As we discussed, Prince Albert of Monaco finally brought the kids down to South Africa to visit their mom, Princess Charlene. Charlene has been in SA since (at least) early May, and in that time, Albert had only brought the kids to see her one other time, and it was only for a few days. Albert has been acting like a single dad in Monaco, bringing Gabrielle and Jacques out to events with their cousins and trying to keep them entertained. Charlene has apparently been in and out of the hospital with an ENT infection and she’s needed multiple surgeries to fix everything. She’s not due back in Monaco until the end of October at the earliest.
This entire episode has led to a lot of theorizing about what might be happening behind the scenes. Perhaps an escape, perhaps a formal separation between Charlene and Albert. Yesterday, Charlene was seemingly trying to combat that when she posted two photos of herself and Albert posing alone and embracing. I… remain unconvinced. But mostly I am mega-concerned about Charlene. Remember, she apparently had a four-hour surgery two weeks ago. She looks very ill, but perhaps it’s just puffiness from the surgery and/or infection and whatever drugs they have her on. In any case, it looks like Albert doesn’t actually want to get too close to her. Yikes. This is such a mess.
Photos courtesy of Charlene’s Instagram.
She really does not look well in these pictures – which would make sense if she’s still recovering from the surgery and still sick. So maybe they’re being released on purpose, to show people “look she’s actually sick”?
Yeah, she looks very ill..
Yes, she does look very sick. Her face is gaunt and there is no sparkle in her eyes. I hope that she is getting the best medical care available to her as she looks unwell. I hope that Charlene recovers and is able to live the rest of her life free of pain and sickness. She seem to be forcing her happiness and excitement, if that makes sense.
I wonder what the true story is. I wonder if this is part of Alberts terms in regards to her wanting to divorce or possibly live separately from him.
I’m confused. In these pictures Charlene has a scarf round her head under her hat, obviously to cover bandages from surgery. In the photos with the children, she has no headgear or bandages. Are those photos from the last time she met the kids and Albert, and the couple photos are from now? I can understand maybe keeping the children away at this stage, no one wants their six year olds to see their Mum looking so ill.
To me, it looks like she has the same gaiter Albert has around her neck, but hers is on her head. Maybe she was wearing it like a headband and then put on the hat?
My thought was if she has lost a good bit of weight from being sick her hat might no longer fit her without something helping to stuff it.
you tie a scarf around your head to absorb the sweat and then you put your hat on. without it the hat either gets soaked with perspiration or, if it’s leather, glues itself to your skin.
This is all making me so uncomfortable now. She looks really unwell in those pictures. I hope she gets better soon. I don’t think it’s divorce and I don’t think it’s a sinus infection either. Wishing her well
I agree. It looks like she is standing up only because she is leaning on Albert. Poor woman.
Can I just say that whole family suffers from bad haircuts.
She looks like she is not all there. Like you do when you’re taking drugs that affect your moods or thinking. I used to be on those for a while for migraine prevention before I refused because I really felt like I was high all the time. I hated them.
Gabrielle has a terminal case of Resting Bitchface.
She’s giving stink eye to whoever did those bangs of hers.
She did her bangs, though!! Haaaa.
@Catwoman I know, and I love it!
Gabriella is giving me Wednesday Addams vibes.
I was thinking she looks like a Romulan.
Omg Mac yes!!
The haircut is not good- and I feel sorry for her- she looks too unhappy for a little girl.
I do admire her ability to incinerate things with her eyes, though.
At the same time, kids often do not like to cooperate for photo shoots so I don’t know if I’d read too much into it. My family has similar pictures from a photoshoot we did when my sister and I were around that age. I look terrified (I was a shy kid and I’m guessing I wanted nothing to do with the photographer) and my sister looks murderous. I actually think my sister wins the RBF in this case, Gabrielle has nothing on her lol.
Charlene posted that Gabrielle cut her own bangs and Charlene had to try to “fix” them.
@ Janey, She does!! She has Wendy Adam’s character spot on!!!
This is the first time during this whole fiasco that I’ve been genuinely worried for Charlene’s health. She looks terrible – like she should be in bed recovery from whatever and not propped up for photos.
If they did this because of all the separation gossips, myself included, I feel terrible.
+1
I mean, she has described in detail that she is experiencing severe medical problems and surgical complications. I don’t get all the handwringing of “she looks ill”. Yeah she said she was ill. Maybe believe her.
She looks like my mom did when she had cancer treatment. I truly hope that’s not it but she looks so much like how my mom looked.
Yup. My mum went through cancer and that was the first comparison I made too.
I noticed that there were no pictures of Charlene and Albert alone and it looks like people in the Palace did too. All the best to Charlene.
I swear money will get you everything. That is the only reason this dude Albert was some Euro Playboy,i heard he even dated Naomi Campbell!
TBF He was better looking as a young guy.
Oh, Albert was a catch when he was younger. He was good looking, royalty, American cinema royalty adjacent (mommy is Grace Kelly, after all), an athlete/Olympian (in bobsledding). It’d be different if he were pulling Naomi Campbell types now but completely understandable back in the day.
I hate how these royal guys either have terrible genes or truly let themselves go, because they don’t need to care. We still want the fantasy, Albert! Get to the gym!
@Lemons Oh, c’mon. The dude’s 63 years old! I think he’s allowed to get a little dumpy in his 60s.
I’m old enough to remember what a hottie he was way back in the day-early 80s. He was fit, had all of his hair, and seemed charismatic and charming. He graduated from Amherst, speaks multiple languages and was very sporty. He has definitely gone downhill-all the ickiness from his personal life appears to be manifesting outwardly. We all age-but he’s not aging well (same with his sisters too.)
He was way better looking in his youth. Google Prince Albert 1983
He had a nice smiley face, high forehead and all, I had a crush with a head like that. All the family boasted in the sun, the sun damage is coming at them with a vengeance. I like that they more or less stay natural, except lip fillers for those smokers’ lips.
This entire story is just bizarre and keeps getting more bizarre. The pics aren’t helping it either. And I too remain unconvinced.
She looks unwell and I hope she is not mentally unwell. I wish her the best and I hope she is getting the help she needs and not just being used as a pawn.
It’s almost as if she’s being reprogrammed. Like the Stepford Wives.
RIGHT! From the outside looking in (to the narrative that is out there and they are releasing) it just is all very unsettling.
She really looks unwell, maybe that was the point of these pics, to challenge the unbelievers who are questioning the story about her operations.
My first thought seeing the top pic was that this would be the result if two people had never been exposed to hugging before and were told to try it out purely based on written instructions.
Yes, it’s as if they are two strangers who have been told they must pretend to hug each other.
They do look awkward but I thought it was because she seemed to be in pain and he was holding her very gingerly so as not to hurt her more . She doesn’t look well at all and I wish she could get the rest she needs to recover.
It does look awkward, but given how she doesn’t look very well, I’m almost wondering if he looks physically awkward because he’s holding her up.
This comment cracked me up, best comment!
I’m wondering now if the ENT issue is actually some type of cancer. It might explain multiple surgeries (diagnostic, then complete resection plus any reconstruction), and her looking unwell now if she is undergoing radiation or chemotherapy. I hope not, for her sake. Wish her well, regardless.
What do you think the odds are that Gabrielle gave herself those bangs with a pair of purloined scissors, inspired by mom’s haircut?
I was thinking the same thing; would also explain the short haircut. (My sister had trouble with her long hair while going through treatment; she didn’t lose it but it but it made it tangled and messy and troublesome). Poor Charlene. something is definitely going on and it isn’t good.
Yup, this is my thought too. Cancer that they are treating very aggressively. I hope she recovers.
Same here. If l had seen these pictures of Charlene with her head scarf before the family photos yesterday, I’d have honestly thought she was getting chemo and had hair loss. Poor lady, l wish her all the best whatever she’s going through.
That’s the most obvious thought, right? That also explains the separation well. First, she probably stopped caring about the optics when she got sick, so she just bailed and did what she felt like it. But then if things aren’t going well, she maybe also decided that she had nothing to gain from burning bridges and a public divorce at this point, so they chose to keep up the pretense?
I just had the same thought.
Also just remembered that my sister had to quarantine from her kids (and husband and pets) in the days following her chemo administration because it could be toxic to them as she passed it out through the bathroom and her bodily excretions. It’s a stretch to go to another continent…but maybe she didn’t want to expose the kids to the messiness? It’s tough.
My friend had to do the same. She went to another city (that’s where she had the procedure, but yeah, her husband and daughter stayed home and she had to be alone because there wasn’t really any other option).
I thought this as well, because of the color of her skin. I’ve had good friends undergo cancer treatments and eerily their skin always gets this ashen color. It’s not just a paleness, but like a light grey chalky color.
It would also make sense as to why she didn’t have the kids more. It’s very difficult to look after kids that small when getting cancer treatment. The fatigue is just so overwhelming even a few days visit would be a lot.
what in the “the shining”-hell?
She looks very unwell. I hope if she is, her health recovers. I’m wondering if she’s so unwell that Albert, who is a dick towards her, felt bad enough to let her go back home to South Africa to be with her family while she got some sort of treatment.
And if so she probably prefers to receive medical care in her own language, and in surroundings she’s more comfortable in. I’ve been to French hospitals, they’re fantastic, but I’d still prefer to receive care where they speak my native language.
Poor Charlene. Praying for a recovery for her.
Whatever the state of her marriage, it’s obvious from these pictures that Charlene really is unwell. She’s always been in shape because she’s an Olympic athlete but in those top two photos she appears to be very frail and weak. In the top photo her eyes are sunken in. Prayers for her recovery.
Jesus, she looks bad. Now I’m having dark thoughts like she has a very debilitating illness and she doesn’t want her kids to see her like that. That maybe (if she is unwell) she feels safer at home in her country without other people bitching about her in French. This story was funny when we where speculating about Charlene taking long vacations from her cheating creepy husband but now it’s just sad.
I agree. She obviously isn’t faking being sick to get away from Albert. It’s very sad. I hope it isn’t something terminal or very serious and lifelong.
Now I’m wondering why Albert has been in Monaco all these months and not why Charlene has been in South Africa. The pictures where it looks like she is using Albert as a support to hold herself up are the ones where I can now see there is something going on and she truly looks unwell. If she’s had multiple surgeries for her ENT issues, it’s more suspect that Albert has stayed in Monaco all these months. Yes, I know COVID is still a thing and it’s a long trip but I feel like South Africa would allow a prince to come visit his princess wife along with their royal kids. Wouldn’t a husband want to be with his wife all this time and also have her kids with her? Monaco is a tiny principality, it’s about the size of Central Park. I doubt he needs to govern it that much. Either that or he truly hates his wife, I can’t explain it.
Does not matter the size he still had a job to do and was at the Olympics
I did a deep dive on Charlene’s instagram yesterday, and in one of the pictures she posted from last Christmas, she looks just as ill as she looks in these, so it would appear she has perhaps been fighting something for a while.
What year is it? People divorce, even royal ones. Especially once you know your husband is the Johnny Appleseed of Monaco. There’s no shame in divorcing. The only shame is this sad pantomime of a happy family.
This has me wondering if she left to avoid having the kids watch her battle something serious health wise. She looks so so so very unwell
That haircut couldn’t possibly be a wig could it? It doesn’t look like one, it looks like her natural hair but they do make some very good wigs these days.
I hope she’s getting all of the medical treatment she needs. Bless her and her children…
It’s the fact that she’s dressed in such warm clothing for me.
Wouldn’t it be winter in South Africa though?
yes it is
You hit the nail on the head! Wednesday Addams for sure!
I’m just wondering if she maybe had a cocaine addiction, which would explain a lot of this behaviour…maybe the trip to SA was to attend rehab, would explain the ENT issues and her sickly appearance…just a thought
Not out of the realm of possibility
Good heavens, she does look ill. God bless her. I’ll bet she has appreciated being home, though. That little girl looks like such a stinker! And Prince Albert. We all age, don’t we.
Prince Albert is the manifestation of the fact that there is no guarantee that you will inherit the best parts or even the moderate parts of your parents. For what seemed like two exquisitely debonair parents this dowdy looking off-spring emerged. His personality does not seem to be positive either from the little I have read about him. Was he adopted and we do not know? I mean man! And also how old is Charlene? She looks like she could be his kid or at least his very much younger sister. She looks at least 15 years his junior.
He was very good looking when he was younger. It appears that similar to the British royals the very much intermingled monarch’s genes have ultimately reigned supreme.
Charlene is 43, Albert is 63.
I’m giving him a pass on his looks now because white men in their 60s rarely look very good, he did actually look fairly good in his youth, and his family in particular seems to age less-than-well.
He is known for being an affable, friendly royal. He was a common fixture when I worked in the hospitality industry in S. France and everyone had good things to say about him. Very gracious the one time I met him at least.
Sinus lift: involves bone graft to create enough space for dental implants. If that is true, it supports her not being able to fly, her dark circles (allergy shiners), and he look of general ill health, as dental and sinus pain can be excruciating. So can being married to a philandering narcissist.
Botched plastic surgery. That is my theory. Looks like it in the pics.
OK, IMO, #1. Picture they look awkward because she is leaning into his chubby body and they have their heads together at a goofy angle because they are both wearing hats with brims that are touching and yet they both are trying to face the camera. If he wasn’t bald, he could have taken his hat off for the pic. But, pale, bald white guys standing in SA sun are gonna sun burn the hell, so hats are on.
She looks exhausted, very unwell. Multiple surgeries and pain killers, lack of decent sleep, not feeling well enough to eat properly or lack of appetite, etc.
She could in fact be under going any number of treatments and because they live in the public eye are trying to keep it from their very young kids.
The gossip, you know the kids will hear rumors.
William and Harry were aware of the tabloids covering their Mum.
I hope she recovers. No young kid should loose their Mum.
In the first pic she is holding her hand clenched, not flat on his back. Not a good sign.
Be well, Charlene.
Have these people met before? Seriously. They look so uncomfortable.
If they thought this would put the stories about their marriage to bed then…he needs ro to fire his PR team!! Poor Charleen looks like a hostage! I agree with others about her looking frail and slimmer, I hope its not a big illness like cancer and hope she recovers & takes her kids from this creep when she divorces him