- Fervent Club Brugge supporter.
- During his political career, he was nicknamed "The Plumber" or "The Minesweeper" for his ability to negotiate political deadlocks.
- He was a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999.
- Dehaene also served as the chief enforcer of the football association, UEFA's, Financial Fair Play (FFP).
- He was the leading candidate to replace Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission, but British Prime Minister John Major vetoed the appointment. The Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santer was appointed as a compromise candidate instead.
- Between 2000 and 2007, he sat as mayor of Vilvoorde (Flanders).
- He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2014.
- Son of Albert, a Bruges neuropsychiatrist, and Andrée (nee Verstraete), he was born in Montpellier, France, while his family fled the invading German army. He attended a Jesuit school, and studied law and economics at the universities in Namur and Leuven.
- In 2005, Dehaene and his US-born wife, Celie Verbeke, published Cooking with Celie, a selection of favorite recipes.
- In July 2013 he was interrupted by a telephone call while enjoying a lunchtime barbecue at his home in Vilvoorde. He was meant to be at a television debate on the forthcoming abdication of King Albert II. Dehaene dashed to the studios and conducted the debate in a "salmon shirt, checked Bermuda shorts, sandals and a healthy glow". One style guru conceded that at least he avoided socks with sandals.
- He graduated as an agricultural engineer from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (1921).
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