Royal News Blog

Note: This article is from the Guardian.

This article titled “Prince Albert of Monaco marries Charlene Wittstock” was written by Kim Willsher in Paris, for The Guardian on Friday 1st July 2011 18.21 UTC

You wait decades for a fairytale royal wedding … and then two come along at the same time.

Just months after Britons turned out for the marriage of the Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the tiny principality of Monaco had its own happy ending when its ruler Prince Albert married former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock on Friday.

After days of would-she-wouldn’t-she, sparked by reports the bride had a severe case of cold feet, you could have cut the atmosphere in the palace throne room with a bone-handled silver knife.

When the couple walked into the lavish room lined with scarlet silk and damask – where Albert’s parents Prince Rainier and Hollywood’s Grace Kelly married 55 years ago – Charlene, wearing a Chanel sky-blue jacket and long dress, gave a weak smile. It did little to ease the tension. The groom’s face looked as sombre as his black suit.

Philippe Narmino, conducting the civil ceremony, spoke of the “joy” of celebrating the union, but some of those watching on big screens outside spoke of an atmosphere of sadness and an absence of signs of affection.

As South African Charlene, 33, was asked, in French, if she would marry Albert Grimaldi, Princess Stephanie, the groom’s younger sister, raised her eyes to the elaborately panelled ceiling depicting the history of Alexander the Great, as if invoking his help. Everyone held their breath.

Charlene said “oui”. Then Albert said “oui”. Outside, the crowds burst into applause. Inside, Stephanie breathed out, relaxed her shoulders and burst into tears.

Pronounced man and wife, the prince, 55, who had looked painfully serious throughout the formalities, winked at the new princess of Monaco.

It may have been unkindly labelled the “other wedding”, but the nuptials certainly lacked nothing in glitz, not to mention suspense and intrigue.

“We’ve waited a long time for this day,” one local resident told French journalists. “It’s time there was some happiness here.”

The palace public relations machine was forced into overdrive earlier in the week to deny a report in the French magazine L’Express that Charlene had attempted to flee Monaco, the Mediterranean playground for the rich and famous.

Officials described as “ugly rumours” and “unfounded lies” claims that Wittstock had fled to nearby Nice airport with a one-way ticket back to South Africa.

L’Express claimed she had discovered her husband-to-be’s private life was “not as exemplary as she had thought”. The palace said the reports were based on jealousy and aimed at spoiling a “happy event”. The couple later appeared arm in arm in Monaco on the eve of the wedding.

Later French press reports suggested she had wanted to call the wedding off amid claims that the prince, who has already admitted having two illegitimate children, had fathered a third child.

The prince and Wittstock have been together for five years. They met when she took part in swimming championships in Monaco but did not strike up a relationship until several years later.

More than 7,000 citizens were invited to post-ceremony cocktails on the square outside the palace, which was followed by a concert by the French composer Jean Michel Jarre.

A religious ceremony will take place on Saturday with an official dinner and a fireworks display attended by about 40 heads of state including the kings of Spain, Sweden, Lesotho and Belgium, and the presidents of France, Iceland, Ireland, Lebanon, Malta, Germany and Hungary. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are to represent Britain.

Albert and Charlene were guests at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in April but Britain’s newest royal couple could not attend as they are on an official visit to Canada.

The wedding will be followed on Saturday night by a gala dinner by the multi-Michelin starred French chef Alain Ducasse.

Charlene, who was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, grew up in South Africa where her father runs a computer business. She is said to have felt isolated and homesick in Monaco and confessed a few months ago that she had made “only two friends” in the principality.

The hotly denied rumours of her flight prompted French newspapers to revive the fabled curse of the Grimaldis, said to date back to 1297 when the first Grimaldi, Francesco the Spiteful, tricked the principality’s defenders by disguising himself as a monk seeking sanctuary who then slaughtered them all. In 1982, Princess Grace was killed in a car crash. Her eldest daughter, Princess Caroline, also lost a husband in a motorboat accident.

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