Prince Albert II of Monaco: On the throne for two decades

For a man from the fairy tale, Prince Albert II of Monaco (67) looks quite grounded, yes down -to -earth. He pursues his work pedantically – and every morning to govern in his office wing in the Fürstenpalast, after all, he is the head of state of almost 40,000 monegasses.

He does not look like a fairy tale prince, more like a Jovial mayor. He doesn’t always wear tie. In the magnificent, indeed quite fairytale parade uniform, he rarely appears. It may be that his outfit will be a little more festive on April 6, because that day he celebrates his 20th anniversary.

The extremely fairytale of his job – apart from the Princely Palace, the magnificent galas and receptions as well as its illustrious family – should be his principality, which, embedded between France and Italy, of tiny dimensions (2.086 quadrat kilometers), but is fairytale: 2018 was the gross domestic product per employee. Monaco is the second richest country in the world (according to Qatar).

A third of the residents, i.e. over 13,000, are millionaires, four or five of them even billionaires. It may be that Albert is one of them that his estimated property of $ 900 million has long since exceeded the border to the billion. Or the other way around: there are richer than it in his kingdom.

In contrast to his father Rainier III. (1923-2005) as a popular and prefers to celebrate with his Monegasses than with the international jet set. His subjects therefore call him “prince with heart”.

He has been sitting on Monaco’s throne for 20 years. During this time he succeeded in a lot, especially in social and economic policy: he promoted the construction of social housing, among other things. Step by step, he signaled a collaboration in the fight against tax evasion and an exchange of information in the persecution of tax fraud, money laundering and corruption.

The studied political scientist has acquired special merits with the conclusion of the renowned Amherst Colleges (USA) in environmental policy. He fights against the overfishing of the oceans and hunting for seals, sharks and whales. And he founded Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. With this foundation, the liaison offices in Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, in Switzerland, in Singapore and in the USA, he finances projects against the “worrying threats to the environment of our planet”.

Albert is with the British King Charles III. (76) friends and admires his fight against climate change. In his private life, he makes sure that only meat is eaten every two to three weeks, and he compensates for the flight miles of his private jet with donations to climate protection projects.

He has become a family man as far as a prince of Monaco can be a family man at all. After a wild bachelor period that originated from his two illegitimate children Jazmin Grace Grimaldi (33) and Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste (21), he married the South African Charlène Wittstock (47) in 2011. The couple had found each other through high performance.

From 1988 to 2002, Albert represented Monaco as a bobber at five Winter Olympics. Best placement: 25th place. He also has the black judo belt. Charlène started in 2000 in the swimming team of South Africa at the Sydney Summer Olympics (5th place × 100-meter layout), in 1999 she won three gold medals and silver at the All Africa Games.

Three years after the wedding, the twins Princess Gabriella and Hereditary Prince Jacques were born on December 10, 2014, so the principality also has its long -awaited male heir to the throne.

When upbringing, the prince supposedly attaches great importance to the fact that the love of nature is awakened in his children. The children speak French in their school near the Princely Palace, but at home with their mother in English. Her father, who also speaks fluent German in addition to his mother tongues (with an American accent), often talks to French, after all, it is the national language of Monaco.

He grew up bilingual, but preferred English, the language of his American mother, the former Hollywood star Grace Kelly (1929-1982), because he as a teenager was slightly stuttering in French, but not in English. He only talked to his mother. “I can count on two hands how often I spoke to my mother French,” he once told the magazine “Paris Match”. “Our dinner were in English.”

Albert says that he gently integrates the ten -year twins on some official occasions and gradually prepares for their future. He took both children with him in 2023 during a visit to Germany. In Baden, like all other families, the family had fun in the Europark Rust. Last year, the Grimaldis in the Speicherstadt of Hamburg were visibly impressed by how their mini principality was drastically shrunk – as a new, 70 square meter small landscape in the miniature Wunderland.

In an interview with the French magazine “Gala”, Princess Charlène gave a rare insight behind the scenes of the family. The children have very different personalities, she said. “Gabriella is very curious and asks many questions, while Jacques is rather calm and observing.”

Although Jacques is actually the younger of the two twins, the Monegassian succession stipulates that it is Jacques who will inherit the throne at some point.