Monégasques celebrate
MONACO: Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene’s 5-month-old twins were baptised at the Cathedral of Monaco, yesterday.
The couple were greeted by cheers as they posed for the crowds with their daughter Princess Gabriella and son Prince Jacques, after the ceremony.
The twins were dressed in traditional white christening gowns, while their mother looked elegant in a Dior Haute Couture 2015 ivory top with a matching knee-length skirt and court shoes.
The twins arrived at the cathedral with their nannies in matching white christening gowns by Baby Dior and were met there by their parents.
Prince Albert’s sisters, Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie, were both in the pews for the ceremony, along with Caroline’s children – Andrea, Pierre and Alexandra.
Princess Stephanie’s daughters, Pauline Ducruet and Camille Gottlieb, were also in attendance for the royal family.
Charlene’s parents, Lynette and Michael Whittstock, had travelled from South Africa for the event, with their sons Gareth and Sean.
Charlene’s brother, Gareth, had a key role at the ceremony after he was chosen by the couple to be godfather to Gabriella, while the princess’s godmother is Nerine Pienaar, who is married to former Springbok captain François Pienaar.
The twins were exactly 5 months old yesterday – Princess Charlene gave birth to them by caesarean section at the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco on December 10.
The babies were born within minutes of each other, with Gabriella arriving first at 5.04pm and Jacques following at 5.06pm.
Despite being the younger, it will be Prince Jacques who succeeds his father on the throne, thanks to Monaco’s continued use of Salic law which states that male heirs always take precedence over their older sisters.
She did, however, get a title, becoming the Countess of Carlades, while Crown Prince Jacques is styled Marquis of Baux – a name always given to the first born son.
The birth of the twins has put an end to one of Europe’s longest running dynastic sagas, with Prince Albert’s apparent disinclination to marry and have legitimate heirs forcing his father, Prince Ranier, to make a rare change in the law in the run-up to his death, in 2005.
Although Albert has two other children Jazmin, 22, and Alexandre Coste, 11, neither are eligible to inherit the throne of Monaco because they were born out of wedlock.
Had no legitimate heir been born to Albert, Monaco would have been absorbed into France, a fact that forced Prince Ranier to make alternative succession plans that would have seen his daughters’ children accede the thrown of the principality.
But happily, Albert went on to marry South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock in 2011 with whom he has now produced not one but two legitimate heirs.
Should anything happen to the twins and their parents, Albert’s eldest sister, Princess Caroline, would inherit with her sons, Andrea and Pierre Casiraghi, who are next in line. – Daily Mail