The extravagant, dissolute life Prince Albert II of Monaco continues to bolster arguments of those that suppose that hereditary monarchies shouldn’t be allowed to exist within the twenty first century.
New revelations emerged this week within the French and British media, saying that Albert, the billionaire playboy chief of the tiny, Mediterranean city-state, directed his high adviser, Claude Palmero, to rearrange lavish housing for his mistresses and to handle secret offshore investments.
In interviews with police investigating “Monacogate,” Palmero additionally revealed that Albert, 68, directed him to discover a secret pied-à-terre inside six months of his 2011 marriage ceremony to his long-troubled spouse, Princess Charlene, in response to a report first detailed in Le Monde. The Each day Mail mentioned that the French media assumed that the bachelor pad could be used for the portly prince’s sexual assignments, with Albert reportedly asking Palmero in 2017 “to make sure his bachelor pad was ready because he was preparing to go there,” in response to the Each day Mail.
“He trusted me. Whom could he have approached with such requests, other than me?” Palmero advised police, in response to the Instances U.Okay. An accountant, Palmero managed Albert’s estimated $2 billion non-public fortune in addition to property owned by the Home of Grimaldi, the household that has dominated Monaco because the thirteenth century and are amongst Europe’s glitziest royals.
For Albert personally, Palmero organized for the acquisition of an $8 million condo in Knightsbridge, a complicated district of London, to accommodate Nicole Coste, a former airline stewardess with whom Albert fathered a son earlier than he was married, the Instances reported. Palmero mentioned he additionally organized for cash to be provided to Tamara Rotolo, a New York property agent with whom the prince had a daughter in 1992.
Palmero mentioned he arrange the belief funds for Albert’s mistresses and their kids in order that Charlene wouldn’t discover out about them. He additionally was concerned within the destruction of compromising photographs of the prince and helped him and his sisters, Caroline and Stephanie, disguise their wealth in offshore Panamanian financial institution accounts, the Each day Mail reported.
“In a curious twist of irony,” Albert introduced all this scrutiny on himself, in response to Le Monde. Palmero had lengthy been Albert’s trusted right-hand man. However the prince fired Palmero in 2023 and filed prison complaints towards him, alleging breach of belief, embezzlement, forgery and cash laundering.
In response, Palmero opened as much as police throughout a number of rounds of questioning. “By launching such proceedings, Albert opened a Pandora’s box,” Le Monde reported. “The man who had stood by his side for 20 years knew all the princely family’s secrets, especially those regarding the financial assets he managed.”
Different household secrets and techniques made it into the media final yr, courtesy of secret notebooks that Palmero maintained and excerpts of which have been printed in Le Monde and Libération, one other French newspaper. Palmero additionally spoke to Le Monde, explaining, “This whole affair revolves around the corruption I’d been denouncing with increasing force for years.”
The Guardian reported final yr that Palmero’s allegations have been “shocking,” even to individuals accustomed to the life of the super-rich in Monaco, which occupies simply 514 acres alongside the French Riviera.
The notebooks additionally reportedly described how Albert gave his much-younger spouse, Charlene, a beneficiant allowance of $1.6 million a yr, lending credence to rumors that he paid her to remain married to him. However even with that allowance, Charlene, 47, routinely overspent, in response to information accounts.
Palmero’s disclosures about Albert and Charlene’s funds characterize the most recent twist within the couple’s rollercoaster marriage. Again in 2022, a French gossip journal alleged that Albert paid Charlene $12.5 million to stick with him.
Albert is the oldest youngster and solely son of the late Prince Rainier II and his American spouse, Princess Grace, who was higher often called the radiant Fifties Hollywood star Grace Kelly. He’s a distant cousin of Britain’s King Charles III and Prince William and Prince Harry. Earlier than marrying Charlene in 2011, Albert’s playboy fame grew over his scandalous affairs, together with with a German topless mannequin and a number of different ladies.
Charlene is a former swimming champion who represented South Africa on the 2000 Olympics. That’s the yr she met Albert. They didn’t go public as a pair till 2006, then turned engaged in 2010 and married in 2011 in a lavish $100 million celebration that was thought of Monaco’s “biggest party in 55 years,” the Each day Mirror reported.
Three years after marrying Albert, Charlene gave beginning to twins Jacques and Gabriella. However the reported unhappiness of their relationship continued and has lengthy been the topic of fascination, the Each day Beast has reported. Charlene allegedly tried to flee Monaco 3 times earlier than the marriage, at one level looking for sanctuary in South Africa’s embassy in Paris. She additionally wept overtly on her marriage ceremony day.
Since then, Charlene has reportedly struggled to regulate to her new life in Monaco, complaining that she was topic to jealousy from the native excessive society. Charlene was absent from Monaco for a lot of 2021 and early 2022, staying first in South Africa after which at a clinic in Switzerland, recovering from what Web page Six and different shops reported was an extended sickness and exhaustion.
Since her return to royal duties, Charlene has made an effort to play the position of royal consort, in response to the Each day Mail. She carried out “admirably” through the current state go to of French President Emmanuel Macron and his spouse, Brigitte. But, Monaco’s royal household nonetheless faces darkish occasions, amid “the Palermo affair,” Le Monde mentioned.
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