When the playboy prince and the Olympian said ‘oui’: How Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco had TWO wedding ceremonies 13 years ago – but their uneasy kiss and her tears hinted at trouble

He was the playboy prince and he or she was the Olympic swimmer-turned-princess.

13 years in the past, throughout two wedding ceremony ceremonies that value a mixed £53million with accompanying celebrations, Prince Albert of Monaco tied the knot with the then Charlene Wittstock.

With a glittering 850-strong visitor record that included Sir Roger Moore and Prince Edward, the spiritual ceremony on July 2 adopted the civil nuptials a day earlier. 

On the latter, Charlene surprised in an off-the-shoulder Armani gown boasting a six-metre prepare and studded with 40,000 Swarovski crystals and 20,000 mom of pearl tear drops.

However the couple’s uneasy kiss – and the truth that at one second Charlene was in tears – maybe betrayed the difficulty that had already taken place and the additional angst that was to return.

Days earlier than the massive day, rumours started to flow into that Charlene had tried to flee the nation on three events with a one-way ticket to Johannesburg. 

And so they spent the primary evening of their honeymoon in South Africa – the nation that Zimbabwe-born Charlene represented throughout her swimming profession – in separate lodges.

Three years later, Charlene gave start to twins Jacques and Gabriell, who have been the primary official heirs to the throne after Albert’s youngsters out of wedlock. 

In 2021, the princess took a protracted medical hiatus in South Africa which noticed her spend a lot of the 12 months away from her husband and kids.

She missed each the seventh birthday of her twins and her tenth wedding ceremony anniversary. 

Her time away adopted contemporary allegations that Albert had fathered a 3rd love baby, this time in 2005 with an unnamed Brazilian lady.

The Prince’s attorneys dismissed the declare as a ‘hoax’.  

In April 2022 the couple have been seen collectively for the primary time in additional than 12 months. Charlene then returned to full-time public obligation in Might that 12 months. 

However the return to normality was short-lived, for Charlene once more disappeared from public life – this time for greater than three weeks – in July final 12 months.   

Her husband in the meantime was noticed at Wimbledon with out his spouse. 

Earlier than he met Charlene, Albert appeared destined for all times as a bachelor amid a cleaning soap opera of affection baby scandals. 

When the couple met, few anticipated romance to blossom – Charlene was in spite of everything a  sports-mad olympian 20 years his junior. 

But the couple fell in love and made their first public look on the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. 

To marry into the household, Charlene was require to study French and Monegasque and he or she needed to convert to Catholicism. The couple then grew to become engaged in June 2010. 

The similarities between their love story and that of his father, Prince Rainier III, and his Hollywood actress mom Grace Kelly didn’t go unnoticed.    

French journalist Philippe Delorme went as far to inform the Every day Mail in 2011: ‘If the Princess Grace story was a film, then Princess Charlene is the remake.’  

Days earlier than the marriage, a Parisian information journal reported that Charlene had been stopped at Good airport after allegedly studying a ‘distressing’ revelation about her future husband’s personal life.

A senior Monaco detective claimed on the time: ‘Charlene had her passport confiscated in order that the Prince’s entourage might persuade her to remain’.  

The hearsay mill in France went into overdrive. Charlene had, it was prompt, heard speak of one other illegitimate baby, allegedly conceived when she was courting Prince Albert in 2005.

However the Princess would go on to dismiss the ‘hilarious’ rumours. She stated: ‘Why would he undergo all this effort to have our dearest mates come be part of us, for us to be reluctant?’

Prince Albert added: ‘My household have lengthy been the topic of rumours born out of jealousy.’

On the civil ceremony, Charlene wore a custom-made aquamarine Chanel swimsuit that was matched to the color of her eyes. 

With press rumours swirling round them, the couple posed for some very awkward pictures.

Then lastly there was the spiritual ceremony. 

Visitors additionally included the then-French President Nicholas Sarkozy, his spouse Carla Bruni, mannequin Naomi Campbell, businessman Philip Inexperienced and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.

Alain Ducasse, France’s most celebrated chef, offered the meals, whereas Johnny Hallyday and Andrea Bocelli have been to carry out.

As Charlene was requested, in French, if she would marry Albert Grimaldi, Princess Stephanie, the groom’s youthful sister, raised her eyes to the elaborately panelled ceiling depicting the historical past of Alexander the Nice, as if invoking his assist. 

Everybody held their breath.

Charlene stated ‘oui’. Then Albert stated ‘oui’. Exterior, the crowds burst into applause. Inside, Stephanie breathed out, and burst into tears.

Below blue skies, the previous Olympic swimmer reworked right into a royal and have become her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco.

Greater than 7,000 residents have been then invited to post-ceremony cocktails on the sq. outdoors the Prince’s Palace.

The drinks reception was adopted by a live performance by the French composer Jean Michel Jarre.

Prince Albert concluded the formalities with a heartfelt speech to his new princess. ‘It has been a really emotional journey to at the present time, generally not a straightforward one,’ he stated.

‘Charlene, thanks for placing up with my inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies. You’re a great lady. 

‘Marrying you is one of the best resolution I’ve ever taken. I am blissful to share my life with you.’

As for her tears, Charlene later advised The Occasions: ‘There have been all of the combined feelings due to the rumours and clearly the stress constructed up and I burst into tears [immediately after the ceremony].

‘After which I burst into tears some extra as a result of I used to be considering “Oh no, now the entire world has seen me cry”.’

Having tied the knot, the couple then flew into Durban, South Africa, for the beginning of their honeymoon.

Whereas they arrived at an viewers with South Africa’s then president, Jacob Zuma, an area newspaper reported that they left in two separate automobiles.

The thriller deepened when it turned out that Prince Albert was staying on the Hilton resort in Durban, but Charlene was bedding down on the Oyster Field Resort in Umhlanga – greater than ten miles up the coast. 

Regardless of the hypothesis, it was later claimed that the explanation was easy sufficient: that the prince had remained in Durban as a result of he had an early assembly the next morning and was apprehensive about getting caught in site visitors had he travelled in from outdoors town.

The daddy of the brand new princess, retired photocopier salesman Mike Wittstock, defined on the time: ‘It is because Albert attended the convention for the Worldwide Olympic Committee on the Hilton.

‘The convention began at 7am and Albert didn’t wish to rise up unnecessarily early and to take a seat in site visitors.’

A Monaco Palace supply later confirmed that ‘for sensible causes, it was higher’ for the prince to remain within the Hilton.

Nonetheless, neither the supply nor Mr Wittstock defined why Charlene didn’t merely keep on the Hilton with him.

Regardless of this early strife, the Prince and Charlene have stayed collectively – even by their more moderen struggles.

Talking of Charlene’s 2021 absence from public life, Albert advised Folks journal: ‘She did not go away Monaco in a huff! She did not go away as a result of she was mad at me or at anyone else… She did not go into exile.

‘It was completely only a medical drawback which needed to be handled.’

He added that her sickness had ‘affected them each and it had not been addressed earlier as a result of he was ‘concentrating on taking good care of the youngsters’.

Reflecting on her relationship along with her husband in an interview with Tatler journal final 12 months, Charlene stated: ‘…The second I met Albert, I felt a profound sense of future. I’ve been quoted as saying I felt weak on the knees. 

‘That may be a barely trite means of phrasing it, however it’s true – I knew he was the one.’

Final month, Princess Charlene once more signalled a return to relative normality along with her outing on the Monte Carlo Tv pageant alongside her husband. 

It got here after she dazzled with an look on the Monaco Grand Prix in Might.