Princess looks pensive in rare public outing with Albert and their children
PRINCESS Charlene of Monaco yesterday made her first public appearance with Prince Albert since last year after a series of mysterious illnesses kept her out of the limelight.
The 44-year-old appeared pensive as she posed for photographs with her husband and their seven-year-old twins, Gabriella and Jacques, at a Formula E motor race.
There has been speculation about the couple’s marriage as they have rarely been seen together since Charlene spent ten months in South Africa last year, after contracting an illness that delayed her return to the principality.
Although she was born in Zimbabwe, she grew up near Johannesburg from the age of 12.
After eventually returning to Monaco last November – which was the last time the couple were seen together publicly – Charlene left almost immediately for Switzerland to receive treatment for exhaustion. Her condition was described by royal insiders at the time as a ‘state of profound fatigue’.
The princess, a former Olympic swimmer, was pictured yesterday wearing an all-grey ensemble, pairing a wide-legged trouser suit with a matching top.
The Palace of Monaco has consistently denied reports of a rift between the couple, who met in 2000 and married in 2011. Rumours that they were incompatible were sparked from the outset when Charlene suffered an apparent dose of pre-wedding nerves that saw her trying to seek refuge in the South African embassy in Paris, which resulted in her being nicknamed ‘the runaway bride’.
In December 2020, allegations emerged that Prince Albert, 64, had fathered a love child with an unnamed Brazilian woman.
He has also fathered two other children outside of wedlock – Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, 29, the result of an affair with an American estate agent, and Alexandre GrimaldiCoste, 18, whose mother is a former air hostess.
Both children were removed from Monaco’s line of succession in return for large financial settlements.
She was nicknamed ‘the runaway bride’