Crown Princess Elisabeth accompanied King to recording of National Day address
King Filip was not the only member of the Belgian royal family present at the recording on this year’s National Day speech. This year for the first time Crown Princess Elisabeth (17) accompanied her father to the recording of the speech. The speech was delivered in the King’s office at the Royal Palace in the centre of Brussels. The technical crew in charge of broadcasting the speech were from the VRT.
Princess Elisabeth will become Belgium’s first ever female Head of State when she eventually succeeds her father. Although still a pupil at the Atlantic College in Wales, the 17-year-old Crown Princess accompanied her father and her mother on Royal duties in recent months. Most notable was her recent visit to Kenya with her mother Queen Mathilde.
Now she has seen at first-hand how a televised speech is produced by accompanying King Filip to the recording of his National Day address.
Staff from the VRT gave Princess Elisabeth an explanation on how an autocue works. The King asked his daughter to come and stand next to him while he was rehearsing and she was able to see how he read from the autocue while he was being filmed. A little later the King explained to his daughter how you should read from the autocue with the correct diction and stress.
"You will need to get used to it”, King Filip told his daughter.
This was the third media appearance by the Crown Princess in recent months. Previously she accompanied King Filip on a visit to the Brussels Fire Service. She also accompanied her mother Queen Mathilde on a visit to Kenya as part of the Queen’s role as a Unicef ambassador.