the stories of the two women echo each other!
Princess Charlene of Monaco has certainly experienced worrying health problems in recent months. After undergoing several operations to treat her ENT infection in her native country, South Africa, the ex-swimmer returned to the Rock in early November 2022 before being admitted to a specialized establishment in Switzerland. Since then, we know almost nothing of her condition, but we hope that the princess will soon return to the principality. However, her fate seems to echo that of another Monegasque princess who fled Monaco 120 years ago.
Who is this Monegasque princess who fled the Rock before Charlène of Monaco?
Can history really repeat itself? So, it seems that in the Maison Grimaldi, everything is possible. Do you know Princess Alice of Monaco? No ? She is the first American to marry a member of the main Monegasque family, decades before actress Grace Kelly. But Alice’s marriage to Prince Albert I was not marked by happiness, and she left the principality to find solace in London’s high society. However, her fate is reminiscent of Charlene’s. Explanation.
Let’s jump to 1889 when Princess Alice married Albert I who is indeed the great-great-grandfather of Prince Albert II, the current ruler of Monaco. Like Charlene, Alice had to wait ten years to marry the prince. Indeed, the latter’s father, the sovereign Charles III, opposed this union at the time. However, the wedding took place on October 30, 1889, about a month and a half after the death of Charles III.
What other similarity between the two princesses of Monaco? Before marrying Alice, Albert I had a child from his first marriage to Lady Mary Victoria Douglas-Hamilton, Prince Louis II, whom he recognized ten years later. Charlène of Monaco met Albert in 2000 and married him in 2011, thus becoming the mother-in-law of her two children born out of wedlock, Jazmin Grace and Alexandre. Thus, Charlène and Alice become Monegasque princesses and mothers-in-law at the same time.
According to “Tatler”, the wedding of Princess Alice and Prince Albert I was one of the first in the principality to embody true love. However, in the early 1900s, Alice began to miss her husband’s expeditions and over time the couple ended up no longer sharing the same interests. Finally, in 1902, she left the Rock for the United Kingdom without divorce and never returned. It remains to pursue the destiny of Charlene of Monaco.