Prince Albert never married, but he fathered an illegitimate daughter, Valerie Marie. Born 3 April 1900 in
Liptovský Mikuláš,
Hungary,
Austria-Hungary, she was placed almost immediately after her birth with Anna Rosenthal and her husband Rubin Schwalb, of
Jewish origin. On 15 April 1931, shortly before his death, Albert wrote to her, admitting to her his paternity. After this, on 12 May she changed her surname from Schwalb, the name of her foster family, to "zu Schleswig-Holstein". The name of Valerie Marie's mother was never made public and has never been identified. Albert told no one. He did inform his two sisters that the woman was of "high noble birth". On 28 June 1925, in
Vienna, Valerie Marie (before Albert's acknowledgement of paternity) married the lawyer Ernst Johann Wagner, but divorced him on 14 February 1938; the childless marriage was formally annulled in
Salzburg on 4 October 1940. When she intended to marry again, it became important to establish her parentage officially, as the
Nuremberg Laws prohibited marriages between
Jews and
Aryans. This was done with the assistance of her aunts, Princesses
Helena Victoria and
Marie Louise; they signed a statement attesting to her paternal lineage on 26 July 1938, officially acknowledging her. In
Berlin-
Charlottenburg on 15 June 1939, a civil marriage took place between her and Prince Engelbert-Charles, 16th
Duke of Aarschot and 10th Duke of
Arenberg, Head of the (formerly Sovereign)
House of Arenberg (1899-1974) and, after the annulment of her first marriage, a religious ceremony took place in
Münster near
Westfalen, on 9 October 1940; like her first marriage, this union was childless too. Valerie Marie died in Mont-Baron,
Nice,
France, on 14 August 1953 in an apparent
suicide. ==Honours and awards==