Princess Charlene and Prince Albert of Monaco share a sweet photo to celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary
Princess Charlene and Prince Albert celebrated their wedding anniversary today
READ MORE: Tears of the Crown: The moments when we saw royals well-up…
By Gina Kalsi For Mailonline
Published: 17:33 BST, 1 July 2024 | Updated: 17:34 BST, 1 July 2024
View comments
The Palace of Monaco’s social media account has released a sweet snap of Princess Charlene and Prince Albert to mark their 13th wedding anniversary. Charlene, 46, and Albert, 66, tied the knot on 1 July, 2011, in a religious ceremony at the Prince’s Palace among other royal guests such as the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and Naomi Campbell. In the new snap, the couple look over the palace balcony with their two children standing in front of them. Charlene opted for a soft grey jumper with a V-cut at the back and Prince Albert donned a navy suit with a crisp white shirt in the picture. The caption simply said: ‘Happy wedding anniversary to Their Highnesses Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene.’
Today, the couple’s official Instagram account shared an image of Prince Albert lovingly putting his hand on his wife’s back to mark their wedding anniversary. Many may remember when the Princess shed tears in front of a global audience of millions, leading to questions about her well-being. Charlene and Prince Albert beam as they walk arm in arm after the religious ceremony at their 2011 wedding.
The post racked up thousands of likes, with people congratulating the couple on reaching another milestone. One wrote: ‘The union of two people is precious, take time to look back on all the sweet moments together.’ Another penned: ‘Happy wedding anniversary to Princess Charlene and Prince Albert.’ A third said: ‘I came especially from Corsica, it was a lovely day.’ A fourth commented: ‘Congratulations and many happy years to come.’
When the couple met, few expected romance to blossom – Charlene was after all a sports-mad Olympian 20 years his junior. Yet the couple fell in love and made their first public appearance at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Today, the couple’s official Instagram account shared an image of Prince Albert lovingly putting his hand on his wife’s back as they look over crowds of royal fans from their balcony alongside their nine-year-old twins, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella. To marry into the family, Charlene was required to learn French and Monegasque and she had to convert to Catholicism. The couple then became engaged in June 2010. The similarities between their love story and that of his father, Prince Rainier III, and his Hollywood actress mother Grace Kelly did not go unnoticed. French journalist Philippe Delorme went as far as to tell the Daily Mail in 2011: ‘If the Princess Grace story was a movie, then Princess Charlene is the remake.’
When they tied the knot, she walked down the aisle in a bespoke Armani dress that had taken the Italian atelier an astonishing 2,500 hours to create. However, as she exchanged vows with the principality’s ruler, she looked anything but the happy bride. The post racked up thousands of likes, with people congratulating the couple on reaching another milestone. Many may remember when the Princess shed tears in front of a global audience of millions, leading to questions about her well-being. Rumours swirled around days before the big day that Charlene had tried to flee the country on three occasions with a one-way ticket to Johannesburg. A Parisian news magazine claimed Charlene had been stopped at Nice airport clutching a one-way ticket to South Africa the week before her wedding day after allegedly learning a ‘distressing’ revelation about her future husband’s private life. A senior Monaco detective told MailOnline at the time: ‘Charlene had her passport confiscated so that the Prince’s entourage could persuade her to stay.’ But she denied that the tears at her wedding were of sadness and instead insisted that she was simply emotional because she was overjoyed at the ceremony.
In a rare interview, the South African former swimmer revealed in July 2013 that they were tears of happiness and has described the speculation as ‘categorical lies’. ‘Everything was just so overwhelming and there were all the mixed emotions because of the rumours, and obviously the tension built up and I burst into tears [immediately after the ceremony],’ she said.
It was the celebrity event of the summer in 2011 when Albert II of Monaco married Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock. Charlene sparked rumours when she was
