 Five years later, in 1997, Herman de Coninck died from a heart failure in Lisbon, Portugal.Hemmerechts reported about this loss in the biographical "Taal Zonder Mij" (1998) which also contains some analyses of de Coninck's poetry.In 2007, Kristien Hemmerechts married Bart Castelein, with whom she has had a relationship since 1999.