NICOLE COSTE and ALBERT II OF MONACO KEPT THEIR RELATIONSHIP A SECRET FOR SIX YEARS - THEN SHE WENT TO THE MEDIA TO REVEAL IT

THE LIST : NICOLE COSTE AND ALBERT II FEUD MONACO  By Hannah Rice  August 2023

According to this article, Albert and Nicole arrived at the same events in Monaco separately, so as to keep their relationship a secret. They met in 1997 when he was on a plane and she was the stewardess for 1st class travelers. It might have been love at first sight for the both of them.  Their son was born in 2003 and then the status of the relationship and Nicole's in Albert's life - as well as what she was or was not to the citizens of Monaco - became a difficult question.

Excerpt: ...For one thing, it is understood that Prince Albert was not at the hospital when Alexandre was born, leaving Nicole to undergo the pains of childbirth solo.  For another, he was not exactly quick to claim paternity.

On the contrary, Albert dragged his feet on the matter, allowing weeks, and then months, to pass by without taking responsibility for his first-born son.  As explained in the French tabloid L'Express, Nicole had to fight her ex-boyfriend step-by-step on the matter and struggled to obtain proof that Albert was, indeed, Alexandre's father.  In terms of genetic evidence, it has been reported that Albert took a top-secret D.N.A. test, which was performed at a lab in Switzerland.  However, this was only one step in what L'Express called a "long and tough negotiation" between the former lovers.

Missy here!  I don't think that going to the media for resolving relationship issues is the best idea. That Nicole did this tells me she was frustrated with Albert. And also that Albert did not entirely trust or believe Nicole. In this article Nicole spoke of Princess Charlene and a rivalry is revealed. 

But what we want to know is if Nicole is at all responsible for Charlene's long stay in Africa and eventually return to Monaco, only to then head to weeks in a Swiss clinic to address a mystery ailment.  So very many rumors plague these people. 

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NICOLE COSTE and CHARLENE WITTSOCK'S RELATIONSHIP BEFORE PRINCE ALBERT II "THE PLAYBOY PRINCE" MARRIED CHARLENE? NICOLE COMPLAINS TO THE MEDIA IN 2014.

Although it's certain that Albert II of Monaco and Nicole Coste had a relationship, as their son Alexandre, born in August 2003 has proven, exactly how the Prince was proceeding with Charlene Wittstock is not known.

Albert met Nicole in 1997. 

He and Charlene met in 2000 in Monaco where Charlene was in a swimming competition, and their engagement was announced by the palace June, 2010. They were married in July 2011. So we can figure that the Prince had both women in his life, in some way, for at least a couple years before the birth of Alexandre, and continuing on.

Were the two women rivals for the Prince for some time? Truthfully we do not know that. But we do wonder.... Since we know here at Mistress Manifesto that adultery is not required to have or be a Mistress, it is actually a question of when Albert had Nicole as a Mistress AND when he had Charlene as a Mistress.

Tricky, because it's implied that being a Mistress has to do with a man providing financial advantages to a woman who may have her own work or career.  Due to his fabulous wealth, no doubt he made Nicole's life easier, and as for Charlene, I would say yes he did.

However, in April of 2005, Prince Rainier, Albert's father died, and he was the heir to the throne, which he formally took to in July of 2005. He admitted to having a two year old son.  (He had also admitted to having a daughter as the result of an affair previously.) 

DAILY MAIL :PRINCE ALBERT NOT SEEING SON SINCE MARRYING PRINCESS CHARLENE? by Alexis Parr for Mailonline  published in April 2014

In this article it is stated that Nicole and Albert had a six year relationship.

Excerpt:

In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Nicole, who has fought hard - but unsuccessfully - for Alexandre to be recognized as a prince, tells how she was shunned by Monaco society and left to explain to her tearful son why his father no longer sees him.

'The truth is that, I'm sorry to say, Albert hasn't seen Alexandre since a brief visit last September.  It has become impossible since he married that girl,' she says referring to Charlene, 36. 'I suppose as a new wife, how would one feel? But she should think about my innocent child.  I don't want to attack her but I think it is just jealousy and I don't know why.  I have been through hell in my fight for my son's name and future.'

Understandably loath to go into the detail about her son's distress, Nicole leaves it to a close confidante to explain how the distance has affected her son. 'Alexandre misses his daddy dreadfully,' the friend says. 'He has started to feel sad and rejected. He asks, "Why can't I see Daddy?" He has to be told that his father is busy.'

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PRINCE ALBERT II and the SO CALLED SECRET ACCOUNTS TO SUPPORT EX MISTRESS NICOLE COSTE and HIS EXTRAMARITAL CHILDREN :OPINION BY MISSY

PRINCE ALBERT II and the SO CALLED SECRET ACCOUNTS TO SUPPORT 

EX MISTRESS NICOLE COSTE and HIS EXTRAMARITAL CHILDREN

Today I walked the equivalent of Monaco by the sea.  It took me about forty minutes on flat sidewalks.  Of course, Monaco is far more picturesque and has a far greater and unique history in Europe than the California beach area that  I walked.  As I walked I thought about what it must be to Princess Charlene, the commoner athlete who has had to adapt to Europe's longest reigning aristocratic family with its tragedies and eccentric characters, made worse by International news coverage.

All over the news, is the revelations supposed to come from an ex-accountant for the Prince, that he has secret accounts to support his ex mistress and extramarital children.  Why would this story be so important?  

The subtext is that Princess Charlene did not know about the accounts.  But Charlene has said nothing about it.  Why would she?  Charlene dated Albert for years before they finally married and pressure was put upon her to become pregnant and give birth to heirs.  I believe Charlene to be a sensitive person in general but I doubt that she was unaware that Prince Albert had children from two affairs, one brief, and one that went on and might have turned into marriage if not for the objections of his father. This is old news to Charlene. Many women today enter into serious relationships with men who have had children in and out of marriage or with men who have been married before and had children with other wives.

If Princess did, as some speculate, have a breakdown which lead to a prolonged stay in Africa a couple years back, it would likely have been that another such revelation about her husband, Prince Albert II, had come up.  One she had not known about and frankly, one he himself did not know about. Such rumors are likely to come up for Albert. He was known to be a sexual animal prone to promiscuity for a good part of his pre-commitment life and to be fair to him, he didn't have to work hard at meeting women and the women were into it too. Actually, it's surprising there were not more children. 

Two things must be remembered about Albert, and the first is that he was born into wealth and advantage but also the burden of responsibility that he become the business-savvy ruler of a tiny principality, the country of Monaco.  While his father was the Prince, Monaco was in financial difficulties that were turned around. The country also agreed that it would be taken over by France in certain conditions are not met.  To the point, Albert does not dare allow his country, a city-state, to become in financial peril again.  It's speculation when it comes to the notion of "over-spending" and it could be that the reported allowances and real estate gifted is actually a pittance.

Albert is one of the world's richest men who took responsibility for support and that support follows some agreement that was likely made. His advisors would not likely put an end to that support or what seems to be the over-spending of Princess Charlene. In actuality, generosity is about not unwisely overspending when we support others, but in considering their situation without our contribution.

I personally do not think these accounts are "secret" but rather to separate out money for one purpose and another. Had Albert married the mothers of his extramarital children, he would have had to make financial arrangements for them, so why not this way?  It would be ridiculous for his daughter, Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, or his son Alexandre Grimaldi, to not live well.

Another aspect of this is something some friends of mine along the way who experienced wealth after living in relative poverty have experienced.  There's a loss of perspective that includes forgetting their days when they had to live paycheck to paycheck or how it was to grow up without. They simply loose their perspective about what things cost. Relatively unlimited funds and a new social group of spenders pushes them to buying whatever they like without consideration. Some of us have fantasies about what it would be like to be in their position but how many of us would like to be on the world-stage where our every haircut, every pound gained or lost, every fashion choice we made, was commented upon? It's near impossible for such a person to keep their privacy.

For readers of Mistress Manifesto, there is also another aspect to this reportage of Monaco of interest and that is exactly how men who are married and have a mistress as well handle the financing of their lifestyle. There certainly is the the potential for secret accounts.  I wish I knew but feel sure that in some cases the mistress is not a secret and in some cases the money is not a secret either. Mistresses are thought to be kept by rich men who can afford them, but today the financial help a man can give a woman who he's involved with can be not so much, an amount that betters her life but does not fully financially support her.  The woman who is fully financially supported by a man, sometimes for the rest of her life, is what I call a Classic Mistress.  We do not hear much about these women who live private lives. 

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You may be interested in the following archived posts:

September 2010

NICOLE COSTE  Mistress of Prince Albert II of Monaco and Mother of His First Son

January 2015

THE GRIMALDI CURSE and THE MISTRESSES OF THE PRINCES OF MONACO

Here is an article that has appeared recently about these "secret" payments.

DAILY BEAST : Albert Battles Secret Data Dumps

THE GRIMALDI CURSE and THE MISTRESSES OF THE PRINCES OF MONACO : MISTRESSES OF THE MONTH

MONACO - a tax haven and playground for the extremely rich, a great place to loose a lot of money at the Monte Carlo Casino for those who don't care how much they loose, with its plethora of multimillionaires and billionaires and some of the highest real estate values on earth, a harbor full of boats, Grand Prix races, and home of the unruly Grimaldi family - is, in my not so humble opinion, possibly one of the best places on earth to have a Mistress, be a Mistress, or meet a woman who wants to be one, at least before marriage. 

In September of 2010, I featured Nicole Coste, the ex airline stewardess who has a son with Albert II of Monaco, as Mistress of the Month here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO.  It's said that Albert II might have married her but his father, Ranier III, objected strongly.  (Is Albert II still seeing her?  Most likely he still visits with his son.  They live not too far away.)

I've asked "Is Monaco the Mistress Capital of the World?"

I've never been there but I'm a Monaco watcher.  I like to read about what's going on in this teeny tiny principality, maybe because my mom liked Princess Grace.  

So, to get one thing out of the way before I go on, I want to say that I think Princess Charlene is terrific and I hate erroneous stories that have her fleeing her own wedding or interpreting her crying at her wedding as a negative.  What woman doesn't shed at least a few tears of heartfelt emotion at a wedding?  I know I do as a wedding guest!  

Princess Charlene is one more Princess who proves being one is no easy life.  I do think all of Charlene's sports training and swim competitions, which included Olympic training and competition, helped her gain endurance, courage, and a fighting spirit for life.  Mid December 2014, the 36 year old Princess, who was with Albert II for six years before they wed about three years ago, had twins, Jacques (first in line for the throne) and Gabriella (second in line for the throne though born two minutes earlier than Jacques by cesarean delivery).  The pictures released by the palace of the happy family are adorable.

It's not lost on me that Princess Charlene converted to Catholicism before marriage in order to marry Albert II, that a woman who begins dating a man when she's 30ish and more fertile may have to resort to fertility treatments to get pregnant all those years later, or that she is the one more likely to raise those children to adulthood since Albert II is 20 years older than her!

The billionaire Albert II, besides being long known as one of the world's most dedicated Players,  is one of the busiest men on this earth, keeping a relentless schedule, and is now a major contributor to oceanic science as his grandfather once was.

It is also not lost on me, however, that Charlene was surely Albert's mistress before she was his fiancée or wife, similar to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, who put a lot of mistress time in before her marriage to Prince William, the Duke; both women were available for travel and not known for developing careers during their extremely long courtships and never mind if their love interest was unmarried.

There is a tradition of having Mistresses in the Grimaldi family and, as you may have heard, there is speculation that the reason so many Grimaldi's have had unconventional or unusual marriages is because of something called "The Grimaldi Curse."  That Curse may be the real reason Albert II waited to near senior citizen-hood to wed!

The origins of this Curse are said to have been as far back as in the 13th Century when their tricky ancestor managed to take the territory for his family, a territory which was once something like 20 times bigger than it is today.   He pretended to be a monk but had a sword under his cloak.  It all happened on that huge rock where the Palace is now.  Various stories have emerged as to the origins of the bad luck in marriage that the Grimaldi's have had such as that a witch was raped by a Grimaldi ancestor. The Curse may also extend to unusual ways to die, such as boating (Princess Caroline's second husband) and car accidents (Princess Grace).

In this month's featured book, THE FRENCH RIVIERA - A Cultural History, by Julian Hale, we learn that ownership of the territory of Monaco was not always a sure thing for the family, that at points they were near impoverished,  that there have been a number of issues with succession that included a Norman man who married into the family changing his name to Grimaldi, and well, that they indeed have had a terrible time with marriage.  It's the best book that included the history of the family that I've read.

Fast forward to the 20th and 21st century.  Why does the current younger generation of Grimaldi's have such extremely long engagements before marriage and even bear illegitimate children? 

Princess Caroline, the oldest daughter of Ranier III and Grace Kelly, has been married thrice: an early marriage with a much older Player which was - eventually - annulled, the marriage to Stephano Casiraghi that she had three children in, which ended when her husband was killed in a boating accident, and a third later in life marriage with a Prince she "stole" from a friend and had a child with.  (The whereabouts of Ernst August are always a mystery.  He does not appear to have been anywhere near Monaco in years and is speculated to most likely be keeping a mistress somewhere, maybe Thailand?  As I understand it his name is not spoken in Monaco.)

Princess Stephanie has three children, and a history of many generally very unstable relationships, including a marriage to the father of two of her children which her own father disapproved of that ended in disgrace when he was caught cheating.  She says she may be a Princess but first of all she is human.  Ok, we can relate.

The children of Caroline and her second husband, the late Italian businessman Stefano Casiraghi are Andre, Pierre, and Charlotte.

Andre, the heir apparent, until Charlene had her babies, was with his girlfriend Tatianna Santo Domingo for years - a decade? - before they married, and then only after they had a child.  His brother Pierre, has been with Beatrice Borromeo for years.  (They are reportedly to wed in April 2015.)  They've been in no rush. Charlotte, has had a love child with comedian and actor Gad Elmaleh.  He's Jewish.  The child was baptized.  

Are all these delays and extreme engagements an attempt to beat the Curse?

That's my guess. 

After all, you love who you love, and after years with someone you kind of know that you get along!

To be more pragmatic, I imagine that two very rich young people might need their lawyers to figure out their finances and possibly contracts regarding divorce for years past when one has a baby. 

But you must remember, this family is Catholic.  That's right.  Charlene converted to Catholicism, met the Pope, and is said to have even prayed to saints in order to become pregnant.  Catholics are supposed to be more conservative, faithful in marriage, and do marriage before having babies.

One of the ways that various Grimaldi have held on to marriages or circumvented the displeasures of the marriages they made was to have mistresses.

In 1869 Albert I, who would succeed his father Charles III in 1889 and might be considered one of Monaco's first Playboy Princes, married Marie-Victoire de Douglas - Hamilton, but he took a mistress.  Marie-Victoire then fell for a Hungarian Count and (pages 46-47 of the book) after a "bitter and almost bankrupting divorce, the marriage was annulled."  Then Albert I married his mistress, the former American Alice Heine, who was not only American but from a German-Jewish background, and was formerly also still known as the widowed Duchess de Richelieu.  She played the part Princess Grace would play decades later in being a kind of First Lady of Monaco. Alice then had an affair with a British composer while Albert I was off one of his scientific oceanographic trips.  She still held her title and her marriage when she died in 1925.

 

(February 10, 1858 - December 22, 1925)

 

This picture of Alice is from

RICHELIEU EMINENCEROUGE BLOGSPOT - check it out - great writing!

So Louis II, the son of Albert and Marie-Victoire, had a daughter named Princess Charlotte, and she married Prince Pierre de Polignac.  (Are the family given names sounding familiar?) and they had Prince Ranier III in 1923, the man who would marry Grace Kelly, the Hollywood actress from a well to do Philadelphia family and mother of today's Albert, Caroline, and Stephanie.  Ranier III's upbringing was in a dysfunctional family.  (Page 50)  Ranier III had to face the problem of not having an heir by 1949, five years after having been formally made heir to the throne in 1944 at the young age of twenty-one.  He had a long-standing relationship with a French film star for six years, named Gisele Pascal.

 

(17 September 1921 - 2 February 2007)

 

This picture of Gisele Marie Madeleine Tallone AKA Gisele Pascal is from

LESGENSDUCINEMA.COM Bio and Filmography of GISELE PASCAL (in French)

Maybe few Americans have heard of her because she wasn't a Hollywood actress.

 

Supposedly this mistress of Ranier III, an actress of less fame than Grace Kelly, was rejected because she was infertile.  Gisele was the daughter of a flower seller from nearby Nice, a humble background.   She and Ranier III shared a villa at Beaulieu, she kept up with her career, and he with his - as a ceremonial figurehead.  Funny how after they split, she married, and had a child.

Ranier III also came to the throne having to face that his father had left half his - or Monaco's - fortune to his latest mistress.  He fought to get it back. 

Though he clearly mourned Grace Kelly, his wife and mother of his children, it is said that Rainier III also kept at least one mistress during his marriage.  It is said that he would claim to be going to a sporting event, have a retainer go to the event and report back to him so he could report back to Grace, and go off to visit his mistress.

 

*****

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CHARLENE PRISONER OF MONACO or ALBERT HAS ALREADY CHEATED or A LOT OF NONSENSE

JANUARY 2015 -  Please see my archives for this edition " THE GRIMALDI CURSE AND THE MISTRESSES OF THE PRINCES OF MONICO."

*****

The Bride cried - so what? And maybe had a difficult time getting through her wedding due to rumors that Albert may have a third love child conceived during their 5 year courtship, but 88 million dollars spent on the wedding, it's difficult to believe, as the New York Post has published, that Charlene tried to run away a couple times and had her passport taken from her to make escape impossible. Heck, we we think that Charlene has to know that Albert has long slept around and that she's going to be the mother of the official heirs. Click on the title here to read the bad report.

A lot of brides cry at their own weddings, all that emotion, and becoming a Princess and First Lady of Monaco couldn't be easy, could it? Today the wedding reception in South Africa - and pictures are looking happy.

This Huffington Post article has great pictures and a more optimistic report:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/02/royal-wedding-prince-albert-charlene-wittstock_n_889217.html

UPDATE OCTOBER 2013!

My opinion these days is that Charlene is settling into her role as Princess of Monaco very well, but my guess is that she is not having any easy time getting pregnant.  Our female fertility peaks in our twenties and athletic women sometimes loose the hormone balance that keeps them fertile.  If it turns out she's on fertility treatments I won't be surprised.  Anyway, the next in line to the throne is Princess Caroline - WHY NOT?

LINK TO THE OFFICIAL SITE FOR MONACO

Want to link to Monaco? ... on this site I learned that Albert and Charlene will marry in JULY of 2011... moving the wedding date forward. A long engagement. Like no one is in a rush to have children and a heir to the throne...