The cameras were already ready to capture the scene. The Grimaldi family, finally in full force, on the balcony of the princely palace for the Monegasque national holiday. Except that the photo will be taken without Charlene this Friday, November 19. Barely back from South Africa after nearly eight months away from the Rock, the princess isolated herself from her family and the public to “to preserve the tranquility essential to improving one’s health”.

She seemed delighted to find her son Prince Albert and their twins Jacques and Gabriella in a snapshot that she even shared on her return to Monaco. “A happy day today. Thank you all for keeping me strong”, she wrote on Instagram ten days ago.

And since then, nothing. Not a post on his social networks. But a rare press release issued with her husband, in which she explained going green in a “place of convalescence which will remain strictly confidential”. Prince Albert himself did not wish to say more to Monaco-Morning this week. “It is not in the Principality but we will be able to visit it very soon. I cannot tell you more out of discretion. There is fatigue, not just physical, which can only be treated by a period of rest and by a follow-up “, he insists.

The palace evokes a period “very proven” medically for the 43-year-old former swimmer. Charlene was assessed twice under general anesthesia within three months. Blame it on a serious ENT problem that “nailed to the ground” in South Africa, as Albert recalled. On March 18, the princess flies to the country where she grew up to attend the tribute to the king of the Zulus Goodwill Zuelithini after his death at the age of 72. Except that the trip which should not last “10 to 12 days” was prolonged, again and again, due to medical problems.

In a rather odd interview given to a local radio station in the height of summer from the South African bush, Charlene announces that she cannot fly and that she is “forced to stay here until the end of October “. She misses Mother’s Day in May but especially her 10 years of marriage on July 2. “This year will be the first time that I will not be with my husband for our anniversary in July, which is difficult, and it saddens me. However, Albert and I have no choice but to follow the instructions of the medical team “, she wrote in a reassuring press release.

Enough to worry the Monegasques and to put a piece back in the press machine, persuaded to know the real reason for his absence. From Germany to France, the most serious publications advance that nothing is going any more between Charlene and Albert. And that the princess would have decided to settle permanently in South Africa. His growing commitment to the foundation that bears his name bears witness to the preservation of local wildlife, and rhinos in particular.

If the headlines on the Grimaldi couple sold, they ended up annoying the main interests. On several occasions, Prince Albert has gone out of his usual reservation concerning his private life for the statements “unfounded remarks, composed of completely fabricated elements of appreciation”. “This is sad and lamentable”, he lets go in Point of view. By specifying that nothing that can be written can reach it. “I don’t want to be seen as an old bitch, but I’ve learned to take it all and make sure it doesn’t bother me too much”, he emphasizes to Monaco-Morning.

The prince’s priority? His family, starting with his 6-year-old twins whom he “try to associate, little by little, with public life”. Albert and Charlene have promised to give new information on the state of health of the princess “before the Christmas holidays”. The media, which had feasted on the photo of the prince with his red Crocs last year, are now only waiting for the next official family portrait intended to show that everything is back to normal in Monaco.