Prince Albert says Princess Charlene will be back in Monaco ‘very shortly’

Prince Albert has said Princess Charlene will be back in Monaco ‘very shortly’ and anticipates doctors in South Africa will clear his wife for travel within days.

The 63-year-old, who shares six-year-old twins Jacques and Gabriella with the former Olympian, told People that current plans involve Charlene returning to the principality within weeks.

She has been in her native South Africa for much of this year after contracting a ‘serious sinus infection’ which made her unable to travel and forced her to miss key events including her 10-year wedding anniversary and her children’s first day of school.

But Albert insisted that his wife will return home ‘way before [Monaco’s National Day] on November 19’, adding ‘she’s in good form and much better spirits’. 

He even hopes Charlene, 43, will be able to join him earlier on a planned November 13 visit to Dubai’s World Expo, an international cultural exhibition, but admitted: ‘We’ll make that decision at the last minute.’

On October 8, Zimbabwean-born Charlene underwent a final operation to deal with an ear, nose and throat infection she contracted in May – with a palace source telling AFP that the procedure ‘went very well’. 

But the royal’s absence from the principality has sparked rumours of a rift between Charlene and Albert – which the pair have recently denied.

Albert told the publication that all the family miss her and ‘obviously she misses the children’.  

The royal noted that a sign-off from her medical team is all that is needed to allow her to return to the palace she shares with her children and husband. 

On Tuesday, Charlene shared an update of her own, taking to her social media account to reveal her heartbreak following her beloved pet dog’s death after being run over. 

She took to Instagram today to share a photo snuggling up with her pooch Angel, which was taken last Christmas in Monaco.  

The mother-of-two posted: ‘My little Angel died last night, she was run over. I will miss you so much, Rest In Peace.’ 

It comes after she sparked concern among fans following her latest appearance online, with some saying she appeared ‘frail’.  

It is unknown if Princess Charlene’s pooch had been staying with her in South Africa or whether the pet had remained with Prince Albert in Monaco.  

On her most recent public appearance online, the royal wore a smattering of makeup and styled her fringe to the side.

And yet her appearance in the social media post concerned fans, with one writing: ‘Get well soon, you look so frail, take care, hope you get back to Monaco to your lovely family.’ 

Last week Princess Charlene said she ‘can’t wait to get home to her children’  but made no reference to her husband Albert in an interview given in South Africa. 

Charlene, who wed Prince Albert II in 2011, has been living in her home country of South Africa for much of this year, and the extended stay has stoked speculation that the royal couple may be headed for divorce.

However they have denied rumours of a rift and said Charlene’s absence from the principality is due to her contracting the ‘serious sinus infection’.

In an interview which took place earlier this month and was shared on Charlene’s Instagram page, the royal said she ‘misses her children, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, terribly’, adding: ‘Any mother out there who has been separated from her children for months would feel the same way I feel.’

In the clip, she said: ‘I came to South Africa to oversee some foundation projects. I was unwell at the time, unknowingly, with an infection. It was addressed immediately. Unfortunately, it grounded me for some months in South Africa.

‘I had my one procedure – it was very successful. I’m well, I’m feeling much stronger. I have one more procedure. Then I cannot wait to get home to my children, who I miss terribly.  

Elsewhere in the interview she touched on community in South Africa, saying she would like to impart ‘unity and strength.’

She said: ‘Obviously I would never like to touch on anything politically. But what can be done, is people need to set their differences aside and think of the generations to come and less of themselves.

‘Too much emphasis is put on ourselves and less on the future generations to come. What do they have to look back on? Who is their guide? That needs to be installed.’

Speaking about the anti-poaching work she has been undertaking while in South Africa this year, she said: ‘I am determined to come back and continue the work I set out to do as I have done in many countries over Africa and in South Africa.

‘Conservation, preservation, restoration and education. That is what my foundation stands for. We save lives.’

The release of the interview came days after a palace source said her final operation to deal with an ear, nose and throat infection she contracted in May ‘went very well’. 

The operation in South Africa was performed under general anaesthetic, and ‘is the last she had to undergo following her ENT infection. She will be under observation for 48 hours,’ the source told French news agency AFP. 

It comes amid reports that Albert ‘applied for sovereign immunity’ in his court battle to fight claims he fathered a third love child before marrying Charlene. 

The 63-year-old prince, who already supports two illegitimate children, is alleged to have had a relationship with a Brazilian woman which resulted in a daughter in 2005.

The claim, which his lawyers dismissed as a ‘hoax’, is particularly painful as he was dating Charlene at the time, having met the former Olympic swimmer in 2000.

It was reported last year that the case would go to court in Milan in February, however according to Town&Country, the prince’s lawyers pleaded sovereign immunity and the case has been delayed.     

Lawyer Erich Grimaldi, who is acting on behalf of the woman, said he hopes the judge will reject Albert’s plea and he is waiting for the case to come back to court, which he believes will happen ‘imminently’. 

The 34-year-old claimant – who cannot be named for legal reasons – says she had a passionate affair with Albert, leading to the birth of their daughter – whose name is also classified – on July 4, 2005. 

Albert received a handwritten letter from the child, who is now 16, in September last year reading: ‘I don’t understand why I grew up without a father, and now that I have found you, you don’t want to see me.’

Last December, legal papers were also filed, as lawyers for the claimant called on Albert to undergo a DNA test – just as he did before finally being identified as the father of two illegitimate children born in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

‘This was before Charlene and Albert were an item, but the latest case covers a time when she was already in love with him,’ a source who works closely with the Monaco Royal household revealed at the time.

‘Charlene has had a terrible year, with one family crisis after another including Albert going down with coronavirus, and now she’s gearing herself up for this hell.’ 

The princess, whose maiden name was Charlene Wittstock, was an Olympic swimmer for South Africa when she first met Albert at a Monaco aquatic competition in 2000.

They began dating soon afterwards, before Charlene married into the House of Grimaldi at a star-studded wedding in July 2011.

Their twins – daughter Gabriella and son Jacques – were born three years later and are seen as the family’s official heirs.

By this time, Charlene had come to terms with Albert’s hard fought legal battles with women who eventually won financial settlements over children they had with Albert – even though he originally denied their claims.

In May 2005, just before he was enthroned as Prince of Monaco, Albert confirmed he was the biological father of Alexandre, whose mother was Nicole Coste, a former Air France flight attendant from Togo.

A DNA test in May 2006 also confirmed Albert was the father of Jazmine Grace, the result of an affair with Tamara Rotolo, an American estate agent he met while she was on holiday in the South of France.

Jazmine was born in the 1990s and Alexandre in 2003. The Brazilian woman says she travelled around the world with the Prince in the 2000s.

Lawyer Grimaldi said he had filed papers with specific details of his client’s love affair with Albert, including trips to Brazil, the USA, France and Russia.

While in Moscow, the lovers are even said to have had a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, who gave the Brazilian ‘a warm hug’, according to court papers. 

Albert’s lawyer, Thierry Lacoste, has described the allegations as a ‘a hoax’, saying: ‘There are no intimate photos, no tangible facts surrounding a possible relationship.’

Neither Albert’s daughter Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, now 28, nor his son, Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste, 17, can claim the throne of Monaco, according to negotiated financial agreements.

The line of succession instead favours Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, six, and who frequently appear in their parents’ social media posts.