'Crazy About Albert' How Princess Charlene Survived Her Rocky Start

Blunt and direct, she’s rewriting the Monaco royal rulebook.

- Tessa Paige

All good fairytales have their moments of high drama, with dangers and difficulties to be overcome, and gossips and enemies to be confronted, before there is any chance of a happy ever after.

The marriage of Prince Albert II of Monaco and South African former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock is no exception.

Rumours that she’d repeatedly attempted to run away from the former playboy prince swirled around on their wedding day on July 1, 2011, and she was so distressed that she burst into tears after the ceremony.

“Everything was just so overwhelming and there were all the mixed emotions because of the rumours, and obviously all this tension built up. But it was such a wonderful three days,” she says now, shrugging the incident off.

“I think back and wonder how we managed to pull it off. It was beautiful, it was sentimental – showing my most intimate moment to the world.”

Today, the tittle-tattle has subsided. Albert (61) and Charlene (41) are preparing to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary with their twins Jacques and Gabriella, whose titles are the Marquis of Baux and Countess of Carladès.

“My husband, when he is with Jacques and Gabriella, is at his happiest,” Charlene says with a smile. “We feel blessed to have two children who fill us with love and happiness and are also well-behaved.”

Proof comes in recent social media pictures posted by Charlene, showing the family gathered around an elaborate cake for Albert’s birthday – the proud father gazing adoringly at his offspring, the kids gazing longingly at the cake...