as Mary Lilian Lucy Josepha Monique Baels on 28 November 1916 in London as 7th child and 4th daughter of Henri and Anna-Maria Baels, née Devisscher.
Lilian Baels was born in London, because of the outbreak of the First World War when her parents flew from Oostende to Great Britain.
Her father was already a politician at that time and became later e.g. Minister of Internal Affairs and made it to Governor of West-Flanders.
On 11 September 1941 Lilian Baels married King Leopold III religiousiously at the sculpture studio of her mother-in-law Queen Elisabeth on the estate of Laeken placed between the royal greenhouses, followed by a civil wedding on 6 December 1941. The order of the marriages was against the Belgian law as a civil wedding always should go ahead before a religious one.
Out of this marriage were born: Prince Alexander (1942-2009), Princess Marie-Chistine (1951-) and Princess Esmeralda (1956-).
Her husband had also three children from his first wife Queen Astrid: Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte (1927-2005), King Boudewijn (1930-1993) and Kind Albert II (1934-).
The Princess died on 7 June 2002 on the estate of Argenteuil in Waterloo, where she has lived with King Leopold since January 1961.
She is buried in the same tomb at the royal vault in Laeken together with her husband King Leopold and his first wife Queen Astrid.
This picture is since some years placed on the tomb after another one, the famous one showing the Princess in glamourous style.