After years of physical misery, nasty rumors and false fabrications, the princess is back.
Suddenly she’s back. In the media and at events, with even something of a smile on the face. Princess Charlene of Monaco seems to have started a charm offensive, after years of physical misery, nasty rumors and false fabrications.
Her marriage was on the verge of divorce. Prince Albert (65) and they would never have loved each other. She would live in Switzerland. She would hate her life as a princess. Her in-laws would hate her. She would be shy about work. Depressed. And sick. It would be a matter of waiting before the bomb exploded in Monaco.
For years, reports like this appeared about Princess Charlene (46). And all the while she let it happen in silence, until it became increasingly difficult (especially for the French media) to maintain that the problems in Monaco were really that big. Charlene has been popping up constantly in recent months. In the afternoon, in a hip outfit from Akris, to pick up her twins Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella from school or to run an errand. With her husband at the coronation of Charles III. In the stands at matches. At the side of husband Prince Albert at countless fundraisers. And during solo working visits to babies, seniors and charities.
Society gossip
In fact, in the 12.5 years that she has been Princess of Monaco, she has never been so ubiquitous. And she has never looked so happy and confident. The fact is that she has had a difficult time since she met Prince Albert in 2000. In 2005 they came out as a couple and from that moment on she was gossiped about mercilessly by society and the media, diligently helped by sources within the court and people like Nicole Coste, the mother of Albert’s illegitimate eldest son Alexandre, a publicity-hungry lady who called Charlene likes to portray as an evil stepmother.
Charlene is not of nobility and is known for being earthy and down to earth. In her time as a professional athlete, she was quite outspoken, with a love of bad jokes that she had to learn to limit as Albert’s partner. Just as everything about her needed to be ‘polished’, according to some courtiers.
In the five years before the engagement, she lived alone in an apartment in Monte Carlo: she missed swimming, she was lonely and had difficulty mastering French. Love was there. “I was in Monte Carlo for a swimming competition when I saw the prince for the first time,” she says. “I was 22 at the time and focused on my sports career, I was not emotionally open to a relationship. But when I met Albert, I felt a deep sense of destiny. It’s a bit cliché to say my knees buckled, but they did. I knew he was the one.”
You can read the entire article about Charlene’s comeback in the latest Glamial. Now in stores!
Text: Ella Vermeulen | Image: NL Image
