Luxembourg’s Prince Frederik has died at age 22, several years after he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder. Find out more about his life and legacy.
The people of Luxembourg are in mourning.
The small European country’s Prince Frederik, the son of Grand Duke Henri‘s cousin Prince Robert and his wife Princess Julie, has died after a long battle with PolG mitochondrial disease, a rare genetic disorder. He was 22.
Robert announced March 7 that his son passed away in Paris March 1, one day after he called his parents, siblings Prince Alexander and Princess Charlotte, and other family members to his room to speak to him one last time.
“Frederik’s last question to me, prior to his other remarks was: ‘Papa, are you proud of me?'” the 56-year-old said in a statement on the website of the late prince’s PolG Foundation. “He had barely been able to speak for several days, so the clarity of these words was as surprising as the weight of the moment was profound.”
Robert said that while the “answer was very easy, and he had heard it oh so many times,” he understood his son “needed reassurance that he had contributed all that he possibly could in his short and beautiful existence and that he could now finally move on.”
“Frederik knows that he is my Superhero, as he is to all of our family, and to so very many good friends and now in great part thanks to his PolG Foundation, to so very many people the world over,” the late prince’s father said. “Part of his superpower was his ability to inspire and to lead by example.”
The PolG FoundationRobert also shared what Frederik told his other family members—including his mother “who had not left his side in 15 years—in his final moments.
The PolG Foundation“After gifting each of us with our farewells—some kind, some wise, some instructive—in true Frederik fashion, he left us collectively with a final long-standing family joke,” he said. “Even in his last moments, his humor, and his boundless compassion, compelled him to leave us with one last laugh….to cheer us all up.”
Instagram / The PolG FoundationFrederik, who died less than three weeks before his 23rd birthday, was 14 years when he was diagnosed with PolG mitochondrial disease, which is caused by gene mutations, is incurable and causes organ dysfunction and failure.
The PolG Foundation“When you’re a kid, you have all these dreams, all these aspirations, these things you want to do. The possibilities are endless,” the late prince said in a film about the disease that the PolG Foundation released last September. “I’m not sure I understood all the consequences of PolG when I first got diagnosed. It’s more subtle, where slowly, the world is getting smaller and smaller.”
Robert said that Frederik “always made it very clear that he did not want this dreadful disease to define him,” but that it did nonetheless, and ultimately helped define the mission of The POLG Foundation. “Here,” he added, “Frederik put his significant creative talents to work.”
The late prince’s dad said that he heard from a family friend that Frederik had once told him, “I am glad that I am the one who was born with this disease. Even though I’ll die from it….and even if my parents do not have the time to save me, I know that they will be able to save other children.”
