It's Official - Twins on the Way!

The Princely Palace has finally confirmed what has long been rumored: Their Serene Highnesses Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco are going to be the parents of twins. Additional congratulations for that! It will be very nice to have a mom, dad and children in the palace again, it has been far too long. Just an extra word though for those reading the hysterical headlines at places like the Daily Mail, this is not causing any confusion or worry over the succession. There is absolutely nothing rule-testing about having twins, it will be the same as with any siblings, it is just that in this case they are arriving much closer together. If the twins are a boy and a girl, the boy will become heir to the throne. If the twins are both boys, the first one out of the gate (so to speak) wins the race for the crown of Monaco. If it is to be twin girls, likewise, the first to arrive will displace HRH Princess Caroline and ultimately succeed to the throne. Perfectly simple, no fuss, no confusion.

Stylish Ladies

HSH Princess Charlene wearing the famous

"Ocean Tiara"

Jazmin Grace Grimaldi at the premier of the

Nicholas Cage film "Joe" in New York

Princess Charlene Keeping Busy

 On Tuesday afternoon this week, HSH Princess Charlene attended the opening of the "Monte-Carlo Munchkins Club" for the care of children.

 Tuesday morning HSH Princess Charlene attended the official opening of the first "Starbucks" coffee shop franchise in the Principality of Monaco.

And on Tuesday night HSH Princess Charlene met with "Soweto Gospel Choir" from South Africa at the Grimaldi Forum, sponsored by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The group has won many awards around the world including more than one Grammy in the United States.

Princess Charlene, Ambassador

Recently, HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco was named Ambassador for "Peace and Sport", a cause the Sovereign Prince himself has long supported. Their goal is foster greater friendship and cooperation through athletics and sporting events around the world.

Albert, Charlene and Stephanie Videos

Princess Charlene Reflects on the Wedding

In a recent interview with the Times HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco talked about married life and even addressed the unpleasantness caused by the slanderous gossip rags on the day of her wedding to the Sovereign Prince. She made clear that all the rumors were "categorical lies" which anyone with half a brain should have known from the start, however, the media being as it is, the Princess had to comment on it. Still, she says her wedding was the best three days of her life and seems rather like a dream when looked back on. She said she still sometimes marvels that the Eagles played at her wedding, one of many indications of how far she has come from the simple, girl-next-door in South Africa where she grew up. However, she admitted that the rumors made things difficult and put extra strain on what was already an immense undertaking -as any royal wedding is bound to be. It must have been extremely difficult for her and the Princess related how, at the end of the ceremony, all the worry, all the joy and all the mixed emotions finally came out and tears started to run down her face, which she immediately realized would be seen by everyone and possibly taken the wrong way. Bless her.

The newest Princess of Monaco also talked about how royal life has been treating her since the big day. She talked about her Princess Charlene Foundation, part of which is devoted to teaching Monegasque and French children how to swim, combining her lifelong passion for swimming with her love of children. It really is a perfect fit and she also talked about the fashion show she organized and her goal of bringing the children of all classes together in various ways such as a recent project to have the youngsters design their own school uniforms. In the world of royalty, the Princess of Monaco related that she is very fond of the new Queen Maxima of The Netherlands. Also coming from outside of Europe and marrying into an old royal house, the two have some things in common and Princess Charlene said that the Dutch Queen has been "unbelievably supportive if I need anything". When asked, the Princess also had nothing but kind words for the Duchess of Cambridge and praise for how well she has handled herself since becoming part of the British Royal Family. Since the Duchess is due to give birth shortly this, of course, prompted a question about future children for the Prince and Princess of Monaco. She said that because the two travel so much it is something that will take time, that she is not putting any pressure on herself (good to hear) but that "it will happen". We will be waiting eagerly.

Swedish Royal Wedding

HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco represented the Principality and the House of Grimaldi at the wedding last Saturday of HRH Princess Madeleine of Sweden and New York banker Chris O'Neill. Here the Princess arrives alongside TRH the Earl and Countess of Wessex.

Princess Charlene chats with TRH Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. They do have an odd "almost" connection. Both princesses are from former parts of the British Empire and married into European royalty and both met their husbands through the Olympic games (though in very different ways).  

Princess Charlene on the Cover of Vogue Japan

Where Was Princess Charlene?

Some people must have thought the Sovereign Prince looked a bit lonely at the recent Dutch inauguration and have asked, 'where was Princess Charlene'? She was in South Africa, doing some essential work for her new Princess Charlene Foundation and standing as the matron of honor at the wedding of her best friend (who was probably not thinking about the Dutch Royal Family when she made out her wedding schedule). The Princess Charlene Foundation has funded a new swimming pool at Lahee Park in Pinetown where the Princess herself once trained for her Olympic swimming career at which is now home base for swim champion Chad le Clos. In an interview the Princess said that thoughts of motherhood are not far from her mind these days, that she initially took a 'wait and see' attitude on the subject but expects that once her foundation is fully up and running in a couple of months she will expect some progress on the baby front. She is ready to be a mom and I have no doubt she will be a great one as the Princess has always seemed to be at her best when surrounded by little ones. I also have no doubt that, if a little boy happens to come along, Princess Caroline and the Casiraghi trio will breath a sigh of relief (or Andrea at least). Just to be clear, I am just as certain that Andrea would make a fine 'Prince Albert III' but the Casiraghi trio have all always rather enjoyed their freedom to pursue their own interests and having royal duties and responsibilities would likely be seen as crimping their style. I'm sure they would be more happy than anyone to see the Grimaldi-Polignac line continue and let the Casiraghis carry on doing their own thing.

MM Video: Charlene, Princess of Monaco

The Princess and the Junior Rugby Team

Last Saturday, HSH Princess Charlene took in a junior rugby game at the Louis II Stadium. For the benefit of American readers, rugby is a little like American football but without all of the starting and stopping. After the game was over the Princess awarded the trophy to the Monegasque junior rugby team. Way to go guys! The Princess looked radiant and, surrounding by sports and children, she was certainly in her element.

Christmas and a New Foundation

It has finally happened, the Princess Charlene Foundation is up and running (you can check out the website here). The focus of the new foundation will be helping the vulnerable, particularly children, through the benefits of sport, with a particular emphasis on those sports the Princess herself is most fond of such as rugby and (of course) swimming. And, with Christmas just around the corner, it was time for Santa Claus to make his appearance at the Princely Palace and Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene were on hand to help Santa in handing out gifts to all the good little Monegasque girls and boys (which is all of them I'm sure). It is so very loyal and patriotic of Santa Claus to always dress in the Monegasque national colors isn't it?

"Remember kids, only recycled wrapping paper!"

"And what do you want for Christmas?" (besides an heir to the throne...)

"So, what do you think, this many of our own? You up for it?"

Honor for Princess Charlene

A proud day of continued tradition in the Principality of Monaco as HSH Prince Albert II has appointed his worthy consort, HSH Princess Charlene, a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Charles, the highest order of knighthood in the gift of the House of Grimaldi. The presentation was made in the ice lounge of the Princely Palace. The Order of St Charles was established on March 15, 1858 by HSH Prince Charles III as the preeminent chivalric order of Monaco, given for service to the state and/or the Sovereign Prince. So far, the appointments made by Prince Albert II (of the Grand Cross grade) have been to foreign heads of state. I hope now we will soon have a formal portrait of Princess Charlene in all her ribbons and medals. In any event, congratulations to Her Serene Highness on joining the ranks of the Order of Saint-Charles.

Gala for Princess Charlene Foundation

On Saturday, the Princely couple were off to South Africa where the SBM (which owns most of the major hotels and casinos in Monaco) sponsored a special gala dinner with an appropriately South African theme at the Monte Carlo Opera House to benefit the new Princess Charlene Foundation. Maybe this will help them finally get their website up and running -I mean, it's been a year people, you should have something up there by now. One has to wonder if anyone among the locals there even noticed that Prince Albert was present? Princess Charlene is such a star and beloved daughter in that part of the world, but by now I expect all princes everywhere are used to getting less attention than their glamorous princesses. Anyway, once that was done, Princess Charlene was back in Europe, going solo at Fashion Week in Paris with all the other stunning, stylish people.

Princess Charlene Visits Grandma

HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco made a surprise visit to South Africa last Sunday to visit her grandmother, Sylvia Wittstock, on the occasion of her 91st birthday -quite an accomplishment. The spry South African said, "This is the best day of my life, I am 91 years old and I feel great!" It was a special family gathering at the Rynpark Old Age Home with Princess Charlene being joined by her parents Mike and Lynette and brothers Gareth and Saun. Princess Charlene had not seen her grandmother in some time and was very excited to make the trip. And, while in South Africa, the Princess was able to meet again with South African swimming sensation and now Gold medalist Olympian Chad Le Clos. Of the South African swim team she hosted in Monaco, Princess Charlene said, "I am very proud of them, especially Chad, I have known him since he was 11-years-old. They have made me proud."

Princess Charlene Cheers South Africa to Victory

The South African swim team had a very good showing at these Olympic games with Chad le Clos becoming an international star for his accomplishments which included beating the record-holding Michael Phelps of the USA by 0.2 seconds in one race. The South African swimmers have earned two gold medals and one silver medal and, through it all, no one was cheering harder for them than HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco who donated training facilities to her countrymen for their preparations for the Olympics and who has been giving them moral support every step of the way. Perhaps even a little advice from someone who is herself a veteran Olympic swimmer. The Princess consort was very emotionally involved and could not help shedding a few tears at the moment of triumph when the South African national anthem was played at the gold medal ceremony.

Team South Africa was very appreciative of all the help and support Princess Charlene gave them. In an interview, head coach Graham Hill said that the assistance of Princess Charlene and their stay in Monaco had really helped build up the confidence of the team and was very grateful for the hospitality Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene had shown to them. The team psychologist even went so far as to say that the moral support of Princess Charlene, with her experience as an Olympic swimmer, had been the key to their success, citing her presence at the pool during their training, always encouraging them and helping to keep them calm and focused as well as her moral support at the games themselves. The Princess took the time to talk to the swimmers, lift their spirits and give them the reassurance that only a veteran can. In addition to providing for their training and stay in Monaco, the Princess also took care of many other minor things for them and also helped make sure they enjoyed their stay in Monaco and have some fun while in the principality. It is great that Princess Charlene was able to be such a help to Team South Africa and it is great to see how much they appreciated it. Long live the Princess!

Princess Charlene - A Classic

Charlene's Turtle Tuesday

HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco was sportin' a new "do" in the strong winds on the roof of the Oceanographic Institute on Tuesday as she opened a new area called "Turtle Island". The new inhabitants are seven large African turtles HSH Prince Albert II brought back from his visit to Mali earlier this year, a gift from President Amadou Toumani Toure. The Princess consort unveiled a large stone marker, naming the new area, and despite the high winds seemed to have a good time talking with the crowd of children in attendance and playing with the turtles. That is, I think, the best thing about the new Turtle Island, sure to make it a favorite with visiting children (or tactile adults like yours truly); which is that it is not one of those exhibits where one can look but must not touch. This is an interactive area where visitors can actually handle the turtles, which always leaves a bigger impression.

Princess Charlene Interview By the Sun Herald

What is it really like to be in the presence of royalty? John Elder spends a weekend with Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco.

When a bus drops a swarm of children at the front steps of the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, they are quietly sent around to the back entrance. Their chatter drops to a hush, and one little lad in outsize green-framed specs looks back nervously … perhaps as Lot’s wife did just before she turned into a pillar of salt. Standing in front of the main doors is a ferrety man with wrap-around sunglasses, a cheerless slit of a mouth and Terminator posture. He reeks of one thing: “Don’t even think about it.” Waiting off to the side are swimmer Sophie Edington and former Olympian Craig Jackson, a squad of diplomats, and a nuggety fellow named Lotfi Maktouf.

We’re all waiting for Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco to arrive, but the mood isn’t entirely serene. I’m on the other side of the entrance, under strict instructions to keep my distance, hold my tongue and otherwise act “humbly”. I will get my interview with Her Serene Highness later in the day. For the moment though, I’m not to even say, “Hello, how are you doing?” because it hasn’t been scheduled. Maktouf, a businessman and royal confidant, begs me, “Don’t give me a hard time today … Earn your afternoon interview.” In his eagerness for everything to go smoothly, he is generating a weird kind of anxiety.

Meanwhile, I look at the security guard’s stone features and wonder if the princess herself might be similarly forbidding. Since her marriage to Prince Albert of Monaco in July last year, she’s been routinely dubbed “the runaway bride” because of reports that she got cold feet in the lead-up to the wedding, and was stopped by police at the airport while attempting to “flee the country” and return to her family in South Africa.

Maktouf has told me he was having lunch with Charlene “on the prince’s instructions” on the very day she was said to be hot-footing it elsewhere, but it’s a banned topic for discussion with the princess. And yet it seems to have clung to her public image. It’s a story from which she can make no easy escape, in part because she can come across as aloof and even charmless in television interviews, suggesting she’s very much on the defensive. In one interview, following a charity swim, she looks off to the side as she talks, doesn’t smile and her tone remains flat. In another, in a palace-like living room, she holds herself in a mild hunch as if physically hurt. She verges on a smile, but it could as easily be the ambivalent expression one presents to an intrusive stranger on a train.

Last December, however, a more ebullient and emotional princess was revealed when Charlene was the recipient of the Golden Heart award at the Ein Herz fur Kinder (A Heart for Children) ceremony in Berlin. The award was in recognition of her long commitment to teaching disadvantaged South African children to swim. Even so, in smiling footage and photographs from the ceremony, her eyes look startled, even pained. And so one question hangs over the princess, in a media-ruled world where princesses are eaten alive: “What’s she really like?”

This is what I’m thinking when a luxury Holden appears and there is Her Serene Highness on the back seat. She emerges with the beautiful and vulnerable gait of a giraffe, almost casual in a pale-pink pants suit (or is it that fashionable but tricky colour, “nude”?), with a blonde ponytail and the face of an excited schoolgirl who must remind herself to be a little solemn, as if she is in fact one of those children elected to present flowers to princesses.

She’s clearly excited to see Craig Jackson, a childhood hero and coach, and Sophie Edington, a competitor from her days on the international swimming circuit and, more importantly, a friend. Edington attended the wedding in Monaco and seems to be the most relaxed person present. There is, however, a moment of formality, when various members of the party bob their heads while shaking Charlene’s hand. I’ve been told that when I meet theprincess, I need to give a little bow. This has been stressing me out; I’ve never bowed to anyone before. I’d been hoping to get some instruction, but this head bobbing seems insufficiently deferential.

The party then wanders through the doors and into the pool area. A group of children are standing in two lines, shyly agog. Later, when I ask Charlene if little girls treat her like a rock star, she says: “I don’t know. Do they treat me like a rock star? For me …I don’t know myself any differently. I’ve always been surrounded by children during my swimming career. Giving them advice. I don’t feel any different among children.” Her Serene Highness was an Olympic swimmer, a Commonwealth Games medallist, and her visit to the aquatic centre is a nostalgic one: she took out a gold medal for backstroke in the 2002 World Cup here. In South Africa, as in Australia, sporting champions are a kind of royalty, anyway. Kids have always looked up to her.

When the children dive into the pool and perform a series of drills, Her Serene Highness stands close to the edge – not noticing or caring that the bottoms of her trousers are getting damp – her hands behind her back, chatting and at ease with her friends, but her eyes are often fixed on what the swimmers are doing. When they start kicking off the side and doing tumble turns over the lane rope, she cranes forward and seems to be making mental notes. Later she tells me, “I was learning something. I’m always looking at form and technique [for coaching] and I hadn’t seen that before. I think I’ll copy it.”

After the demonstration, and a brisk walking tour, the princess heads to the centre’s modest café, settles onto one of the plastic chairs and sips at a cappuccino while swapping stories with Jackson and Edington. When others are speaking, Charlene tends to rub at the cuticles of her thumbs with her fingertips – or at least she does when there’s a giant journalist sitting nearby noting down her every gesture. I have long thought how rotten it would be to have people constantly noting your every move and gesture, but here I am doing it. Is it any wonder if she freezes in the relentless glare of media curiosity? But here, in this cafe where little kids are running around with half-eaten sausage rolls in their hands, when Charlene speaks to her mates, she forgets who is watching and her hands paint wild pictures in the air.

Because she has such long, elegant arms, she takes up a lot of space with this gesticulation. Her face is equally expressive. Her eyes almost pop when she’s telling a yarn; her mouth draws wide with amazement at what she’s recounting. She is, in short, a live wire.

An hour later I talk to John Kelly by phone. John is Prince Albert’s cousin, and Grace Kelly’s nephew. Like Charlene, John Kelly was in Australia for the opening of the fabulous Grace Kelly: Style Icon exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery. He told me about Grace at the annual Kelly family gatherings at their beach house in Ocean City, New Jersey. “I’d be hanging around as the youngster, and Grace would be sitting at the table playing cards and gossiping and laughing and telling stories. Just having a good time with her family.”

The more he talked, the more I thought about Charlene unselfconsciously hamming it up with her mates. I’d been asked by Lotfi Maktouf not to “push Charlene into a corner with comparisons between her and Princess Grace”, but I couldn’t help but think of the old notion that men end up marrying their mothers. The story goes that Grace was the family’s light and soul. When John visited his cousin in Monaco, he recalled the family playing exuberantly “in the rec room” as happy families do. After Princess Grace died in 1982, the rec room was closed down. Prince Albert told his cousin that Prince Rainier could no longer bear to go in there. The light had gone out. So perhaps there’s something restorative at play in Albert’s marriage to Charlene. For as John Kelly says: “She is just too lovely and a lot of fun. A really good gal. I just know that she and Albert have a great time together. They are fun to hang out with. She makes him laugh and have fun.”

He also mentions that Charlene, like Grace, is a person of great thoughtfulness and compassion. During the lead up to Charlene’s wedding, John’s sister Maura died. He says Charlene took the time to call and let him know she had commissioned a special rose for the palace garden in Maura’s name. “It was a wonderful gesture, very touching … that in the midst of getting ready for the wedding, she took the time to think of that and think of Albert’s cousin and include us in her thoughts. I just find her to be a pretty special person.”

I’d meant to go home and change into a good suit for the exclusive interview with Her Serene Highness. But the day had passed talking to Charlene’s friends and family and I realised I had run out of time and would have to attend the interview in a sports coat, chinos, a blue shirt and riding boots. I looked like an old farmer who’d come to town for the royal show. As I walked up the hill to the Grand Hyatt hotel, my shirt soaked through with sweat. I’d been told so many things not to ask the Princess - even about her love of South African ethnic poetry and contemporary art – that I was freaking out. Maktouf said he’d be sitting in on the conversation “and would be interrupting, making corrections … I will stop you from asking the wrong thing.” He said one thing that was crucial for me to understand was that Charlene was under permanent scrutiny, and that every word she says is “carefully weighed”. Meanwhile, I’d tried out various ways of bowing in front of a mirror – and looked like a goose.

As I walked into Charlene’s suite, she turned and threw out a warm and enchanting hand. For some reason, I clicked my heels together like a German count, dropped my head in salute, and in a voice better suited to a late-night telephone call said, “Your Serene Highness, hello.” She laughed easily at the fool that I was, and continued to laugh throughout the interview. And what did we talk about in those 15 minutes? Somehow it all came back to swimming.

She told stories of “stalking” the South African Olympic swimming team when she was 12, keen to watch their every move, lying on the bottom of the pool and looking up as they trained above. When on holidays, she says, people came up and asked if she’d teach their kids to swim. While not everybody can be a champion, she believes that “when you teach a child to swim, to help them further themselves, they then have the self-esteem to go even further”.

These days she loves ocean swimming. I suggested this must be more meditative than training for races. “Yes, I just love to get in and swim … When I retired [in 2007] it was a bit difficult because I was always contemplating whether I should come back or not. But watching all the times now, it’s like, ‘Whoa, I’m definitely not coming back.’ So now I can just swim for fun.”

I asked if the discipline of swim training had helped her adjust to a public life as an ambassadorial princess where there is always the demand to be on. “We do have a demanding schedule. When we do have to time to relax with friends, that’s great … but really, I’ve never known anything different. That’s just the way it is.”

The following day, Charlene and party drove to Bendigo, where she was opening the Grace Kelly exhibition. The word of her visit was kept so quiet that, outside the official party that included the Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and his wife, and dozens of schoolchildren waving flags, there was only a small scrum of regular folk who gathered over the hour beforehand to see what was happening. It was an almost nostalgically country setting, and a weirdly magical one in which Charlene appeared out of nowhere after the drumming pageant of Chinese dragons was done parading back and forth.

She emerged with her hair down and behind her ears. Her dress (she insisted on a local designer, in this case Johanna Johnson) featured jewel-like borders along the neckline, shoulders and waist. She paid no heed to the media gathering but stopped to pose for children with their digital cameras and phones, accepting flowers and cards and asking, “What’s your name?”

Her speech was a modest affair, paying tribute to Grace Kelly as an artist and style icon, and to Princess Grace as a mother. She started out with a sweet “g’day” and then struggled with nerves momentarily. I couldn’t help thinking of my question to her, as she relaxed in her hotel room the night before: did you dress up as a princess when you were a little girl?

“No. Never. I liked to dress up as Zorro.”

Facts about Charlene:

Born in Zimbabwe in 1978, Charlene Lynette Wittstock is the first of three children. Her swimming-coach mum sparked her interest in the sport at a young age.

Charlene and her family relocated to South Africa when she was 11.

By 15, she was a South African junior swimming champion.

At 22, Charlene was a member of the women’s 4 x 100m medley South African team, which finished fifth at the 2000 Olympics.

After fracturing her ankle, Charlene retired from competitive swimming aged 29.

At 33, Princess Charlene married Prince Albert II of Monaco. While the ceremony itself was small, more than 5000 Monégasques followed the proceedings from the palace square.

Visite de SAS La Princesse Charlène à Shanghai