Monaco and the Grimaldi family's newest addition - a black prince

[Sky]

Albert rails at the black prince tale

Written by Angelina

Sunday, 08 May 2005

PRINCE Albert II of Monaco feels "betrayed" by a former air hostess from west Africa whose claims that he is the father of her child broke an agreement not to go public with the story until three months of mourning for his late father had ended, sources close to the family said this weekend.

 

The sources added that the unmarried Albert, 47, who recently succeeded Prince Rainier as ruler of the Riviera principality, had been willing publicly to recognise the "black prince", as they refer to the latest addition to the house of Grimaldi, after the official mourning ends in July.

 

 

 

Nicole Coste, 33, the mother, may have jeopardised that, however, by selling her story to the press. Albert is said to be furious at her "betrayal".

 

"It is treachery," said Frédéric Laurent, the author of a book about Rainier and a friend of his son. "Albert had promised to do the right thing and acknowledge the baby, but only after the mourning was over.

 

"He cannot make any declarations, or do anything much, until then. Those are the rules of mourning."

 

Coste, who was born in Togo and settled in France, told Paris Match magazine last week that she had decided to speak out because, despite promises, Albert's lawyers had not yet provided documentary evidence of the prince's alleged recognition of 21-month-old Alexandre as his child.

 

"I simply want him (Albert) to assume his responsibilities," she said in an interview accompanied by several pictures that she took of Albert holding and feeding the baby. The story was sold to other countries where interest in the antics of Europe's oldest ruling dynasty is just as intense as it is in France.

 

Coste said Albert had wanted to keep the child secret largely out of respect for his father.

 

Rainier had apparently disapproved of Coste after meeting her once at a dinner. "It is not that Rainier was a racist," said Laurent, author of The Prince on his Rock. "He disapproved of all of Albert's girlfriends."

 

That may help to explain why Albert has remained a bachelor for so long. Coste's revelations have at least put paid to one theory — that Albert was gay.

 

With Rainier out of the way, say friends, Albert will feel much freer to make his own choices and settle down, even if it may be too late to make a go of it with Coste.

 

"He often would say, ‘I'll get married when he (Rainier) dies'," said Laurent, emphasising that Rainier seemed to dislike any woman Albert brought home and that the latter seemed incapable of standing up to the old man or his cronies.

 

"There were people in Rainier's entourage who seriously dislike Albert for being a liberal and a modern man," he added. "It is probably they who started the rumours about homosexuality."

 

Albert has yet to order a purge of these gossips from the administration and is unlikely to do so until after the mourning period finishes on July 6. His coronation will be four days after that but, thanks to Coste, he is already the focus of global attention.

 

The Grimaldi clan has fascinated the world ever since Rainier married the Hollywood actress Grace Kelly in 1956. The glamour she brought to the tiny principality before her death in 1982 has vied ever since with its reputation, in the words of the writer Somerset Maugham, as "a sunny place for shady people".

 

Until now, most of the limelight was reserved for Albert's two sisters whose marriages, divorces and unhappy relationships — including Princess Stéphanie's liaison with a circus performer — have been a staple of the glossy magazines.

 

More recently, however, the question of when and whom Albert would marry to ensure the line of succession has become Monaco's obsession.

 

Coste and her baby are unlikely to change that. If Albert should have no other children it will no doubt become the subject of heated debate but, according to the Monegasque constitution, only "direct and legitimate" offspring can legally inherit the throne, which rules out little Alexandre.

 

His mother described meeting Albert in 1997 on a flight from Nice to Paris when she was working as an air hostess for Air France. "During the safety demonstrations he was looking at me," she recalled. They talked. He was hungry, so she gave him an extra meal. He took her telephone number and called two weeks later.

 

She agreed to spend a weekend with him in Monaco. In the gardens behind the famous casino, he took her hand. "After a month I had fallen in love," said Coste. He gave her the key to his flat.

 

It went on for years. She accompanied him to his box at the Monaco Grand Prix. She went with him to the Monte Carlo Music Awards. He showed her off to his friends. The family was different, however.

 

Coste did not get a chance to talk to Rainier on the one occasion they met but, as she was leaving the dinner, she heard the ruler snap at his son: "I have to talk to you." The next day Albert told her it would be better if they were just friends.

 

They carried on meeting, however, and after an evening out in December 2002 to celebrate her 31st birthday, she became pregnant. Albert had seemed quite happy to keep the child if that was what she wanted. They even discussed names together. Albert liked Eric.

 

He let her take up residence in his Paris flat and said she would want for nothing: he is paying her money each month to care for the child and, said Coste, would provide them with a home near Monaco.

 

"He has treated her pretty well, all things considered," said Laurent.

 

Not well enough, apparently. "For an African man," said Coste, "a child is always a joy, it is never shameful." Yet she feared that Albert's lawyers were prevaricating on the subject of the prince's official recognition of the child, even if they were simply waiting for Albert to be over the mourning.

 

On one occasion a lawyer urged her to be patient, saying: "(Prince) Charles waited 37 years to marry the woman of his life." To no avail.

 

"I think she was manipulated by the press and a cheque book," said Laurent. "It is really a very sad tale about her being influenced by money. It is a shame, because it will probably poison the relationship. It is not good for them and not good for the poor child."

 

Matthew Campbell, in Paris May 08, 2005

Times Online

[Sky]

Magazine's Disclosure Clouds the Future of Monaco's Royal Line

Written by Angelina

Thursday, 05 May 2005

PRINCE ALBERT II, Monaco's new ruler, was locked in talks with his lawyers yesterday about how to respond to the revelation by a Togolese air hostess that he is the father of her 21-month-old son.

 

 

The disclosure in the French magazine, Paris Match, left the Prince facing the first crisis of his reign. His reputation could be shaped by the way that he tackles the claims that he abandoned the mother during her pregnancy and has since refused to publicly acknowledge the child, although, according to her account, a DNA test has proved his paternity and he has provided a home and support for the boy.

 

Devoting its cover and ten pages to the story, the magazine ran an interview with the mother, Nicole Coste, and six photographs of the Prince holding her son, Alexandre.

 

It is less than a month since Prince Rainier's death brought an end to his 56-year reign and put his son on the throne. The Palace in Monaco refused to comment on the story, but Prince Albert's lawyer, Maître Thierry Lacoste, issued a terse statement, saying: "A judicial strategy will be determined within the next few days."

 

He added: "You need to ask yourself why this affair has come out just now."

 

Mme Coste's interview has prompted intense interest in France but silence in Monaco, where criticism of the monarchy is almost unheard of. There were no copies of Paris Match on sale in the principality yesterday, and none of the local media had covered the affair.

 

However, as the story spread, the surprise was all the greater for the Prince's reputation as an inveterate bachelor who had never been known to have a girlfriend, much less a child.

 

"I usually see Paris Match when I get my hair cut, but I think I'll pop out and get a copy as soon as I can," a Monaco resident, who asked not to be named, said.

 

Mme Coste claims that a DNA test had proved the 47-year-old Prince's paternity, which he had subsequently recognised in a document signed in front of a solicitor — adding that she had never received a copy of this document. If she is right, her son will have a claim on part of the £800 million fortune of the Grimaldi dynasty, which has ruled Monaco for seven centuries.

 

However, under Monaco's Constitution, which was revised in 2002, only the "direct and legitimate" descendants of the sovereign can sit on the throne.

 

Yesterday, lawyers said that a child born out of wedlock would not be considered legitimate. "If his parents married subsequently, you might just about be able to make an argument that he has been legitimised, but it's a fine legal balance," one said.

 

Mme Coste, 33, told Paris Match that she had decided to make the disclosure so that "Alexandre can grow up like a normal child with a father. I want the lies to stop. I'm fed up with lying, with hiding myself and pretending to be (Albert's) friend's mistress.

 

"I just want him to assume some of his responsibilities. I'm not a gold-digger," she added.

 

She alleges that she had had an affair with Prince Albert — the only son of Prince Rainier and the actress Grace Kelly — after they met on a flight from Paris to Nice in July 1997, when she was working for Air France. "Before landing, he asked for my phone number," she said. For five years, she saw him once a month, she claims.

 

She said that the Prince had never hidden their affair, but that the relationship had soured after she had been introduced to Prince Rainier at a dinner in Monaco.

 

The next day, Mme Coste says, Prince Albert told her: "I think it's better if we just stay friends." In December 2002, they met again for a meal and ended up in bed, when Mme Coste, who already had two children, fell pregnant.

 

"Neither him nor me wanted that," she said, adding that she had forgotten to take the pill because she had just returned from a long-haul flight to New York.

 

She said that at first the Prince told her: "Keep the child. I'll look after it. You'll never go without anything. I don't promise to marry you, but keep the child and don't worry. I'll slowly get it accepted in my family."

 

Then, when she was five months pregnant, he told her: "I've asked for advice. This child is impossible." Later, he said: "You've trapped me." After the birth, Prince Albert changed his tone, telling Mme Coste that he would "sort all the problems out".

 

She claims that he pays her an allowance, that she lives in his flat in an expensive district of west Paris and that he regularly visits his son.

 

From Adam Sage in Paris May 05, 2005 Times Online

[Sky]

Have some of you heard about a Somali who humiliated a white supremacist website? Well he joined the website somewhat a year ago and managed to hack the site and get Admin powers. Lemme just tell you that he totally trashed the site. If you haven't followed it, its a shame. The whities erased every sign that indicated the Somali raid on their community. Hundreds of Somalis joined the raid including myself.

 

 

Here is their reaction to this news:

 

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=207892&page=1&pp=10

[Aux]

I guess the Prince was intrigued by sleeping with a black women. Now we have a white prince who is supposedly considered a Nigger. Lovely! :eek:

[-Lily-]

All the child will get from this is money, and a lifetime of humiliation, what a cruel mother he has!

[nuune]

Have some of you heard about a Somali who humiliated a white supremacist website? Well he joined the website somewhat a year ago and managed to hack the site and get Admin powers. Lemme just tell you that he totally trashed the site. If you haven't followed it, its a shame. The whities erased every sign that indicated the Somali raid on their community. Hundreds of Somalis joined the raid including myself.

Sky, putting down websites, tell ur friends to put down this website, I sent you a PM containing the website as I don't like nomads to c it, it is actually a group of Somalis rejecting prophet Mohamed and accepting only God, they claim to be Muslims but far from it as they reject NABI MOHAMED, subxaanallaah