Princess Charlene has shared a slick video documenting her relationship with Prince Albert ahead of their 10th wedding anniversary next week – hours after she announced she will not return to Monaco for the occasion.
The royal, 43, who is currently in her native South Africa, posted a minute long clip on Instagram showcasing prominent moments from their relationship including their 2011 wedding and welcoming their twins Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques in 2014.
Alongside the video, Princess Charlene wrote: ‘Happy anniversary Albert. Thank you for the blessing of our beautiful children.’
The post came hours after it was announced Charlene wouldn’t return to Monaco for the anniversary next week, with her spokesperson saying she is unable to travel, having undergone multiple, complicated procedures after contracting a severe ear, nose, and throat infection in May.
The mother-of-two hasn’t been seen in Monaco since January, but her husband Prince Albert and Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques visited her in South Africa earlier this month.
Princess Charlene, 43, has shared a romantic video documenting her relationship with Prince Albert ahead of their 10th wedding anniversary next week – hours after she announced she will not return to Monaco for the occasion
Posting the minute-long video on Instagram last night, the mother-of-two thanked her husband for their ‘beautiful children’
Princess Charlene is undergoing multiple, complicated procedures after contracting a severe ear, nose, and throat infection in May, meaning she will not be able to travel back to Monaco for her 10th wedding anniversary next week. She is pictured in South Africa
Clips shared in the video included moments from the early days of their relationship, including Princess Charlene swimming while Prince Albert cheered her on from the stands.
Prince Albert and Princess Charlene’s 2011 wedding also featured prominently in the video. The mother-of-two was famously seen in floods of tears at the altar while her husband looked on impassively.
Other moments showed the couple kissing, introducing their twins in 2014 and spending time together at royal events during their 10 years of marriage.
It was posted hours after a statement was released to say Princess Charlene had been advised by her medical team to stay in her native South Africa, having undergone a medical procedure.
Clips shared in the video included moments from the early days of their relationship, including Princess Charlene swimming while Prince Albert cheered her on from the stands
The couple could be seen holding hands while enjoying a dinner together in another brief clip in the video
Prince Albert’s and Princess Charlene’s wedding also featured prominently in the video (pictured left and right). The mother-of-two was famously seen in floods of tears at the altar during the event in 2011
Another moment showed the couple introducing their twins Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques to the world for the first time in 2014
‘This year will be the first time that I’m not with my husband on our anniversary in July, which is difficult, and it saddens me,’ Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene said in a statement.
‘However, Albert and I had no choice but to follow the medical team’s instructions even though it is extremely difficult. He has been the most incredible support to me.
‘My daily conversations with Albert and my children help immensely to keep my spirits up, but I miss being with them.
‘It was special to have my family visit me in South Africa, and it was truly wonderful seeing them. I can’t wait to be reunited with them’.
Princess Charlene came to South Africa to do conservation and anti-poaching work, earlier this year.
She was last seen in Monaco in January.
Her foundation say she was driving the causes close to her heart, pouring herself into her Foundation work in South Africa when she fell ill.
Before contracting the infection and undergoing the procedures, Princess Charlene worked with various ambassadors and partners to raise awareness and funds for the Foundation’s initiatives.
Prince Albert and their children will visit Princess Charlene in South Africa again soon to be with her and support her.
The former Olympian, who debuted a radical new hairstyle while on the trip, had been due to return to Monaco for the principality’s Grand Prix in May, where she was guest of honour.
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 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 almost 10 years since, Charlene, who shares six-year-old twins with Albert, 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.’
It’s been a tumultuous start to the year for the royal, after news emerged that her husband is facing a paternity suit over a love child born in the early years of their relationship.
The 63-year-old prince, who already supports two illegitimate children, is alleged to have had 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 the former Olympic swimmer in 2000.
The 34-year-old claimant – who cannot be named for legal reasons – says she had a passionate affair with Albert, leading to the birth of their daughter – whose name is also classified – on July 4, 2005.
The royal shared this photo of her husband Albert, her twins, her brother and nieces and nephews on safari in South Africa earlier this month
Prince Albert was joined by the couple’s six-year-old twins Princess Gabriella and Hereditary Prince Jacques to watch the World Rugby Sevens in Monaco earlier this month
Albert received a handwritten letter from the child, who is now 15, in September last year reading: ‘I don’t understand why I grew up without a father, and now that I have found you, you don’t want to see me.’
Legal papers were also filed, as lawyers for the claimant called on Albert to undergo a DNA test – just as he did before finally being identified as the father of two illegitimate children born in the 1990s and early 2000s.
In January, Charlene spoke publicly for the first time since the allegations, telling Point de Vue: ‘When my husband has problems, he tells me about it.
‘I often tell him, “No matter what, no matter what, I’m a thousand percent behind you. I’ll stand by you whatever you do, in good times or in bad.”
Passionate: Charlene, who was raised in South Africa and represented the country at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, travelled to Thanda Safari in KwaZulu-Natal to learn more about being done by the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation South Africa to help save rhinos
Last public outing together: Charlene and Albert were last pictured together in public in January at the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monaco. On April 2, she shared a photograph alongside her husband Prince Albert and their children Jacques and Gabriella to mark Easter, although it is not clear where it was taken
The mother-of-two went on to say she also often tells her husband she will ‘protect him’ and will ‘always be by his side.’
Charlene, who was raised in South Africa and represented the country at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, travelled to Thanda Safari in KwaZulu-Natal to learn more about being done by the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation South Africa to help save rhinos from poachers.
The princess took part in conservation operations including rhino monitoring and tracking, deployment with the Anti-Poaching Unit, educational wildlife photography sessions, and a White Rhino dart and dehorning exercise.