Tributes have been paid to Prince Frederik of Nassau, who has died aged 22 in Paris from a genetic disease.
A statement from his family after his passing said the young Luxembourg royal had “a special capacity for positivity, joy, and determination”.
Describing Frederik as “my superhero”, his father Prince Robert of Luxembourg described his son’s brief life as a “short and beautiful existence”. Below we look at what we know about the late prince.
Born on 18 March 2002 in Aix-en-Provence in France, Frederik spent the first two years of his life living in England. He moved to Switzerland in 2004, first to Geneva and then to the Canton of Vaud.
His father is the reigning Grand Duke’s first cousin; his mother, Boston-raised Princess Julie of Nassau (née Ongaro).
Known as ‘the human jukebox’ to his brother Prince Alexandre, Frederik had a love of the arts. As well as music, his passions included film, television, gastronomy, nature, fossils and minerals, learning Italian, photography and art.
On 26 July, 2016, 14 year-old Frederik was diagnosed with PolG, a genetic condition that impacts energy production.
"In our family, there exists life before July 26th, 2016 and life after,” his parents said.
Speaking out about his condition in his organisation’s short film, Frederik said: “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.”
After being diagnosed, Frederik and his family became committed to advancing scientific research in hope of one day finding treatments for PolG. He participated in medical trials and cell lines in Switzerland, the United States and America to advance treatment research and as a potential way of repurposing molecules to help other PolG patients.
He was also actively followed by medical practitioners across Europe and North America but was mainly treated by the Necker Children’s Hospital, The Imagine Institute, and the Beaujean Hospital in Paris.
Together with his parents, he launched the POLG Foundation in 2021, where he played a key role as creative director.
As part of this, Frederik designed the Happy MITO clothing line to bring light humour to the daily struggles of living with his disease and to help others “remain positive and happy” with playfulness and colour.
Despite living with a disease that sapped energy from his body, his family described him as living with humour and boundless compassion right up until his last moments.
“Frederik found the strength and the courage to say goodbye to each of us in turn – his brother, Alexander; his sister, Charlotte; me; his three cousins, Charly, Louis, and Donall; his brother-in-law, Mansour; and finally, his Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Mark,” Prince Robert wrote on the Foundation’s website.
“He had already spoken all that was in his heart to his extraordinary mother, who had not left his side in 15 years.
“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.
“Even in his last moments, his humour, and his boundless compassion, compelled him to leave us with one last laugh….to cheer us all up.”
“Frederik was born with a special capacity for positivity, joy, and determination. When he was little, I would always say that if there is one child of ours that I would never need to worry about, it was him,” the Prince added.
