The Grand Ducal Court of Luxembourg has released a new photograph of Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess to mark her 34th birthday on 18 February 2018.

Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy was born on 18 February 1984 in Ronse, East Flanders in what is now part of Belgium.

She is the eighth and youngest child of Count Philippe de Lannoy and Alix della Faille de Leverghem (died 2012) and grew up on the Anvaing family estate in Belgian Hainaut with her many brothers and sisters.

Stéphanie has had a keen interest in classical music and learnt to play the piano and the violin and studied music theory.

The House of Lannoy can trace its ancestry back to the 13th Century nobility in Hainault.

Her ancestor Charles de Lannoy, Prince of Sulmona, Viceroy of Naples and generalissimo of Charles V’s armies distinguished himself in battle by defeating the French King François I at Pavia on 24 February 1525.

Maria Theresa granted the Lannoys the title of Count of the Holy Roman Empire and they acquired the family estate of Angvaing in 1871. They became involved in local issues, founding schools, including a missionary school in Salem, India.

Stéphanie attended Sancta Maria School in Ronse during her primary school years, before completing her high school years at Collège Sainte-Odile in northern France and graduated from the Institut de la Vierge Fidèle in Brussels in 2002.

She spent a year in Moscow studying languages and Russian literature so she speaks fluent in French, English and German and Luxembourgish.

Stephanie graduated with honours in Germanic philology (a combination of literary criticism, history and linguistics) from the Catholic University of Louvain.

Following her studies, Stéphanie worked as an intern at the Walloon Export Agency, followed by a job with an investment company.

She met Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and dated for two years before their engagement was announced on 26 April 2012.

They married in a civil ceremony at the Town Hall in Luxembourg City on 19 October 2012, followed by a religious ceremony in Notre Dame in Luxembourg.

Members the Belgian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Greek, Romanian, Jordanian Royal Families and Britain’s Earl and Countess of Wessex attended the wedding.

After the wedding service, the newly-weds travelled back to the Grand Ducal Palace where they appeared n the balcony and exchange a kiss in front of cheering crowds.

The Hereditary Grand Duke and Grand Duchess attended Princess Madeleine of Sweden’s wedding to Christopher O’Neill in 2013.

Princess Stéphanie has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Grand-Duc Jean Museum of Modern Art Foundation (MUDAM) since January 2016.

She has held the position of honorary president and administrator of De Mains de Maîtres association since May 2017, which aims to promote crafts in the Grand Duchy.

Patronages

• The Friends of the Museum of Art and History of Luxembourg
• Scienteens Lab – a research laboratory to encourage high school students’ interests in science.
• Blëtz asbl – a Luxembourg association which aims to help stroke victims.