Prince Albert of Monaco beamed with actress Sharon Stone at a charity screening of No Time To Die in Monte Carlo last night, while his wife Princess Charlene remains in South Africa.
Albert, 60, and the Hollywood star, 63, greeted each other with a friendly kiss on the cheek and chatted as they posted for photos outside Monte Carlo Casino.
Sharon, who looks strikingly similar to Charlene with her svelte figure and cropped blonde hair, looked elegant in a glitzy cocktail dress and matching heels.
This morning Charlene, who shares six-year-old twins Gabriella and Jacques with Albert, shared an Instagram video promoting her anti-poaching charity.
The mother-of-two is in South Africa while she continues to recover from a procedure to treat an ear, nose and throat infection she contracted while on a solo visit to the country earlier this year.
She has not been seen in Monaco since January and is not expected to return until some time next month.
She has missed a string of high profile events including the Monaco Grand Prix and the annual Rose Ball, as well as the two events Albert has attended with Sharon.
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Albert’s A-list guest! Prince Albert of Monaco looked friendly with actress Sharon Stone at last night’s No Time To Die premiere in Monte Carlo
Last week: It comes just a week after the pair walked the red carpet at the 5th Monte-Carlo Gala For Planetary Health, where Albert awarded Sharon with a lifetime achievement award
Charlene remains in South Africa while she continues to recover from a procedure to treat an ear, nose and throat infection she contracted while on a solo visit to the country earlier this year. She and Albert released photos from their reunion last month (pictured)
This morning Charlene, who shares six-year-old twins Gabriella and Jacques with Albert, shared an Instagram video promoting her anti-poaching charity, pictured
It comes as a friend said Charlene sees herself as a ‘protector of the heirs’ and not a royal.
Speaking to People Magazine, a source close to the former Olympic swimmer said: ‘She sees herself as the protector of the heirs, as opposed to the princess of Monaco’.
The friend added Charlene ‘only felt fully part of the family’ after welcoming the twins which gave her ‘a kind of security’.
‘She’s incredibly involved and protective … in a very loving and providing kind of way, shunning other activities to be with them and making sure that they’re kind of living a semi-normal life,’ they added.
Meanwhile, Prince Albert has been preparing for his wife’s return home after spending most of 2021 apart.
In a previous interview with People, he said Charlene was ready to come home and has been joking that she wants to clandestinely hop on a ship to make her way to Monaco.
Close: Albert gave Sharon a warm welcome to the event in Monte Carlo last night
Earlier this month, he told the magazine: ‘She didn’t leave Monaco in a huff! She didn’t leave because she was mad at me or at anybody else… She didn’t go into exile. It was absolutely just a medical problem which had to be treated.’
He added that his wife had planned to travel to South Africa to reassess her foundation’s work and to spend time with her brother and friends.
Albert admitted he ‘probably should have addressed’ the rumours sooner, but was ‘concentrating on taking care of the kids’ and believed they would just ‘go away’.
‘Of course it affects her, of course it affects me,’ he told the magazine. ‘Misreading events is always detrimental… We’re an easy target, easily hit, because we’re in the public eye a lot.’
The Princess has missed out on countless public engagements and family events due to her extended stay in South Africa, including her children’s return to school.
Last month it was announced that the royal had been admitted to hospital in in the port city of Durban in the southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province after collapsing at home.
‘Her Serene Highness (HSH) Princess Charlene of Monaco was rushed to hospital by ambulance late Wednesday night after collapsing due to complications from the severe ear, nose, and throat infection she contracted in May,’ her foundation said in a statement.
‘The Princess’ medical team is currently evaluating her but have confirmed that the Princess is stable,’ it said.
Chantell Wittstock, director of the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation and Charlene’s sister-in-law, later said that ‘she has been released. She was released this morning’. ‘Doctors are still establishing exactly what happened,’ she said.
Her latest health scare was ‘part of the recovery,’ Wittstock said. ‘She has been in a lot of pain.’
Charlene and Albert reunited last month for the first time in months after the monarch and their children flew to South Africa, but photographs of the pair embracing were branded ‘awkward’ by a body language expert.
In recent weeks, lifestyle magazines across Europe have speculated feverishly that the royal couple could be headed for divorce. French magazine Madame Figaro stated the images ‘failed to convince the Monegasques’ amid reports Charlene is looking for a house in Johannesburg.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the magazine asked: ‘How long can she remain away from her children, her duties?’
‘How long will the fight against rhinoceros poaching remain the Princess of Monaco’s top priority? How long will Albert II of Monaco go on bearing this affront, which is becoming ridiculous?’
Historian Philippe Delorme said that ‘lots of people got the impression it was an arranged marriage’ between Charlene and Albert, adding: ‘Albert chose a wife who resembled his mother, and Charlene clearly felt very ill at ease in this Grace Kelly role they wanted her to play.’
Charlene has been in South Africa since at least March, with media reports suggesting she is looking for a house there.
The prince, who already supports two illegitimate children, is alleged to have been in a relationship with a Brazilian woman which resulted in a daughter in 2005.
The claim, which his lawyers dismissed as a ‘hoax’, is particularly painful as he was dating Charlene at the time, having met in 2000.
However, Charlene has publicly supported her husband, and the palace have reiterated she is only in South Africa because she’s unable to fly.
On August 13, the Monaco palace released a statement saying Charlene was to undergo surgery.
It read: ‘Princess Charlene will undergo an operation today, Friday, August 13, for four hours under general anaesthesia.’
The princess will not return to Monaco until at least the end of October.
Princess Charlene, who has been well enough to conduct interviews from South Africa and has been seen out and about, has used the time to promote her anti-poaching initiative, Chasing Zero.
Charlene’s last formal engagement was on January 27 when she joined Albert for the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monte Carlo. She has not been seen at home since.
Last Monaco outing together: Charlene and Albert were last pictured together at an official event together in January at the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monaco. Albert has made a few visits to South Africa since
Instead she has been keeping followers updated through social media posts and media interviews, in which she has spoken candidly about missing her children and described her husband as ‘her rock’.
Speaking to South Africa Radio 702’s host Mandy Wiener, the royal said: ‘[It’s] very frustrating, terribly frustrating. I can’t wait to get back to them, I can’t wait to see my children.’
Charlene revealed: ‘It’s the longest period I’ve actually been away from Europe, let alone my children, but I’m FaceTiming them most days and they’ve been here and will be returning to see me again after my procedure.
‘It’s an amazing opportunity [to be here] but I’m very sad I can’t be with my children this summer in Europe.’
She added that she was initially only supposed to be in her native South Africa for ten to 12 days for a conservation trip with her Princess Charlene of Monaco foundation.
However, the royal had a problem ‘equalising her ears’ and was told by a doctor that she was suffering from a serious sinus infection.
‘It’s taken time to address the problem that I’m having,’ explained Charlene. ‘I cannot go into full detail, but I cannot force healing so I will be grounded in South Africa until the end of October.
‘The reason being I cannot fly above 3,000 metres otherwise I’ll have a problem with my ears.
‘I feel well, I feel good, it’s just obviously a waiting game for me, but I’ve had a great opportunity to understand a little bit more about South Africa, the environment, the needs and it’s been wonderful to be back in South Africa, and I think at this time it’s crucial that people are aware of certain things via my foundation.’
Charlene joined the video interview from bush country in the KwaZulu-Natal region.
She has also shared videos released by the Monaco royal palace to mark her and Albert’s 10th wedding anniversary, which took place in July. The couple spent the milestone thousands of miles apart.
But royal sources have suggested the princess has ‘no plans’ to return soon.
A palace source told Paris Match: ‘The Princess has, for the time being, in reality, no intention of returning.’
The separation is also affecting Charlene’s relationship with the people of Monaco.
Stéphane Bearn uses an impeccably sourced piece in the latest Paris Match to discuss the torturous separation.
He describes subjects in Monaco becoming increasingly angry about their runaway Princess, as they criticise everything from Charlene’s mood swings to her appearance.
‘In Monaco, since the departure of Charlene, tongues have loosened,’ Mr Bearn writes. ‘In the whirlwind of a hard-nosed court, her fine shine is rubbing off. Her sad looks are regarded as haggard.
‘Disappointed Monegasques talk about her anger, her whimsical moods, which are as changeable as her hair.’
He added: ‘The Palace had to invoke a suffering Princess so often that the Monegasques today find it hard to believe. By crying wolf, the mother of Jacques and Gabriella would have discredited and isolated herself.’
During her trip, Charlene also debuted a dramatic new shaved hairstyle.
She showcased the ‘French crop’ hairdo – featuring a longer strip on top of the head and dramatically shaved back and sides – in snaps shared on her charity’s Instagram page in late May.
The royal first stepped out with a dramatic half-shaved head in December 2020 but has since gone even shorter and bolder with the cut.
Charlene and Albert’s marriage has been plagued with rumours from the start.
The couple met at the Mare Nostrum swimming competition in Monte Carlo in 2000, announced their engagement in 2010.
Former Olympic swimmer Charlene reportedly tried to flee Monaco for her native South Africa on three separate occasions before the royal wedding after discovering Albert had allegedly fathered a love child – his third – while they were together.
Monaco officials were said to have coaxed her back by brokering a deal between the Prince and his reluctant bride, saying she could leave once she had provided him with a legitimate heir.
One source said at the time: ‘Charlene will provide an heir, then if things don’t go well, she will receive a generous divorce settlement once she’s served a decent amount of time.’
Charlene was seen in floods of tears on her wedding day in 2011.
Just one year after their wedding, it was reported that Charlene was ‘depressed’ at her failure to provide her husband with a legitimate heir.
Her pregnancy was announced in May 2014, and in December that year she gave birth to twins Princess Gabriella and heir to the throne Prince Jacques.
In the 10 years since, Charlene has rarely spoken publicly of her experience.
In 2017, the Princess made an emotional return to Africa, where she spoke about how much the continent means to her.
‘I am African and this is my heritage. It will always be. It’s in my heart and in my veins,’ she told Eyewitness News.
Last year she admitted life was ‘very painful’, saying: ‘I have the privilege of having this life, but I miss my family and my friends in South Africa and I’m often sad because I cannot always be there for them.’