Charlene Wittstock: The Vogue Interview, July 2011 (Yup, it’s the Entire Interview)
The countdown is on and in two weeks Miss Charlene Wittstock will become Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco. In anticipation of the up-coming princely wedding in Monaco, H.S.H. Prince Albert II and Miss Wittstock have been gracious enough to speak to the press — a myriad of times — to discuss how they met, what they have in common, their relationship, sports, and much more.
In the current issue of Vogue magazine, journalist Natalie Livingstone sat down with the lovely future princess while she was in New York for a few days. Overall, it’s a fantastic article with the future princess of Monaco; a heck of a lot better than the December 2010 Tatler magazine interview.
Now, since many of you, who live in Europe, will not receive the issue for another couple of weeks I thought I would post the entire article for you including two new scans. 
Fit For a Princess
Zimbabwean-born Charlene Wittstock brings an athlete’s drive to her new role as Monaco’s modern bride.
The first time Prince Albert saw Charlene Wittstock, she was in a swimsuit. A former competitive swimmer who won numerous championships and represented South Africa in the 2000 Olympics, Wittstock was taking part in an event in Monaco when she caught the prince’s eye ten years ago. ”It was incredibly flattering,” she recalls. ”After seeing me swim, Albert asked my management for permission to take me out. We spent the whole evening laughing and talking.”
It was not until five years later, in December 2005, that the two reconnected in Cape Town. ”On New Year’s Day, he officially asked me out,” says Charlene. ”Our first public appearance was a the Torino Olympic Games in February 2006.” As unfamiliar as it was to become part of a royal entourage, she says, “Albert put me at ease. It was clear that we shared the same passions; we both became very emotional watching the athletes. Sport is the common denominator of our lives.”
She is retracting the stages of her romance with one of the world’s most eligible bachelor’s — they will marry on July 1 in Monaco — on a spring trip to New York while in a Chelsea studio having her hair and makeup done. Besides squeezing in a Vogue photo shoot, some pre-wedding shopping, and a visit to what she describes as “my favorite beauty spot in the world,” the Warren-Tricomi salon at the Plaza, she is here to attend her bachelorette party. Tonight she will submit to an outfit with a leather-and-lace them put together by her maids of honor, Danish designer Isabell Kristensen and Prince Albert’s cousin Donatella Knecht de Massy, and join guests including model Karolina Kurkova, Fox 5 reporter Carolyn Gustoff, and nightlife entrepreneur Amy Sacco for dinner at the Lion and dancing at Cipriani Downtown.
After an ankle fracture three years ago, Charlene, now 33, retired from professional swimming, but she still trains at least three times a week, often with her former Olympic coach. In preparation for the perpetual camera readiness expected of her as first lady of Monaco, she had cut out weight training and increased her stretching time to give her body a leaner line. And she’s been stretching in other ways, too, adapting her style from insouciant Bulawayo-born beach babe (the family moved from Zimbabwe to South Africa when Charlene was twelve) to appropriately attired royal consort and poised princess-to-be with an evolving sense of her own style.
“Finding my fashion feet has certainly been the biggest challenge,” she says, remembering her “trial by fire” at Monaco’s 2007 Red Cross Ball [the writer, Ms. Livingstone, made a mistake. It was the 2006 Red Cross Ball where Miss Wittstock wore that green dress looking like a '...giant Christmas tree.' Miss Wittstock's words, not mine.] ”I was literally a fish out of water. I thought it was all fun, fun, fun, and didn’t give my outfit any thought. I had been playing beach volleyball all day, painted my nails red, and threw on a green dress. I thought I looked great at the time, but looking back, I realize that my debut into Monaco society should have been better executed!”
At the best of times, her future husband’s tiny, ancient, and exceptionally moneyed principality is not an easy place to find your comfort zone. Though few palace pundits predicted that the relationship would mouth to anything. Albert has silenced skeptics by insisting that Charlene decamp there. It was a testing time. Lacking any official status and unable to speak French, Charlene lived alone in a small apartment with few friends to support her; she was thousands of miles from home, and her vivacious South African wit and no-nonsense attitude were lost in translation among the notoriously frosty Monaco beau monde. ”It was sometimes overwhelming,” she recalls of the solitude and jealousies she suffered as Prince Albert’s girlfriend. ”I was trying too hard to please too many people and at times was at risk of losing a sense of myself.”
Eventually, Charlene’s unassuming personality and raucous sense of humor began to win her friends — sporty and statuesque, she is the kind of woman who will joke to fellow guests at charity galas that she is the only woman in the room to have devoured her entire dinner plus two bread rolls. Through it all, Albert never wavered in his devotion, presenting her with a pear-shaped Repossi engagement ring a year ago. ”I fell in love with her sense of humor, her simplicity, and the natural way she relates to people,” he says. ”To me Charlene never looks more beautiful than when she is natural — without makeup and her hair pulled back.”
Natural is all very well, but this woman has events to attend. Determined to learn from her mistakes, Charlene was advised by a coterie of place insiders and Monaco stalwarts. “In the early days, I listened to other people about how I should dress, “she admits. ”I was insecure. I felt pressure to err on the side of caution — I was terrified of meeting a head of state in over the top outfit.” Now, although her tastes tend to lean toward simple clothes that flatter her athletic frame, she is far more experimental. ”I’ve reached the point where I know what I like and what works. I’m starting to play with fresher bolder, and more daring looks.” She was helped by Giorgio Armani, who will dress her for the religious part of her wedding and who notes that her casual elegance and slender figure look equally good in suits and evening gowns with necklines “that emphasize the beautiful structure of her shoulders.”
Wittstock has also been taking under the wing of Karl Lagerfeld, who has enjoyed bring out a play between romantic and masculine in her wardrobe, pairing a strictly cut Dior Homme jacket, for example, with a bustier and a floating chiffon skirt. ”She loves clean-cut clothes with a touch of menswear, which looks very feminine on her,” he says. As Charlene explains, “Karl took me to his workshop in Paris. He said, ‘You are going to be a style icon! You bring a breath of fresh air and modern glamour to Monaco.’ Then he asked me if there was one item of clothing that I had always wanted to experiment with, and I replied, ‘A smoking jacket.’ He went back to his apartment and presented me with his own white shirt and smoking jacket from his closet.” Lagerfeld recently shot the royal couple for the Monaco Palace archives and encouraged her to select the clothes herself. ”He trusts my sense of style, and as a result my confidence has grown.”
Grown to such an extent that Charlene has plans to inaugurate a Monaco Fashion Week. ”I want to make Monaco one of the fashion capitals of the world. It would be wonderful to team up with some of my international fashion friends, like Stella McCartney and Ralph Lauren, and get the place buzzing with energy again,” she says. ”Grace Kelly forged a link between Monaco and the movie world, and I would like to create a strong bond between Monaco and the fashion community.”
Her position as an outsider crashing the bastions of old Europe, just like her late mother-in-law, will only increase the attention of the fashion world. ”I think she could turn out to be very influential to European designers,” says Michael Kors, another Wittstock favorite. ”Young, stylish women in Europe often have a much more decadent point of view in the way they get dressed. Charlene has the opportunity to show that you can be athletic, elegant, and youthful; you don’t have to give one thing up.”
As for the responsibilities that come with her title, Charlene feels that her background will help. ”Sport has given me drive and discipline,” she says. ”It also taught me to remain humble.” For the past fifteen years she has been involved in charitable endeavors centered on swimming. ”I don’t want to be a princess who sits on the sidelines; I want to be present and actively involved,” she says of her new role. ”It’s a life with a purpose. It was my integrity that Albert fell in love with, and it’s a quality I will never lose.”
Tonight, however, she is off duty for once. Savoring that last days of her single life, she holds court in a black Anne Fontaine leather corset and skintight pants. Kabbalah Rabbi Yehuda Berg, a trusted confident, joins her to celebrate with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher in tow. Harvey Weinstein pops by to say hello, and Charlene, like many a bachelorette before her, sinks some tequila.
In case you were wondering, the gown she is wearing in this four page spread is by Marchesa and the bathing suit is by Norma Kamali. The photographer, as you know by now, the great Patrick Demarchelier.
This issue is on your newsstands now for $3.99. Buy it.
Source: Vogue magazine. Images and article scanned by Moi!
