Prince Albert of Monaco may have his faults, but no one could question his generosity.
Take his wife, for instance: Princess Charlene, whose spending far exceeds her official allowance of $1.6 million a year in the knowledge that her husband will pay the difference, according to Albert’s onetime éminence grise.
She is not alone. His former mistress has continued to benefit from his largesse as well, as do the two children he had out of wedlock before meeting Charlene, who seems to have been kept in the dark about these payments, according to French media.
The revelations about the ruler of the tiny Mediterranean principality were published by Le Monde after it obtained notebooks kept by Claude Palmero, who was officially the prince’s property manager until his sacking last year but who was widely viewed as a powerful influence at the palace.
The disclosures are damaging to Albert, 65, who has a hands-on role in running the country with one of the highest rates of millionaires in the world. He comes across as a feeble monarch being pushed around by the women in his life, including his two sisters, Princess Stéphanie, 58, and Princess Caroline, 67. Both are said by Palmero to use the crown jewels as personal fashion accessories. Caroline is accused of having evicted her brother from the management of the family château in Marchais in northeast France, where Palmero says there is “chaos in the inventory”.
Palmero, 67, who was dismissed after more than two decades at the palace for alleged disloyalty amid claims that he had left the royal finances in a “catastrophic” state, kept notes on the inner workings of the ruling family, including its expenditures.
Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, 31, Albert’s daughter with an American former waitress after a brief affair, receives $86,000 every three months, despite not being part of the royal family, Le Monde said. It added that Palmero noted her as having been given $5,000 for her 18th birthday and a flat in New York worth $3 million seven years later.
Palmero also noted that the palace was paying for kidnap and ransom insurance for Alexandre Coste, 20, Albert’s son with Nicole Coste, a Franco-Togolese former air hostess with whom he had a liaison during his bachelor days. Born out of wedlock, Coste is not in the line of succession either. In 2015, Coste’s mother persuaded Albert to back her fashion business, which was fronted by a shop in Knightsbridge, Le Monde said. Palmero noted in 2015 that it was “on course [to cost] one million [euros] a year” (about $1.1 million).
Albert’s daughter with an American former waitress after a brief affair receives $86,000 every three months.
Libération, another French newspaper to whom Palmero spoke, said the prince had an account at BNP, the French bank, under the name AG for Albert Grimaldi — Grimaldi being the Monaco ruling dynasty name. The newspaper said the account was used to pay Albert’s former mistresses and their children without his wife knowing.
Charlene, 45, who was born in Zimbabwe and went on to represent South Africa as a swimmer, received more than $8 million in the eight years following her marriage to Albert in 2011, according to Palmero. But she spent more than $16 million during that time, he said. In April 2016, he said she had asked for $83,000. In 2020, he noted a payment of $216,000 into her bank account “plus €5,000 in cash” (about $5400).
Among her expenses were more than $1 million to redecorate her office and $325 a day for her personal chef, Palmero said. He added that she employed nannies and other domestic staff who had arrived in Monaco as illegal immigrants, notably from the Philippines.
Maître Jean-Michel Darrois, Albert’s lawyer, told Le Monde that if illegal immigrants worked for Charlene, Palmero was to blame for having employed them. The lawyer also said that all expenses over and above official allowances were met by the prince’s private funds and did not affect the palace budget.
Darrois went on to accuse Palmero of having registered himself as the official owner of much of the royal family’s property portfolio, notably in Paris, where it is said to include a flat in the city’s wealthy 16th Arrondissement for the prince’s bodyguards.
Palmero said he acted with the knowledge and approval of the royal family so that they could avoid French taxes.
In a statement, Albert said: “The attacks that [Palmero] makes against me and against the state [of Monaco] and its institutions show his true nature and the little respect … he has for the family and the principality.”
Adam Sage is the Paris correspondent for The Times of London. He has covered five presidential elections and countless scandals