe.
She is the first native-born Belgian queen, and has four children. She formerly worked as a speech therapist. She is involved with a range of organisations which address social issues including education, child poverty, intergenerational poverty, the position of women in society and literacy.
Jonkvrouw Mathilde Marie Christine Ghislaine d'Udekem d'Acoz was born on 20 January 1973 at Edith Cavell Hospital in Uccle, Brussels, Belgium. Her parents are Count Patrick d'Udekem d'Acoz (1936–2008), a politician, and his wife, Countess Anna Maria Komorowska (b. 1946). Mathilde has three sisters: Marie-Alix (1974–1997), Elisabeth (b. 1977, a speech therapist) and Hélène (b. 1979, a lawyer), and one brother Charles-Henri (b. 1985, a lawyer). Her godfather is her uncle, Count Raoul d'Udekem d'Acoz.
Mathilde grew up in the Château de Losange in Villers-la-Bonne-Eau. At the age of 17, she lived with her three sisters in an apartment at Boulevard Auguste Reyers, Schaarbeek.
Mathilde attended primary school in Bastogne and then attended secondary school at the Institut de la Vierge Fidèle in Brussels. At the age of 18, Mathilde did voluntary work in the slums of Cairo for six weeks. From 1991 until 1994, Mathilde attended the Institut Libre Marie Haps in Brussels, where she studied speech therapy and graduated magna cum laude. She worked as a speech therapist in her own practice in Brussels from 1995 to 1999. She also worked in several Brussels schools. She earned a master's degree in psychology at the Université catholique de Louvain in 2002 with honours (cum laude). Mathilde became the first member of the Belgian royal family with a Belgian university degree. She also took a ten-day leadership course at Harvard University in 2011.
Mathilde speaks French, Dutch, English and Italian. She is also able to speak basic Spanish. Her mother, a member of an old Polish aristocratic Komorowski family but who has lived most of her life outside Poland, did not teach her Polish, thinking that it would not be necessary. Therefore, she knows only a few words of Polish.
Jonkvrouw Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz met Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant while playing tennis in 1996. In September 1999, the Belgian Royal Court announced the engagement of Prince Philippe to Mathilde. Mathilde was presented to the press and public at the Castle of Laeken on 13 September 1999. The announcement of Mathilde's engagement to the Belgian heir-apparent Prince Philippe came as a surprise to the country. Mathilde married Philippe on 4 December 1999 in Brussels, civilly at the Brussels Town Hall and religiously at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. Mathilde's bridal gown was designed by Édouard Vermeulen. She was made Duchess of Brabant and a Princess of Belgium on 8 November 1999 (published on 13 November 1999 and effective from 4 December 1999). The couple reportedly spent their honeymoon in the Maldives and India.
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.
The couple have four children:
Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant, born 25 October 2001 at Erasmus Hospital in Anderlecht, Brussels
Prince Gabriel, born 20 August 2003 at Erasmus Hospital in Anderlecht, Brussels
Prince Emmanuel, born 4 October 2005 at Erasmus Hospital in Anderlecht, Brussels
Princess Eléonore, born 16 April 2008 at Erasmus Hospital in Anderlecht, Brussels
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.
Queen Mathilde is a godmother to Princess Alexia of the Netherlands and Princess Isabella of Denmark. 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. Belgian tradition stated that the seventh daughter from an uninterrupted line of girls has the privilege of asking the Queen to be her godmother.
King Albert II announced on 3 July 2013 that he would abdicate in favour of Philippe on 21 July 2013. Approximately one hour after King Albert II's abdication, Prince Philippe was sworn in as King of the Belgians. Upon his accession, Mathilde became the first queen consort of native Belgian nationality. (An earlier Belgian king, King Leopold III, had a Belgian second wife, Lilian, Princess of Réthy, who was not given the title of queen). Their eldest child, Princess Elisabeth, became heir apparent and is expected to become Belgium's first queen regnant.
Queen Mathilde is involved with a range of social issues including education, child poverty, intergenerational poverty, the position of women in society and literacy.
Since 2009, Queen Mathilde has been the honorary president of Unicef Belgium. She serves as the World Health Organization's Special Representative for immunization. She also the honorary president of the Breast International Group, a non-profit organisation for academic breast cancer research groups from around the world.