Princess Charlene makes first public appearance with husband Prince Albert since November

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Princess Charlene looked pensive today during the first public appearance she’s made with husband Prince Albert since November. 

The couple were also accompanied by their seven-year-old twins Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques, as the family attended the Monaco E-Prix.

They have rarely been seen together since Zimbabwean-born Charlene, 44, spent some 10 months in South Africa last year, after contracting a serious sinus infection during a solo charity trip. The illness left her hospitalised and delayed her return to Monaco. 

After returning to Monaco last November, Charlene almost immediately left and went to Switzerland to receive treatment for ‘exhaustion’.

Today’s photos mark the first time the Monaco royals have been seen in public together as a family since Charlene returned to the principality following her treatment.   

Charlene was pictured wearing an all-grey ensemble, pairing her trouser suit with a matching top. Her blonde crop was neatly coiffed, and she wore elegant make-up, including liquid eye liner and natural glossy lips.

She has faced a variety of health problems, including what the palace has previously referred to as a ‘state of profound general fatigue’ over the last year, which have kept her largely out of the public eye.

The Monaco palace has consistently denied media reports of a rift between Charlene and the principality’s ruler Prince Albert, who were wed in 2011.

Rumours the pair were incompatible were sparked from the outset, with Charlene attracting a barrage of attention over an apparent bad dose of pre-wedding jitters which, reportedly, saw her seeking refuge in her country’s embassy and gaining the moniker ‘the Runaway Bride’. 

Charlene first had a 10-month absence in her native South Africa, where she contracted and was hospitalised for a serious sinus infection that delayed her return to Monaco. 

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. 

After her return to the principality in November, Charlene left almost immediately to receive treatment for ‘exhaustion’ at a Swiss clinic. 

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’. 

‘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. 

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.’ 

But distinguished royal journalist Stephane Bern has long speculated that Charlene’s litany of supposed health problems could simply be a cover-up to excuse her from participating in royal activities alongside her husband.

Bern said in January of last year, Charlene was expected to make a trip to visit French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, but suddenly came down with an illness. 

‘The princess had contracted a sudden gastroenteritis,’ he said. 

‘The Palace has 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 has discredited and isolated herself.’

The couple released an official family portrait earlier this month to mark Easter. A body language expert noted that Albert looked ‘tense’ in the image, while highlighting the close bond shared by Charlene and her children.

Body language expert Judi James told FEMAIL that Albert, 64, likely wanted to signal ‘resilience and strength’ with his ‘family protector’ pose in the image – but instead stood ‘awkwardly’ in the background.   

Judi added that while Albert was not fully touching his wife, he placed his hand on son Jacques’s shoulder as a ‘gesture of parental reassurance’. 

Meanwhile Charlene, 44, demonstrated her ‘loving bond’ with daughter Gabriella, signalling how her relationship with her children has remained strong despite her spending months apart from her family.

Charlene and Albert’s marriage has made numerous headlines over the years, with a third paternity suit emerging in December 2020. 

Soon afterwards Charlene famously shaved half her head in the style of a punk rocker. Months later she left for South Africa.

The allegations in December 2020 claimed that Albert had fathered a love-child (which would be his third, if proven) with an unnamed Brazilian woman during the time when he and Charlene were already in a relationship.

The woman said she met the prince in a nightclub in Rio de Janeiro in 2004 — when Charlene and Albert were supposedly dating. 

Her daughter, a 15-year-old Brazilian schoolgirl, sent a handwritten note in Portuguese to Prince Albert at the Royal Palace last September.

Albert’s legal team call the allegations ‘a hoax’ and the legal team of the woman concerned declined to comment. 

It was due to come to court in Milan in February but never commenced. Some believe the matter has been settled.

But the Prince has also fathered two other children outside of wedlock. Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, who is now 29 and the result of Albert’s affair with an American estate agent, and Alexandre Coste, 18, whose mother is a former Togolese air hostess.

Both children were struck off Monaco’s line of succession in return for vast financial settlements. 

Charlene has directly attempted to address the talk about a third possible love child.

She told Point de Vue magazine last January: ‘When my husband has problems, he tells me about it. I often tell him, ‘No matter what, I’m a thousand percent behind you. I’ll stand by you whatever you do, in good times or in bad.’ 

Illegitimate love children aside, it’s fair to say royal life in Monaco must have come as a complete culture shock to the former Charlene Wittstock.

The daughter of a swimming instructor and photocopier salesman, she grew up in crime-ridden Benoni, near Johannesburg.

As a child, she developed a passion for swimming and, in 1996, won her first South African Championship at the age of 18. 

Four years later, she qualified for the 2000 Olympic Games as a member of the South Africa 4 x 100m medley relay team – which was placed fifth.

Charlene met Prince Albert at the Mare Nostrum swimming competition in Monte Carlo in 2000 when she was 22.

The pair took their relationship public in 2006 at the Winter Olympic Games and announced their engagement in 2010. 

Yet in the run up to the wedding, rumours began to circulate about Charlene’s unhappiness and homesickness.

There were claims that Charlene had tried to flee back to Africa three times before the marriage, and at one stage ‘took refuge’ in her country’s embassy, leading to the ‘Runaway Bride’ headlines.

Charlene denied all of the stories as ‘utter fabrications’ but wept throughout their wedding.

She explained later: ‘Everything was just so overwhelming and there were all the mixed emotions because of the rumours, and obviously all this tension built up and I burst into tears. 

‘And then I burst into tears some more because I was thinking, ”Oh no, now the whole world has seen me cry.”

The question remains whether she will be content to shrink her horizons to the 0.8 square miles of Monaco, particularly as the twins get older and are expected to be sent to boarding school.