July 6, 2005

Coffee? Tea? Illegitimate Royal Heir?


The ruler of Monaco, Prince Albert II, has acknowledged having fathered an illegitimate son with a former flight attendant from Togo, his lawyer said Wednesday.

"Prince Albert II asks the press to adopt responsible behavior, similar to what it has adopted in similar circumstances for other public figures, and to respect his private life and that of
the underage child," the statement said.

Wow, who would have thought that Albert would ever be able to outdo his wild, reckless, free-loving sisters? And look how cute that baby is!

As a contrast, let's take a quick look at the love life of his wild child sister,
Princess Stephanie:

Long the enfant terrible of European royalty, her affairs and antics were reported to have driven Rainier to despair. At 16, she began an affair with Paul Belmondo, son of French film star Jean-Paul Belmondo, and two years her senior. Over the years she was reportedly engaged to actor Rob Lowe, music producer Ron Bloom, convicted drug addict Mario Oliver, and Jean Yves Lefur.

Notorious for her penchant for romancing her servants, in 1991 she became pregnant by her bodyguard Daniel Ducruet. She gave birth to their son, Louis, on November 26, 1992, and daughter, Pauline, on May 4, 1994. She married Ducruet on July 1, 1995, but divorced him in 1996 after the publication of photographs of him cavorting poolside with Muriel ("Fili") Houteman, the reigning "Miss Nude Belgium" (some sources say "Miss Topless Belgium"). Stéphanie then had another child, Camille, born on July 15, 1998, who was fathered by Jean Raymond Gottlieb, another of her bodyguards.


Stéphanie retreated to the French ski resort of Auron and had an affair with Corsican bartender Pierre Pinelli. She also made headlines in 2002 when she lived with married elephant tamer Franco Knie in a trailer and traveled throughout Europe with his circus act. She later became involved with her father's butler, Richard Lucas, a married father of two, before turning her attentions to a palace gardener.

On September 12, 2003, she married Adans Lopez Peres, a Portuguese acrobat 10 years her junior. On July 22, 2004, Germany's Bild newspaper reported that Stéphanie split from Peres, has contacted lawyers to obtain a divorce, and is seeing Ducruet again. However, that fall,
Hello! magazine published photographs of the princess with a man the magazine identified as her new boyfriend, Franck Brasseur, a married croupier who also is a member of the Monaco national soccer team.

Stéphanie has since moved on from Brasseur. Her current companion is a 26 year old bartender known only as Mathieu. German magazines have reported that he is the father of a 4-year-old child and is a former bartender at "La Lamparo" on the Cap d'Ail.

One thing is for sure. Albert and Stephanie's niece, Charlotte Casiraghi (daughter of Princess Caroline), is the prettiest girl in the universe:

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