Guy Van Den Steen
Belgian sculptor
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Count Guy van den Steen de Jehay (24 August 1906 – 20 December 1999) was a Belgian sculptor and aristocrat. He was the younger son of Belgian diplomat Werner van den Steen de Jehay, and nephew of Frédéric van den Steen de Jehay.[1]
Career
His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics.[2]
Restoration of the Chateau de Jehay
In the 1940s, Count Guy van den Steen inherited his family's ancestral home, the Chateau de Jehay. He reported that it was a 'dark, empty shell, surrounded by flat, uncultivated fields' at the time he came into possession of the Chateau.[3] Lady Moyra and Count Guy moved into the Castle in 1950,[4] and worked to restore the Chateau, and many Ormonde heirlooms can be found in the Chateau today.[5]
Marriages and family
Guy first married Marie-Estelle Barker in 1940; the couple were childless. Marie sued Guy for divorce in 1948, and she was granted a decree nisi in London on the grounds of desertion on 25 May 1948.[6] In 1947, Guy had begun an extramarital affair with British aristocrat Lady Moyra Weld-Forester, the daughter of George Butler, 5th Marquess of Ormonde and Sybil Butler, Marchioness of Ormonde.
In December 1947, Lady Moyra's husband Charles Weld-Forester sued her for divorce, alleging that she had committed adultery with Guy van den Steen "on the continent last summer".[7] Lady Moyra did not defend the suit, and a decree nisi was granted with costs against Count Guy van den Steen.
Guy and Moyra subsequently were married at the Chelsea Register Office London on 3 August 1948.[8] The couple had one child:
- Comte Gerard Fernand Georges Ghislain van den Steen de Jehay (10 October 1949 – 15 April 1985)
Lady Moyra died in 1959.
