Le Pen’s Protégé Makes Official Debut With Italian Princess

Jordan Bardella, the French right-wing politician widely viewed as Marine Le Pen’s protégé, has made his relationship with an Italian heiress public after appearing with her at an event in northern Italy last week.

The 31-year-old National Rally figure, who enjoys strong backing among French working-class and nationalist voters and recently attended the Reform UK conference, joined his glamorous 23-year-old partner, Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, at Lake Como.

Bardella and the socialite formally presented themselves as a couple at the Ambrosetti Forum, an annual conference focused on international economics and geopolitics. The event is organised in Italy by The European House–Ambrosetti, a private think tank.

Their joint appearance marked the first time they had attended a professional event together. It came after Bardella faced criticism for joining his partner at the Monaco Grand Prix in June, when opponents accused him of trying to become an “aspiring jet-setter”.

For the occasion, Bardella wore a navy suit and polka-dot tie. Princess Carolina opted for a black blazer and a matching Chanel handbag, reportedly valued at about £2,000.

The couple also went “Instagram official” last month, when Princess Carolina shared a series of photographs from a holiday in Sardinia. Among the images was a relaxed selfie featuring Bardella.

The image, posted with a heart emoji, was the first photograph either of them had shared online as a couple. It followed their debut public outing in Monaco, where the politician was seen enjoying an affectionate moment with Carolina, an influencer and heiress linked to the former Italian royal dynasty. Her sister was previously romantically associated with Denmark’s future king.

The unexpected relationship has drawn criticism from Bardella’s left-wing opponents and, according to local media reports, prompted unease within his own party.

National Rally has spent years courting voters who feel alienated by France’s political elite, particularly anti-establishment and blue-collar supporters. Bardella has appeared to embody that message.

Raised by his working-class mother on a housing estate in Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris, he has shaped his political identity around representing ordinary French voters.

Party insiders are reportedly concerned that his relationship with Princess Maria Carolina could undermine that carefully built image — and potentially damage the wider party brand.

At the Formula One event in June, Bardella and Carolina were photographed taking selfies, whispering to one another and laughing as they mingled with high-profile guests at the prestigious Monte Carlo circuit.

Among those attending were Kim Kardashian, Princess Charlene of Monaco and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Carolina’s family was also present, including her 21-year-old sister, Princess Maria Chiara, and their parents, Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro, and Princess Camilla, Duchess of Castro, who has been described as a celebrity-style “momager” to her socialite daughters.

Prince Carlo, who has an estimated net worth of $200million, holds a claim to the now-defunct throne of the former House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the Spanish Royal Family, which ruled over southern Italy and Sicily during the 18th and 19th centuries.

But despite having no land or people to rule, the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies has made sure they stay as relevant as possible in high society, having previously rubbed shoulders with US President Donald Trump, Prince Albert of Monaco, King Frederik of Denmark, Spain’s King Felipe and Britain’s Prince Michael of Kent.

June’s Monaco Grand Prix marked Mr Bardella’s first public appearance with Maria Carolina after rumours about their relationship were sparked in January, when they were spotted leaving a party for Paris’s elite together.

Together, they make an impressive power couple and have been dominating headlines in France and Italy. But their romance is also proving to be divisive, with critics suggesting Mr Bardella, the protégé of hard-Right politician Marine Le Pen, is ‘blurring’ his working class image.

In public, officials from his party have been quick to defend the politician, apparently presenting the relationship as a ‘fairy story’, reported The Times.

However, privately some have reportedly questioned his decision to attend the star-studded event and have shared their concern over how this will come across to voters.

Le Pen was expected to hand over her RN presidential candidature to Mr Bardella but in July, she announced she will still stand to become President of France next year, just hours after her embezzlement conviction was upheld. 

The National Rally party veteran had been a strong favourite to replace Emmanuel Macron as head of state.

But last year she was found guilty of embezzling the equivalent of more than £1million from the European Parliament.

Last month, Michèle Agi, the president of a three-judge bench at the Court of Appeal of Paris, said the verdict ‘was upheld’. She also handed down a prison sentence of three years, with two suspended, and a fine of €100,000 (£85,000). Le Pen will be able to serve the remaining year with an electronic tag.

Despite this, the embattled 58-year-old said: ‘I want to pursue all available legal avenues to defend my innocence in this case.’ In an interview on French TV channel TF1, she said: ‘I am a candidate in the presidential election.’

On top of her conviction being upheld, she was also suspended from seeking public office for 45 months. 

But thirty of these months will be suspended, meaning a year and three months is effective.

This covers next May’s presidential election, when Mr Macron will be forced to stand down having served the maximum two terms allowed.

While Le Pen’s defence lawyers argued that part of the period of ineligibility had already been served, she had previously said she would not campaign with an electronic tag on her ankle.

But on TF1, she said she will now take her case to the Court of Cassation – France’s Supreme Court.

Le Pen said: ‘Since I have the option to lodge an appeal with the Court of Cassation, which was not necessarily the case in the other scenarios, and because such an appeal suspends the effects of the ruling, I will therefore campaign without an electronic monitoring bracelet.’

When it was suggested that this might damage her party’s chances of delivering a president, Le Pen insisted: ‘I will not change my mind.’ 

Mr Bardella said of his colleague: ‘My support is absolute, and my loyalty will never waver based on circumstances.

‘Nothing can justify Marine Le Pen being excluded from the French people’s choice or prevented from standing before them.’

Le Pen was found guilty of ‘running a system’ aimed at siphoning European Union funds away from Strasbourg and Brussels into the coffers of her far-Right party in Paris. She denies accusations that she was at the centre of a fraudulent system.

Le Pen hoped to see much of her conviction nullified, saying she was guilty of nothing more than ‘a mistake’ over some ten years. The first trial in March last year found Le Pen guilty along with 24 others, and 12 appealed, but failed.

Speaking of Mr Bardella before Le Pen’s announcement, a source reportedly told Le Parisien: ‘He is fitting in well but I don’t see how he will be able to campaign if he goes to Italy or Monaco every weekend.’

An insider suggested to the newspaper that Mr Bardella was trying to bond with the princess’s family at the Monte-Carlo occasion, while an RN MP insisted: ‘Almost nobody cares… but he had better not always be seen at events like this.’

They labelled attacks from his critics as ‘unworthy’. French Green Party (The Ecologists) leader Marine Tondelier wrote on Facebook: ‘The “people’s candidate” Jordan Bardella was having a blast with the jet set in the VIP area of ​​the Monaco Grand Prix.

‘His private life is his own business. But publicly displaying himself in a haven of tax evasion and fuel economy sends a political message that even he cannot ignore.

‘Amidst super yachts, supercars and outrageously expensive suites, Jordan Bardella is in his element, where he wants to be.

‘Far removed from the concerns of ordinary French people and the worries of the French. This man in no way has the stature of a president of the Republic. He is an aspiring jet-setter whose only love is luxury.’

Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the French Communist Party, told local media: ‘Bardella has never been on the side of the workers; he prefers to drink champagne in Monaco with his princess.’

However, Mr Bardella’s team insisted the couple were in the official stand, not the VIP area and said that the glasses they had been holding were not filled with champagne.

Vice-president of the RN, Sébastien Chenu, told France Info: ‘I am delighted that his girlfriend, who could possibly become First Lady, is a young woman who speaks six languages.

‘Not everyone can have a string of disadvantages… Being ugly, having bad hair, being bitter,’ he added, saying he was ‘delighted’ for his colleague. ‘I think they project a nice image; they seem like a rather harmonious couple.’

The pair reportedly first met at the Monaco Grand Prix a year earlier when Mr Bardella attended with his father, a motor-racing enthusiast.

In April, Maria Carolina and the RN leader were pictured in Corsica in images published by French magazine Paris Match.

The pair were shown strolling along a path on the Mediterranean island after the magazine said it had ‘stumbled upon’ them during a trip there.

‘Bardella posed for photos with the select few, whilst his gaze lingered on the beautiful princess sharing the VIP box,’ Paris Match reported.

Princess Maria Carolina, who was brought up between Rome, Paris and Monte Carlo, attended Harvard and studied at the Istituto Marangoni in Italy, and moves in high circles.

In the summer of 2023, her sister Princess Maria Chiara made headlines after she was said to be engaged to Prince Christian of Denmark, with the royal even seemingly fanning the flames of the rumours until she later appeared to dismiss the speculation.

Then in June 2024, Maria Carolina was photographed holding hands with Brigitte Macron at an event in Paris celebrating the 60th birthday of Stéphane Bern, a French royalty watcher.

She was also invited to sit in the front rows near François Hollande, the former French president, and Mr Trump at the ceremony marking the reopening of Notre-Dame in December 2024.

The US President invited the princess and her family to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in 2018, and the family publicly congratulated their ‘friend’ on his re-election on November 5, 2024.

In 2024, the princess told Tatler: ‘I am still waiting for Prince Charming to come and serenade me with a guitar and a red rose. The position is still open, and I’m accepting applications.’

The relationship marks a striking contrast for Mr Bardella, who was raised by his working-class mother on a housing estate in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis and has built his political brand on championing ordinary French voters.

The unlikely pairing has fuelled speculation in French media about how it could shape Mr Bardella’s public image as he positions himself for a possible Elysee bid.

Rumours had already been swirling after Mr Bardella was seen with the Duchess of Calabria and Palermo at high-profile events earlier this year, with images circulating in the French and Italian press in January.

Questioned afterwards, Mr Bardella said: ‘I do not wish for my private life to be discussed. It is my last bastion of freedom, and I intend to preserve it as much as possible,’ before confessing to RTL that he was ‘a happy man’.

Commentators were quick to interpret the pictures in April as a deft move by the social media-savvy politician to soften his image ahead of a likely bid for the presidency.

‘It’s one more step in building his image after a nationwide tour to promote his book,’ said Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, a communications professor at Sciences Po.

He added: ‘This is the beginning of a story that will be fed over time and will turn into a serial. Soon we’ll be getting other covers about holidays and dinners in town.’

Mr Bardella was likely seeking to push ‘a narrative that humanises him and reassures people about his ability to commit,’ he said.

He added: ‘Will his voters buy into the fairy tale of the descendant of Italian immigrants who’s dating a princess? Or will they say he’s betraying us to join the jet set? We don’t know.’

Left-wing lawmaker Alexis Corbiere decried what he called ‘a new stage in the normalisation of the far-Right’.

Ms Le Pen has since 2011 sought to distance what is now called the RN party from the legacy of her father who openly made antisemitic and racist statements. Mr Bardella took over in 2022.

The RN became the biggest single party in parliament after Macron called snap polls in 2024, and it established a stronger footprint in local elections earlier this year.

Mr Bardella’s public appearance with the princess goes against his usual preference to keep his private life under wraps. He has reportedly not been publicly linked with anyone since splitting with Nolwenn Olivier, Marine Le Pen’s niece, in 2023.

Meanwhile, when asked to respond to long-running speculation that he was gay, Mr Bardella said: ‘I’m straight. I could say the opposite to please you, but… there’s not the shadow of a doubt,’ reported Tatler.

Maria Chiara and Carolina have become well-known in aristocratic circles for their lavish parties and fashionable looks at glitzy events.

They’ve also been known to chase the spotlight, often posing for photos on glamorous trips and giving tell-all interviews to Italian media.

They’re not above flexing their connections either, with Maria Chiara previously saying: ‘The Bourbon family is related to almost all the royal families or former rulers of Europe, it’s a kind of big club.

‘King Felipe VI of Spain, he is my father’s cousin and I am very close to the heir, Leonor, who, like me, loves sports and in particular women’s football.

‘Then the Belgian royals were often our guests in the summer in Saint-Tropez… and one of my best friends is Alexandra of Hanover, Caroline of Monaco’s youngest daughter.’

While the family has no official remit, they spend their time doing charity work and promoting the interests of southern Italy.

The two sisters also rub shoulders with the most elite socialites of Europe, speaking fluently in English, French and Italian.

In recent years, they have been building a large fanbase by sharing snaps of their luxurious lives on Instagram, and clips of themselves on TikTok, dancing, showing off their style, and having fun in various glamorous locations.

The sisters – who are managed by their mother – have also made appearances at Paris Fashion Week while in 2023, the siblings announced they would be starring in Côte d’Azur: In the Privacy of Billionaires, Stars & Princesses on the French streaming service, myCANAL.

Carolina, Duchess of Calabria and of Palermo, will inherit her father’s title and duties, and his claim to head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.