BEHIND THE SMILES

The family were briefly reunited in SA recently but rumours of a rift just won’t go away

- NICI DE WET

THEIR romance has always fascinated people. She, the Olympic swimmer from South Africa with the same movie-star looks like his late mother, Grace Kelly. He is the dashing, much older playboy prince at the helm of the tiny principality of Monaco. Romantics rejoiced as they tied the knot in a magnificent ceremony at the Pink Palace and oohed and aahed when they welcomed twins Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella in 2014.

Since then, like most married couples, Princess Charlene and Prince Albert have had their share of ups and downs, some of which have made for rather salacious headlines. Yet they’ve always emerged united.

But rumors of a rift are growing by the day as Her Serene Highness remains in South Africa.

Will she ever return, many are asking. Or is there substance to talk that her and Albert’s relationship is in trouble?

We take a closer look. Charlene has been in SA since May, laid low by health woes stemming from an ENT infection she picked up soon after arriving to do rhino conservation work.

In an exclusive interview with YOU at the time, she said the infection followed “a sinus lift and bone graft done in Europe earlier in the year”. The result has been a string of medical proce­dures that has seen her un­ able to return to Monaco.

“I was instructed by my doctors that I couldn’t fly back because I’m unable to equalize my ears,” she said.

In August she had anoth­ er major op, which means she’ll still be here for a while.