Editing Paul-Henri Spaak (section)

== Personal background and life ==
Paul-Henri Spaak was born on 25 January 1899 in [[Schaerbeek]], [[Belgium]] into the prominent [[Spaak|Spaak-Janson family]].<ref>"Paul-Henri Spaak". ''Almanac of Famous People'', 9th edition. Thomson Gale, 2007.</ref> His maternal grandfather, [[Paul Janson]], was an important member of the [[Liberal Party (Belgium)|Liberal Party]]. His mother, [[Marie Janson]], was a socialist, and the first woman to enter the [[Belgian Senate]], and his father, [[Paul Spaak]], was a poet and playwright. Other noted members of his family included his uncle, [[Paul-Émile Janson]], who served as [[Prime Minister of Belgium]] from 1937 to 1938, and his niece, [[Catherine Spaak]], a movie star, singer and television presenter.<ref name = "Observer Profile">{{cite news|title = Profile: Paul-Henri Spaak |work=The Observer |location=UK | date = 13 January 1946 | page = 6}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title = Catherine Spaak Is Wed | work=The New York Times | date = 5 August 1972 | page = 13}}</ref>

Paul-Henri Spaak and his wife Marguerite Malevez were married in 1921 and had three children: diplomat [[Fernand Spaak]] (1923–1981), Marie Marguerite Spaak (1926–2000, later married British diplomat [[Michael Palliser]]), and [[Antoinette Spaak]] (1928–2020), the first Belgian woman to lead a political party, the [[Democratic Front of Francophones]]. In 1943 Malevez was arrested by the [[Gestapo]] as a member of a [[Belgian Resistance|resistance movement]] and imprisoned for a few weeks in [[Saint-Gilles Prison]] in Brussels. After his wife's death on 14 August 1964, he married 56-year-old Antwerp-born divorcee and longtime friend Simonne Rikkers Hottlet Dear on 23 April 1965. His brother was the screenwriter [[Charles Spaak]]. One of his granddaughters is the journalist and novelist [[Isabelle Spaak]], and one of his grandsons is the artist [[Anthony Palliser]].

During the 1940s, during his time in New York with the United Nations, he also had an affair with the American fashion designer [[Pauline de Rothschild|Pauline Fairfax Potter]] (1908–1976).

His son Fernand served in 1981 as chief of staff for [[Gaston Thorn]], [[president of the European Commission]], until he became the victim of his wife's [[murder–suicide]] on 18 July 1981.