Monaco Meets Son and Daughter of Prince Albert and Princess Charlene
On Wednesday, Prince Albert and his wife, Princess Charlene, introduced their Monegasque subjects to the baby who one day will likely rule the world's second-smallest country.
Us Weekly reported that Prince Jacques Honore Rainier's sister, who also made her first appearance on the Palais Princier balcony, was born two minutes ahead of her male twin. Due to the ancient Salic law still in place in Monaco, however, Princess Gabriella Therese Marie will not take the throne.
Such issues of succession, however, did not seem to be on the minds of the thousands who gathered in the streets of Monte Carlo to cheer the princely couple and its offspring. Many of them carried Monegasque flags, and balloons in the principality's colors of white and red abounded.
The 36-year-old Charlene, who wed Albert in 2011, carried the heir, whose full name and title is Prince Jacques, His Serene Highness The Hereditary Prince of Monaco, Marquis of Baux, according to People.
The 56-year old sovereign, son of Prince Rainier III and the late American actress Grace Kelly, meanwhile, introduced the world to Gabriella, Her Serene Highness The Countess of Carladés.
The babies are almost a month old and "appeared to be sleeping through the excitement," People observed.
The proud parents were joined by family members, including 57-year-old Princess Caroline with her daughter, Charlotte, 28, and her son, Pierre, 27, Britain's Daily Mail reports.
The birth of Jacques and Gabriella was received with relief in Monaco, where locals had expressed concerns about Albert's prolonged bachelorhood, during which he fathered at least two children out of wedlock. When the sovereign married Charlene in 2011, royal watchers seemed to detect unease on Charlene's part, and speculation was rampant that the two did not spend their honeymoon together. In May of last year that the House of Grimaldi announced that Charlene was pregnant.
The Zimbabwe-born princess consort, née Charlene Wittstock, was a professional swimmer who met Albert in 2000 at the Mare Nostrum swimming competition in Monte Carlo. That same year, she represented South Africa at the summer Olympics in Sydney.
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