Princess Charlene continues her return to public life at F1

Princess Charlene of Monaco has continued her return to public life today as she joined her husband Prince Albert at the F1 in Monte Carlo.

The royal, 44, opted for casual cool in a blue tunic dress and and white jeans with towering black heels while Albert, 64, wore an open collar shirt and blue blazer with black shoes.

It’s the first time the pair have been seen in public together since  French media claimed she is receiving £10million a year to appear by her husband’s side at public engagements.

While she walked side-by-side with Albert, the pair did not hold hands, with Charlene warmly greeting  drivers Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel with kisses on the cheek. The star studded event also saw appearances from Elon Musk’s mother Maya, actor Patrick Dempsey and Nina Dobrev and Shaun White.

While she use to be a regular at racing events, Charlene last attended the Grand Prix in 2019 – where she received a kiss on the cheek from Lewis Hamilton. 

Charlene recently returned to Monaco and was seen last month with her children and husband for the first since November after spending time in treatment facility for ‘exhaustion’. 

Earlier this week, the mother-of-two held hands with her daughter Princess Gabriella – who is second in line to the Monégasque throne –  at the Monte Carlo Fashion Awards.

They posed in front of a flower wall at the Opera of Monte-Carlo. She later presented an award to Saudi designer Abdul Al-Romaizan on stage after he opened the fashion show.

Meanwhile her husband Albert took Gabriella’s twin Jacques, Hereditary Prince of Monaco to attend the traditional Star Team charity football match.

The father and son, who sported matching outfits, watched  Prince Albert’s team and the Formula 1 drivers team, at the Louis II stadium just a few days before the Grand Prix of Monaco as part of a charity match.

Last week, Charlene was nowhere to be seen when Prince Albert took his twins to DisneyLand Paris. 

While just days before Charlene looked solemn as she appeared at an official engagement with her husband   for the second consecutive week. 

Charlene has rarely been seen with Albert since she spent some 10 months in South Africa last year. She contracted a serious sinus infection on a charity trip, which left her hospitalised and delayed her return to Monaco.

She returned home in November, but left almost immediately for Switzerland to receive treatment for ‘exhaustion’. 

It comes as French media claimed she is receiving £10million a year to appear by her husband’s side at public engagements.

Albert is often spotted at sporting events.

Earlier this month, Albert made another solo appearance, this time in the UK where he stepped out to watch West Ham playing Manchester City at the London Stadium.

Albert, who is known to be an avid football fan and is the patron of Monaco’s team, attended the event amid speculation he’s signed an agreement to pay his troubled wife Charlene more than £10m a year to fulfil her Royal duties. 

Leading French media reported the ruler of the tax haven Mediterranean principality was doing everything possible to keep Charlene ‘at his side at public events’. 

Major French outlets that specialise in celebrity news said Charlene’s sudden re-appearance was welcomed by all Royal watchers.

‘But the Princess did not return at any price,’ magazine Voici reported. ‘She would have had her husband sign an ultra-confidential contract.’

Conditions include Albert paying Charlene ’12 million euros [£10.2m] per year’, the outlet claims.

The revelations were followed up by rival publication Paris Match Belgium, which writes: ‘Prince Albert would himself pay a tidy sum to the princess so that she appears at his side at public events.’

Events that Charlene could now be contractually obliged to attend include the F1 Grand Prix on May 29 and the Rose charity ball which has been rescheduled from March 19 to July 8.

The Royal Palace in Monte Carlo refuses to discuss specific financial arrangements, but the principality pays out some £40m a year to cover the institution’s running costs.

Royals are not salaried officials, however, meaning that Charlene would be reliant on Albert – a billionaire in his own right – for her own spending money.

A Royal insider based in Monte Carlo told Mail Online: ‘Of course the Princess enjoys huge perks, but ready cash is not guaranteed.

‘She’s been through a very difficult time, so it would make sense for Charlene to try and secure her own guaranteed income.’

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. 

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

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, following the princess’ long absence.  

Zimbabwean-born Princess Charlene was hospitalised after collapsing in September in South Africa, where she had been living for several months. 

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.’ 

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 Jacques and Gabriella in November following almost a year in South Africa. 

While on a solo charity trip to the country, she contracted a severe sinus infection which prevented her from travelling. She subsequently needed surgery to treat the medical condition, which again delayed her return to Monaco.   

In the weeks after her arrival, Charlene remained absent from public duties. 

Albert later revealed the family reunion had gone ‘pretty well’ in the first few hours, but it then became ‘pretty evident’ that Charlene was ‘unwell.’

He said the former Olympian ‘realised she needed help’, adding: ‘She was overwhelmed and couldn’t face official duties, life in general or even family life.’

Albert explained: ‘I’m probably going to say this several times, but this has nothing to do with our relationship. I want to make that very clear. These are not problems within our relationship; not with the relationship between a husband and wife. It’s of a different nature.’

He went on to tell a magazine her current state was a result of ‘several factors which are private’.

Albert continued: ‘She hadn’t slept well in a number of days and she wasn’t eating at all well. She has lost a lot of weight, which made her vulnerable to other potential ailments. A cold or the flu or God help us, COVID.’ 

He said it is ‘not cancer-related or personal relationship issue’ and later said she is suffering from ‘exhaustion, both emotional and physical’.

He later confirmed Charlene has been admitted to a treatment facility for undisclosed medical issues, as she works through a period of ill health. The location of the facility was not confirmed, though several sources claim it is in Switzerland.

However friends of the princess spoke out to suggest the issues were more physical than Albert appeared to suggest. 

Speaking to Page Six, a source described as the royal’s friend said: ‘It is unfair that she is being portrayed as having some kind of mental or emotional issue. 

‘We don’t know why the palace is downplaying that she almost died in South Africa.’

The source explained the royal had a severe ear, nose and throat infection, which resulted in ‘severe sinus and swallowing issues stemming from an earlier surgery’. 

Elsewhere friends of Princess Charlene gave Tatler a rare insight into what the royal is really like, insisting that the former swimmer is a force to be reckoned with. 

One source rubbished any public perception that Charlene is ‘naive’ and trapped in an unhappy marriage with Albert, saying: ‘I don’t for one second think she did not know what she was doing when she married him.’ 

But one warned the mother of Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, seven, is not the type to be blindly controlled by the Monaco royal household.

‘Charlene is no Princess Di.’ one said. ‘She may come across as being extremely naïve, but nothing could be further from the truth. She is very good at keeping her smarts under wraps.’

Doubts about the central relationship of Monaco’s royal family are not new. 

Several residents living in the narrow medieval alleys of Monaco Ville confirmed to MailOnline that before she left for South Africa Charlene was spending most of her time outside the Palace, living in a modest two-bedroom apartment above an old chocolate factory about 300m away, rather than in the 12th Century Palace itself.

‘We often saw her outside the Palace and she would usually be alone or with a bodyguard,’ said one source, ‘but she was never with Albert – it was obvious she chose to spend most of her time in the apartment rather than the palace.’

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.

Born in Rhodesia- a previously unrecognised state in Southern Africa colonised by the British, she relocated to South Africa aged 11.

She had a successful swimming career and went on to win three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1999 All Africa Games in Johannesburg, as well as representing South Africa at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games and winning a silver medal in the 4 × 100 m medley relay in the latter competition.

However the pair’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.

He 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.