‘It’s karma’: Albert ex’s verdict on ill Charlene
POOR Princess Charlene of Monaco has withdrawn from public life as she recovers from ‘exhaustion, both emotional and physical’, but her stepson’s mother, Nicole Coste, has precious little sympathy.
‘I don’t care what’s going on with her,’ Nicole tells me at a party in Marylebone. ‘Why should I?’
Former Air France stewardess Nicole, 49, has an 18-yearold son, Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste, with Charlene’s husband, Prince Albert, 63. ‘Everything that is happening to her is karma,’ claims Nicole, who has not forgiven exOlympic swimmer Charlene, 43, for allegedly putting Alexandre in the palace’s staff wing before her £53 million wedding in 2011.
This summer, Nicole and her son were invited to one of the highlights of Monaco’s social scene, the Red Cross Ball, while Charlene was being treated for a mysterious illness 5,000 miles away in her native South Africa. ‘The people in Monaco love me more than they do Charlene,’ she claims. ‘They really love and respect me.’ Nicole adds that she remains ‘close’ to Albert, with whom she had a six-year clandestine relationship. ‘I have known this man for 25 years,’ she says.