27 August 2023 , 21:51
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A former hotel receptionist insists she is a Moroccan princess and entitled to inherit a massive fortune.
Jane Benzaquen, 70, claims to be the true daughter of the country’s late monarch, King Hassan II. She says her mother had an affair with the ruler when she was 17, which went on for at least two years.
At the time her mum was a shop assistant at a clothes shop in Casablanca. When Jane was born, she insists she was taken to Belgium and raised by a foster family.
She says she was never interested in finding out about her past, until she saw a photo of the king in 1999, when he died. Now she wants her position as a princess to be recognised - and says she should inherit the £4billion fortune.
Jane says King Hassan II met her mother when she worked in Casablanca (Getty Images)
King Hassan II with his five children - Jane's supposed half children (Sygma via Getty Images)Jane told the Times whilst watching the funeral she exclaimed ‘my father is dead’: She added: “I said, without thinking, ‘That’s my father, my father is dead. He [my son] looked at me and said, ‘What are you talking about?’”
Inside the dreamy hotel with a huge infinity pool right over a lagoon
“I look more like him [Hassan] than any of them. I would have preferred it if my father had been a taxi driver, someone who could at least recognise me as his daughter.
“Being unwanted as a child pursues you your whole life. I was filled with anger, the past was a Pandora’s box and I didn’t want to open it.”
Jane says her grandmother told her stories from her youth of an odd Mercedes which would arrive at their home and bring the family food and sometimes money. Sometimes her mother would get in the car, and be carried off for secret meets with the Moroccan ruler.
She knew, thanks to DNA tests, the name of her father on DNA tests was not her biological dad. Another showed her genetic roots come from North Africa and the Middle East.
As a result, she says the current ruler of Morocco - King Mohammed VI - is her half brother. Marc Uyttendaele, Jane’s lawyer, said: “A picture counts more than thousands of words. Having blue blood doesn’t mean you should be treated differently from anyone else.
“Jane Benzaquen grew up alone, like a weed in the garden, without the love of a biological father, without the love of a mother.”