Baby No 2 for Monaco’s Charlotte
Engaged and expecting – the Monaco beauty has a busy time ahead
FOR months she kept people guessing: was she or wasn’t she expecting another tot? Suspicions were first raised when Charlotte Casiraghi – the glamorous eldest child of Monaco’s Princess Caroline – arrived at the principality’s annual Rose Ball in March with an oversize Yves Saint Laurent stole draped over her black dress.
An odd choice for the 31-year-old, many fashion watchers said – she usually chooses numbers that hug her svelte figure.
But while onlookers were convinced they could glimpse a little bump beneath the mass of pale pink feathers, pregnancy rumours were eclipsed by the huge rock Charlotte sported on her ring finger.
She and film producer Dimitri Rassam (36) had just become engaged on a skiing holiday in Zürs, Austria – an occasion they were happy to confirm publicly. Yet nada about the pregnancy. Charlotte was then spotted at the Cannes Film Festival and later at the Met Gala in New York, and each time her outfits seemed carefully chosen to hide her middle from prying eyes: stylish but loose-around-the-waist dresses in Cannes, a bejewelled gown puckered around the midriff at the Met.
But a recent outing to the Monte Carlo International Horse Jumping Championship, where she arrived in a glittering halter dress, ended all the speculation. And a subsequent series of pictures of Charlotte on holiday in Monaco only served to confirm the obvious.
No doubt about it, Charlotte is about to become a mom again. A source within the Monegasque royal ranks says the baby is due “late this summer, early September” and will be Princess Caroline’s seventh grandchild.
The new arrival will join Raphaël (4), Charlotte’s son with her ex, Moroccanborn comedian Gad Elmaleh; and Dasha, Dimitri’s six-year-old daughter with his ex-wife, Russian model Masha Novoselova (33).
Charlotte and Dimitri were set to tie the knot in June but, according to Hola magazine, decided to delay the festivities until after the European summer – most likely so they can welcome the baby first.
Insiders believe the pair will wed at a low-key civil ceremony followed by a big celebration with family and friends on the Italian island of Pantelleria, where Dimitri’s actress mother, Carole Bouquet (60), owns an eight-hectare wine estate.
‘Charlotte isn’t after a high society wedding. It’s the last thing she wants’
“Charlotte isn’t after a high-society wedding,” a friend says. “It’s the last thing she wants. She’s a very private person and the less publicity she receives the better.”
The couple, who are often spotted running errands and enjoying date nights, live a low-key life in an apartment on Paris’ Left Bank, a trendy, upmarket part of the city that housed artists and writers in the past and is home to the Eiffel Tower and many other popular tourist attractions.
Charlotte and Dimitri share their home with little Raphaël and with Dasha when she comes to stay with her dad during the holidays.
“They enjoy family life,” an insider says. “They move around Paris pretty freely, unlike when they’re in Monaco [where] the paparazzi is always around.”
CHARLOTTE’S new baby will have no shortage of cousins to grow up with. Both her brothers expanded their broods recently – and Raphaël has plenty of playmates when the extended Grimaldi clan get together.
Andrea (34) and his wife, Tatiana Santo Domingo (34), welcomed Maximilian Rainier into the world four months ago and are also parents to Alexandre (5) and India (3).
Andrea, who throws himself into philanthropic efforts, doesn’t really need to work. His wife is worth a cool $2,3 billion (R30,4 billion) thanks to an inheritance from her wealthy Columbian grandfather, Julio Mario Santo Domingo.
Charlotte’s younger brother, Pierre (30), and his wife, Beatrice Borromeo (32), became parents for the second time three months ago when their second son, Francesco, was born. Their elder son Stefano is 18 months old.
Beatrice is independently wealthy too – she’s a member of the aristocratic Italian Borromeo family, and is a wellknown journalist and Italian television personality.
Pierre, once a playboy who often raised eyebrows for the number of fast cars he owned, helps run the construction company in Europe his father, Stefano, began. Stefano was just 30 when he died in a speedboat crash – the same age Pierre is now.
Princess Caroline was shattered when he died and took her three young children to live in a small French village.
“It took her a long time to get over it,” a palace source says. “He was the love of her life. Now that all the grandchildren are arriving, she’d love it if he were still around to see them growing up.”