Royal blood

DNA matching has been helpful in reuniting separated family members.

Two women born in India but adopted by different Dutch couples when they were babies became close friends during their teens after meeting at an event organized by their adoption agency in the Netherlands.

Since the meeting, Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen, who were born in the early 1980s and adopted from two different orphanages in Mumbai, kept in touch by writing to each other about their personal lives, the BBC reported. Their communication stopped 15 years ago when Meena became busy with motherhood and Minal moved to France.

In 2017, Meena attended a meeting of adoptees from India where she heard about DNA testing and decided to take a test herself, according to the BBC. She found no match in the test results.

In May, Minal reconnected with Meena through Facebook and shared the result of her own DNA test, taken in April. When Meena checked the result against hers in the DNA test app, they matched 100 percent, and right then they realized they were sisters.

Meanwhile, a Belgian car salesman is assured of a fortune in the future.

Clément Vandenkerckhove, 26, took a DNA test six months ago with Prince Laurent, the 63-year-old younger brother of Belgium’s King Philippe, CNN reported. The prince agreed to the paternity test at a hospital about six months ago, and their DNA matched.

The salesman is the son of singer Wendy Van Wanten, whose real name is Iris Vandenkerckhove, who met the prince in the 1990s at a fashion show in Paris. The singer and the prince had a romantic relationship that was cut short by his father, the former king, who disapproved of it.

Van Wanten informed Clément that Prince Laurent was his father when he turned 16. At age 20, he called the prince and informed him that he was his son, leading to the paternity test.

Prince Laurent has registered his paternity of Clément with Belgium’s civil registry.