The $47,000-a-week Swiss luxury clinic where Princess Charlene of Monaco was treated during her four-month absence due to illness has been revealed.
Charlene, 44, was absent from the principality due to health problems, including what the palace has previously referred to as a ‘state of profound general fatigue’. The mother-of-two was reportedly admitted to a private Swiss clinic in late November, within days of her return to Monaco following a 10-month absence in her native South Africa.
Now, the clinic has been revealed as the luxurious ‘Clinic les Alpes’ near Montreux, a resort town on Lake Geneva. According to reports in Germany, the clinic is one of the best mental health and addiction clinics in the world. Les Alpes advertises ‘individual programs designed for each patient, together with hospitality services’ for a cost of $47,000 per week.
Princess Charlene spent four months at Les Alpes, according to German news outlet Bild, which provides 24-hour care. It also offers to renovate its suites specifically for new patients. The clinic has up to 27 rooms and suites, which, according to Bild, can also be hired for $885 a night without the treatment package.
Les Alpes’s website boasts that it is house in a ‘historic alpine chateau with modern, state-of-the-art treatment facilities’, which include ‘purpose-built, state-of-the-art treatment facilities, a lavishly appointed spa, and a truly exceptional space’. It adds that the clinic ‘offers contemplative tranquillity while being able to enjoy exhilarating view of the mountains.’ The website advertises four main common spaces: a library, a drawing room, a study and a terrace with ‘the view of the snow capped Alps and lake Geneva just below.’ It also has a restaurant with in-house chefs that have ‘created a unique menu composed with organic and only fresh products,’ with nutrition as a key focus.
The clinic’s spa, meanwhile, takes up a whole floor and has suites for treatment, yoga and pilates, as well as a fully equipped gym, a sauna and an ‘infinity pool’. Bild reported that one of the center’s 30 experts is Topes Calland, a ‘mental guru’ who counts Russian oligarchs and the children of billionaires among his clients. The 36-year-old Oxford graduate charges a daily fee of $13,000 to help the rich when they go off the rails, and to ‘restore family peace’. When contacted by Bild, the clinic declined to comment.
In a palace statement issued on Saturday, Monaco’s Royal Family said Charlene would continue her recovery before gradually returning to royal duties. ‘The next few weeks should allow for Princess Charlene to further strengthen her health, before gradually resuming her official duties and commitments,’ it said.
The Palace of Monaco has consistently denied media reports of a rift between Charlene and the principality’s ruler Prince Albert, who were wed in 2011, following the princess’ long absence.
‘In accordance with her doctors and while her recovery is going well, their royal highnesses have agreed together that Princess Charlene can now continue her convalescence in the principality with her husband and their children,’ the palace statement said.
It added that ‘the coming weeks should enable her to recover completely in order to be able to resume her official duties progressively’. In addition to her time at the clinic, she is also thought to have undergone dental treatment.
‘She was clearly exhausted, physically and emotionally. She was overwhelmed and couldn’t face official duties, life in general or even family life,’ Albert told People magazine in November.
Zimbabwean-born Princess Charlene was hospitalized after collapsing in September in South Africa, where she had been living for several months. The recent statement also said that she still needed ‘calm and serenity’.
The couple has been dogged by rumors about their rocky relationship almost since their marriage, which was briefly hailed as a fairytale match for a prince long described as the world’s most eligible bachelor. Charlene’s prolonged absence in South Africa last year sparked speculation in European celebrity magazines that they were headed for divorce.
She underwent surgery in October for an ear, nose and throat infection after checking in under a pseudonym in a Durban hospital, a palace source said at the time. Friends previously told Page Six that the mother-of-two ‘almost died’ while she was in her home country, while her husband spoke out to say she is suffering from ‘exhaustion, both emotional and physical’.
A palace statement released on December 23 revealed Albert and the couple’s children were planning to visit Charlene during the Christmas holidays, as well as asking for the family’s privacy to be respected. It added that the princess ‘is recuperating in a satisfactory and reassuring manner, although it may take a few more months before her health has reached a full recovery.’ Pictured: A drawn Christmas card of Monaco’s royal family, which was shared to Princess Charlene’s Instagram.
Princess Charlene met Prince Albert in 2000 during a swimming competition in Monaco and the pair married in 2011, before welcoming twins, Gabriella and Jacques, in 2014. Charlene returned to her husband and twins in November, following almost a year in South Africa.
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