Here is a nice fluffy news report from a French television network. It’s actually not bad; moreover, there are some scenes with the couple that I have never seen before.
Click the link to watch: Les fiancailles d\’Albert de Monaco et Charlène Wittstock 2010
Photo courtesy of: Day Life VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images
For many in Monaco it has been an incredible sad four days with the recent passing of the beloved Princess Antoinette of Monaco this past March 17, 2011.
In this morning’s Nice-Matin, there is an article regarding the death of the princess, what the people of Monaco are feeling as well as information about the final private service for the princess on March 24, 2011:
At 8:30 am, a Mass was held at the Cathedral in the presence of the princely family and relatives of the deceased. In the square, a heavy silence marked the sadness. Flags at half mast, black silhouettes, faces tight … “It’s all our youth who goes with the princess,” said a couple of Monaco. Many older people are actually coming very soon to make their last farewell. Because obviously, the sister of the late sovereign was a symbol of a whole generation. An end of an era that today causes much nostalgia…
Today and tomorrow between 9am and 19 pm, and Wednesday from 9am to 14pm, Monaco residents can visit the palace. They can pay their last respects to the princess and sign a condolence book before the funeral is to be held on Thursday at 10 am at the Cathedral in Monaco.
To read the article in its entirety as well as to view a photo from Monaco today please click the link: Nice-Matin
Source: Nice-Matin Photo courtesy of: Zimbio.com by Getty Images Europe
After the death of H.S.H. Princess Antoinette of Monaco on March 17, 2011, the Palais Princier de Monaco has announced that H.S.H. Prince Albert II and his fiancée, Charlene Wittstock, have decided to not attend this year’s Rose Ball.
The ball will go on which will, as always, raise money for the Princess Grace Foundation.
Source: stars-actu.com
Photo courtesy of: Zimbio.com by Samir Hussein/Getty Images Europe
The Palais Princier de Monaco announced this morning that H.S.H. Princess Antoinette of Monaco has died peacefully at the Princess Grace Hospital Centre. She was 90 years old.
Per the French paper, Paris Match:
Born in 1920, Her Serene Highness Princess Antoinette of Monaco, Baroness de Massy was the daughter of Princess Charlotte of Monaco and his Serene Highness the Prince of Monaco, Duke of Valentino. During the hours troubles experienced in Monaco during the Second World War, Antony fell in love with a German officer of the army of occupation. It is his grandfather, Prince Louis II, who put a veto on the union. Rainier’s eldest sister, she was his “first lady” when he ascended the throne in 1949, until his marriage to Grace Kelly.
She had three children, Elizabeth Anne, born in 1947, Louis Christian, born in 1949 and Christine Alix, born in 1951 and died in 1989. All three were born outside marriage, and would father the lawyer and tennis champion Alexander Noghès, Monegasque nationals, whom she married in 1951. Divorced in 1954, Antoinette second wife, Jean-Charles Rey, Monaco notary in 1961. She divorced again in 1973 and married ten years later with the British dancer John Gilpin. It will turn off a heart attack, September 5, 1983, six weeks after the wedding.
Resident of Eze-sur-Mer, France, Antoinette was eighth in order of accession to the throne. ‘She was very involved in animal rights, she chaired, including the Humane Society of Monaco’, said the Palace in a statement.
H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco has ordered that all flags in Monaco are now to be flown at half mast.
May you rest in peace, Princess Antoinette.
***UPDATES!
It was announced late this afternoon in Monaco that the late H.S.H. Princess Antoinette of Monaco funeral services will be held on March 24, 2011, at the Cathedral in Monaco. Per the French newspaper, Nice-Matin:
Following the death of Princess Antoinette last night, the Principality of Monaco and particularly the Government of Monaco and the Royal Household will observe a mourning period of fifteen days will run until April 1. The remains of Princess Antoinette of Monaco has been transferred to the Palace Chapel on Friday which is collected in the late afternoon the royal family and members of the Royal Household.
A final tribute will be made to Princess Antoinette of the population. This, Saturday, March 19, only the staff of Prince’s Palace will visit the chapel.
On Sunday, March 20, a Mass will be celebrated in the presence of the Princely family and close at 8:30. The chapel will be open to Monaco and then to residents on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, from 9h to 19h, and Wednesdays from 9 to 14. The condolence books will be open from Sunday, March 20 in the Courtyard.
On Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 10am, the funeral will be held at the Cathedral. Interment will follow in the Chapel of Peace, in strict privacy.
Source: Paris Match, Nice-Matin, and Washington Post
Here is a nice video news story from VTM.be about Charlene Wittstock. Thanks to the kind person on Charlene’s Facebook page for sending this clip to TRC.
Click to watch: Charlene Wittstock
Today at the Hotel Metropole in Monte-Carlo the future Princess of Monaco, Charlene Wittstock, attended a charity luncheon cleverly entitled, Ladies Lunch. Miss Wittstock is the honorary President of this organization so it is her duty to show up looking fabulous as always, and to pretend that she is actually interested in talking with the other old ladies at this event. I don’t know how she does it, but I give her props for having to spend three hours one hour with bored 50+ year-old women whose husbands are probably having affairs with hot Russian supermodels.
I’m kidding.
Well, only slightly.
Anyway, the Ladies Lunch, founded by Baroness Cécile de Massy in 2004, is actually a great charity organization. You see, they usually raise a significant amount of money for various organizations such as the Académie de Danse Princesse Grace, charities for the children in Monaco and other “…Monegasque charity associations…” At the end of today’s event the Ladies Lunch raised 28,000 Euros (roughly $39,000+) which will be donated to the Académie de Danse Princesse Grace.
To view lots of photos from today’s charity event please click the link: Photos galore
To watch a long video from the event which includes an interview with the future Princess of Monaco please click the link here. Scroll down until you see the title Ladies Lunch. Miss Wittstock’s interview begins at the 7:40 mark.
To learn more about Ladies Lunch please click the link: Ladies Lunch Monte Carlo and The Riviera Woman
Photos courtesy of: Zimbio.com by Photo Agency
**Update and Correction! I have received a lovely email message from The Ladies Luncheon Monte Carlo board member, Madame Celina Lafuente de LaVotha, who kindly informed me that the future Princess of Monaco, Charlene Wittstock, participated at this event for only one hour. She also informed me that she was none to pleased with the group photo backdrop, either.
So, thank you Madame de LaVotha for your information and may your next Ladies Lunch charity event be just as successful as today’s. Oh, and since you asked me a very personal question: Yes, I am taken. Happily. 🙂
Again, thank you Madame de LaVotha for you inside information. I appreciate it very much. 🙂
For those of you who were waiting ever so patiently to gaze upon the official website for the upcoming princely wedding in Monaco, well, you are in luck.
Today, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief and then scream like a teenager at a Justin Bieber concert because the website is officially up and running complete with H.S.H Prince Albert II of Monaco and Miss Charlene Wittstock’s giant monogram plastered all over the site.
Well… actually it’s only on the left hand side, but whatever.
Any way, the site contains all the important information for you to know. For example:
Overall, the site is quite nice looking; moreover, it is nice to see that someone at the Palais Princier de Monaco FINALLY realized the correct title of the wedding. For some time now, the official tourism website for Monaco, Visit Monaco, and some dude who works at the Palais Princier de Monaco, kept referring the upcoming wedding as a royal wedding. It’s not. It’s a princely wedding. So, congrats to Visit Monaco and the underpaid Palais Princier de Monaco employee dude who finally realized their past mistake.
To view the website in all its glory please click the link: Mariage Princier Monaco 2011
Photo courtesy of: Zimbio.com by ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images
The Royal Correspondent 