Monaco: Prince Albert and Princess Charlene Are Suing Those French Newspapers Who Said Their Marriage Was A Sham, But Who Believes Them?

If you really want to know the score regarding these royals and other rich and famous people, don’t just go to TMZ.com, The Daily Mail, or NNDB.  Hold your nose and go and consult Taki.

He’s been around for a long time and frankly, I find him repellent on many levels, and especially when I hear his nasty, acid tongue in my head while I condescend to occasionally read his articles.  Taki (full name, Taki Theodoracopulos) is now a blogger–thus adding to his reputation and credits–as well as a conservative columnist with the likes of Pat Buchanan and Michelle Malkin.  Both Buchanan and Taki have a disgusting tendency to exalt Nazis or other winger or fascist types.   He’s also made some anti-Semitic comments and other racial and ethnic slurs against other minorities in the past as well as the present. Hell no, I don’t like him.

Yet, this guy moves effortlessly among the rich and royals, like a bug picking up food with his legs, and he usually has an idea before any of the other gossip rags Stateside of what is really going on.  He recounted, for example, that there had been rumors that Princess Charlene neé Whitstock had been kidnapped and drugged after the last of her attempts to escape the wedding; that her father had also been kidnapped and threatened by palace courtiers and pressed into service as a spokesperson to kibosh the rumors.  Worse, it was said that Charlene was actually drugged during the wedding ceremony, resulting in her strange, weepy demeanor.  (Nothing wrong with being occasionally weepy at your own wedding and the moment passes, but Charlene cried, eliciting comment that perhaps she was crying for what she had gotten into.)  Check what he said about the current occupant of the throne of the Grimaldis on July 21.

I have known the Monegasque royal family for more than thirty years. Some of my closest friends are just as close with Monaco’s ruling family, and unpleasant details have a tendency to slip out. From what I’ve been told, Albert is into rough sex with both men and women. Charlene is not, and the two have not been intimate in months. I’m told the deal is that she will one day produce an heir, and with a very generous allowance she will be allowed to return to South Africa away from the sweaty hell that is Monte Carlo. Money has allegedly already been paid upfront. The lack of intimacy between Albert and Charlene is neither here nor there. Albert is said to have already fathered two and perhaps as many as four children—all of them after a night of rough sex with multiple people of both sexes present. For Charlene to become pregnant will not raise eyebrows even among those in the know.

If what I’ve been told is true, what baffles me is how Monaco got away with it. Doping a bride and having her walk down the aisle in the movies is easy. But in real life? And for three days? How do you take one’s passport away on the whim of the ruler of a musical operetta state? Think of the amounts of moolah that may have changed hands. Buying someone’s silence is very expensive, especially in the grimy world of the place that Somerset Maugham described as “a sunny place for shady people.”  (My italics.)

If this is true, and Taki has been right more than just a few times, then Prince Charming is truly dead.  A woman marrying Albert would have to have her eyes wide open, but  Charlene does not necessarily impress me as being that kind of woman.  Like Grace Kelly, for example, who before her marriage to Rainier knew what she was getting into.  And she had had affairs before she met the Prince of Monaco.

Monte Carlo is shady.  It is merely the European version of Las Vegas, in which millions of euros and dollars change hands at The Grand Casino as if it is a day at The Bourse, The Shenzhen or the New York Stock Exchange.  Naturally, there is also money laundering, and in some cases, corruption, because some cases just refuse to go to court or result in the necessary convictions.  On top of being a haven for wealthy  “tax refugees,” the banking industry also has gained a permanent toehold in the Principality, which is why the Sovereign Prince spent some years learning banking finance in the United States.

I remember when the first rumors started swirling about Albert’s sexuality in his 20s, and that it was the reason he was skittish of conventional marriage.  The question I’d like to ask is, why marry now in his fifties?  Was there another clause in the law Prince Rainier pushed through regarding the succession?  Is Albert really in love with this woman?  Was he blackmailed?  He could have remained a bachelor with those outside children, and allowed the heiress presumptive, Princess Caroline, and her Casiraghi children to inherit both the Grimaldi name and the Principality.  It doesn’t make sense.

Something or someone got to him.  Or something or someone is threatened.

Albert Grimaldi is worth at least $1-2 billion from all reports, so he will continue to pay to get his own way, if what Taki says is true, until the spigot runs dry.  And there’s scant chance of that happening any time soon and last time I heard, the Grimaldis aren’t that stupid.  They are not absolute rulers anymore, thanks to the revolution of 1910.  They’re constitutional monarchs on paper, but they’re not trying their luck.  An heir has to be produced from the male line for whatever reason, and I wouldn’t be surprised that it will be ensured that it is a male child.  Don’t even think that the prince and princess’ Roman Catholicism would preclude them from such a plan. If the marriage was achieved, the birth will also be auspicious, and will be the signal for Albert or Charlene to begin divorce proceedings.  I think they wouldn’t wait for the heir and a spare.  One boy would be enough.

The Chinese are capable of such a thing because of the law on their books about having only two children.  They prefer boys.   They’ve produced so many sons and boys in the last few decades that there aren’t enough daughters and girls in the country to create families for the next generations.  There is a reason why there are more women than men in this world.

In the meantime, all this tittle-tattle about a paid-off, loveless royal marriage must stop.  Which is why the prince and princess are supposedly about to sue French newspapers for publishing stories about the princess’ pre-nuptial jitters.  From Agence France Presse (AFP) on July 22:

Monaco’s government head Michel Roger railed Friday against “false” rumours of discord between Prince Albert II and his wife, and said the couple will sue a French magazine for spreading them.

“It is very distressing,” Roger, whose official title is minister of state, told journalists of the gossip that swirled around the wedding held over two days in early July.

Rumours that Charlene Wittstock tried to leave the principality in a huff just days before the royal wedding have already been rejected by the palace, a lawyer for the princely pair, as well as by Albert himself.

“They are all false,” added Roger.

L’Express magazine had reported on its website that Wittstock, now Princess Charlene, interrupted preparations for the lavish celebrations and prepared to take a flight for her home country South Africa.

In fact, “she left for Greece accompanied by a Monegasque delegation” for the Special Olympics — a competition for the intellectually disabled that opened in Athens on June 25, said Roger.

As for allegations that Albert fathered a third child out of wedlock while engaged to Charlene, the politician said: “We have proof that this is false.”  Roger said the couple intended to sue L’Express because it “gave credibility to these unfounded rumours by publishing them.”

Prince Albert and Nicole Valérie Coste (neé Tossoukpé) during their seven year affair (Courtesy: Lulalulera's World)

Yeah, but.  Palace spokespeople lied about Nicole Coste’s presence for seven years (1997-2004) and even her pregnancy that resulted in her son Alexandre by Prince Albert  long ago.  But she turned out to be true, too.

If Princess Charlene did indeed attend this competition, then the photo ops and news stories should correspond to that time frame, but frankly, why didn’t these palace PR guys produce them when L’Express was hawking the runaway bride angle, and every one else began publishing their own stories about it?  That would have ended it then and there.  There has been weeks of silence or simple denial or brush-offs from the palace. Don’t tell me they were just busy with the wedding. This is now damage control, in my view.

Three days ago, Albert and Charlene held a press conference, with the Sovereign Prince doing most of the talking.

“We want to express our outrage about these rumors. It’s unbearable,” declared Albert, 53, reports Nice-Matin, one of those publications hastily summoned to meet with the newlyweds. The newspaper described the prince as “visibly … wounded.”

“What is regrettable is that the media seized on these rumors without verifying their information,” complained Albert, as his bride sat beside him, holding his hand. “I find it unworthy of your colleagues. I have always respected the freedom of expression. But the dissemination of false information is lamentable and subject to criminal penalties.”

[…]

“Sometimes these rumors made us smile, such as when the media explained that the princess and I had not slept in the same hotel in South Africa. It was for practical reasons of course,” Nice-Matin quotes Albert as saying.

“Visibly wounded,” huh. I still call bullshit on that excuse of practicality. A husband doesn’t skip out on his bride during the honeymoon, or he’s a certified heel.   Any woman in America could testify to that.

The couple’s extended July 9-20 honeymoon in Mozambique was “a wonderful stay,” said Albert. “We were not disturbed. It was a dreamy atmosphere.”

Explaining what may have promoted the rumors, Albert said, “There are people in Monaco who seek to harm us.”  He made no further comment and refused questions.

Umph. Just who would seek to harm them?  The French? Of course, they would love to get their mitts on some of that tax-free fric, but sheesh. What does he really have to worry about? Being exposed for what he really is?  Or is there something else?  I’d like to know if someone else has a perspective on this one that I don’t know about.

During the royal audience, which was mostly conducted in French, Princess Charlene was asked whether she had anything to add.

“No,” she replied in English. “I think that says it all.”

Another possible piece of stagecraft and damage control here.  This would have been Charlene’s opportunity to publicly call bullshit on the marriage, and to admit that it was a sham, but of course she did not.  And she would have been expected not to say anything.  She is with him all the way, whether the runaway bride story is true or not.  I find it rather hokey and sad at the same time.

The countdown is still on when Princess Charlene becomes pregnant.  And also, when the marriage officially ends.  It’s not that I don’t wish them well, but I am not reassured.  Other realistic royal watchers with sources and a salary aren’t either, and they’re more compassionate than Taki.   Stay tuned.

~ by blksista on July 25, 2011.