The palace refused to confirm or deny any forthcoming nuptials but, according to reports from the principality, Albert, who recently admitted to having a second illegitimate child, will soon announce he is to take the plunge with Charlene Wittstock, a South African swimmer.
The blonde 28-year-old former breaststroke champion was said to have held a meeting recently with Bernard Barsi, the Archbishop of Monaco, in preparation for the event. She was also said to have selected an engagement ring after shopping at a famous jeweller’s with one of the prince’s aides.
Wittstock first met Albert, one of Europe’s most eligible bachelors, in 2001, when the 48-year-old prince, a former member of Monaco’s Olympic bobsleigh team, handed her a bouquet and showed her around the palace overlooking the sea.
The couple set tongues wagging in February this year when they were spotted canoodling at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin. They have since been on romantic holidays and are suing a magazine that photographed them in an embrace on a luxury vessel in the Maldives.
Albert has been linked with more than 100 women, from actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Brooke Shields to supermodels Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell. His failure to marry and produce an heir, however, has been a source of anxiety for the palace, which is anxious to ensure the survival of the centuries-old Grimaldi clan.
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Not that there seems much chance of the dynasty dying out: Albert’s sisters, the princesses Stephanie and Caroline, have several children between them. Just weeks before his coronation last year, Albert admitted that he had produced an illegitimate son with Nicole Coste, a Togolese air hostess whom he had met on a flight from Paris to Nice.
Under the constitution two-year-old Alexandre will not be allowed to succeed his father as ruler, however, and the same applies to Jazmin Rotolo, the 14-year-old daughter of a Californian waitress who, after protracted negotiations, was recognised as Albert’s illegitimate daughter earlier this month.
Alexandre Coste and his mother were installed in a villa down the coast from Monaco and the Rotolos could expect similar privileges: the prince has become one of Europe’s wealthiest royals since inheriting a fortune from his father last year and both his children will no doubt be handsomely looked after all their lives.
A recent meeting between Wittstock and one of Princess Grace’s former ladies-in-waiting intensified speculation about an engagement, as did an encounter with César Penzo, the palace chaplain.
What is more, she accompanied Albert to the Monaco automobile club’s gala evening, a prestigious event at which she was formally introduced to Jean-Paul Proust, Monaco’s minister of state. Most Monegasques already hear wedding bells.