THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (Extracts)
Scandal upon scandal
The astonishing allegations include that Princess Charlene exceeded her €1.5million (£1.28 million) annual allowance. Her extravagant spending included €860,000 (£733,000) on doing up her office in her Monte Carlo palace, and a further €826,000 (£705,000) on redecorating her holiday villa in Corsica.
That splurging extended to Princess Charlene’s family in South Africa. In December 2022, Palmero recounts that she had demanded €900,000 (£768,00) for her brother, Sean Wittstock, to spend on his house.
But it was a very different story with her staff. Palmero claims that most of her employees were actually illegal immigrants – even the nannies for her twins, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, who were born in December 2014. Palmero claims that in January 2015 the nanny’s tourist visa had expired that month, plus “one entered with a false passport”.
Prince Albert’s behaviour sound like a salacious movie. The playboy monarch reportedly had a secret account at the French bank BNP, which was used to pay his mistresses and illegitimate children – while keeping everything hidden from his wife.
Palmero also claims that he was tasked with unsavoury assignments by Prince Albert like “Mission K”, in 2012, which involved paying off a woman who allegedly had compromising photographs of the prince.
If there’s one place where you can weather this kind of financial furore, it’s the proud and furtive tax haven of Monaco. But even the Rock’s inhabitants have their limits – and the scandalous royals are severely testing them.
THE GUARDIAN (Extract)
Libération newspaper, which also interviewed Palmero, reported that Albert kept a private BNP bank account labelled AG (for Albert Grimaldi), allowing him to transfer money to the former girlfriends and their children without Charlene’s knowledge.
The notebooks further record Palmero’s alarm at the number of staff the palace employed illegally: Charlene’s personal cook, paid €300 a day in cash, and Filipino nannies who had entered Monaco on tourist visas or false passports.
Le Monde also reported on the existence of “special funds” that were allocated up to €600,000 a year for “secret missions” and “parallel activities” – such as paying a police officer a retainer for “useful information” and “recovering compromising photos”.
THE DAILY MAIL (Extract)
The scandal grenade that's exploded in Monaco for Prince Albert is a grim warning of what a prince with no purpose can get up to
For decades [Albert] has built a reputation as a philanderer whose activities have been bombproofed by extreme regal privilege; an unabashed lover who did what he wanted, with whom he wanted, when he wanted.
And as claims emerge this week about secret bank accounts used to fund his former lovers and illegitimate children, one can only be thankful that Prince Andrew — his fellow royal madman across the water — has little of Prince Albert’s determination and energy when it comes to being a playboy.
My comment: It should come as no surprise to anyone that Prince Andrew was Albert’s main link with Britain’s royal family. There was a good reason for this: The two of them had the most in common. I could go further on this point, it goes deeper and gets dirtier. Maybe one day such revelations will surface. For now, it is too distasteful for me to say more.
THE DAILY MAIL (Extract)
So as the scandal continues to engulf the Grimaldis and the citizens of Monaco have every right to feel short changed by the revolting extravagance, let us be grateful that Prince Andrew was just too lazy to get himself into so many romantic scrapes as priapic, unstoppable Prince Albert. And just too dull to think beyond Pitch@Palace on the business and commerce field.
Still, this Monegasque mess is a grim warning about what a puffed-up prince with little purpose in life will get up to, whether he is based in Monaco, Mummy’s House or anywhere else.
It's all coming down around his ears.