Prince to spill the beans
2005-07-06 06:49
Monaco - Prince Albert II, the ruler of Monaco, is to make his first public statement on Thursday on reports that he fathered an illegitimate son to a former flight attendant.
The announcement, to come the day after the end of the official mourning period for his father, prince Rainier III, is expected to shake the tiny state that has long been a playground of celebrities and the very rich.
According to one French magazine, L'Express, Prince Albert - the son of prince Rainier, who died on April 6, and the late US film star Grace Kelly - is to publicly acknowledge he is the father of Alexandre Coste, a baby born in Paris on August 24 2003 to Nicole Coste, a Togolese woman who also holds French citizenship.
No chance to rule
If he does so, the boy will likely receive financial handouts for the rest of his life but will have no chance of one day ruling Monaco, whose constitution requires legitimate lineage for the throne.
The French magazine Paris-Match, followed by other European publications, broke the "love child" story in May, showing pictures of Prince Albert cradling a baby and carrying affirmations from Nicole Coste that the child was the result of a five-year affair with the prince.
Prince Albert last week won a €50 000 invasion of privacy lawsuit against Paris-Match, and has promised to go after other magazines and newspapers that printed the allegations.
But Coste, 33, said she decided to come forward because "I was afraid Albert would go back on recognising his son. I had a very strict Catholic upbringing and for me it was a disgrace to not be able to tell my family who is the father of my child.
"I always told Albert that Alexandre would not live hidden away."
The Monaco palace, which is preparing for Prince Albert's formal succession ceremony, has refused to make any comment ahead of Prince Albert's scheduled address.
Paternity confirmed
However, Nicole Coste's lawyer, Daniel Vasconsin, said last week Prince Albert was going to give instructions "to complete" Alexandre's birth records.
According to L'Express, genetic testing conducted in Switzerland has confirmed the prince's paternity.
Coste, who has two children from a marriage ended in 1998, said she met Prince Albert on an Air France flight she was working on in July 1997.
Coste fell pregnant in December 2002 after "forgetting" her contraceptive pill on a trip to New York, and Alexandre was born the following year.
She denied accusations she was a gold digger.
"My meeting with Albert was very natural, there was nothing calculated about it. In these accusations, there is a lot of jealousy and maybe a little bit of racism, but I prefer not to think about that," said Coste, who is black.
The British tabloid Mail on Sunday ran an article in May in which it said a woman living in California, Tamara Rotolo, also claimed to have had a child with Prince Albert; a girl born in 1992.
- AFP