Prince Albert took over Monaco's royal powers on Thursday, assuming all but the throne in the tiny principality after a royal commission decided that his critically ill father was too sick to perform his duties.
The announcement by the royal palace marked the first time since 1949 that Prince Rainier III -- Europe's longest-serving ruler -- had not been in control of the Mediterranean realm smaller than New York's Central Park and famed as a playground for the rich and famous.
Albert, 47, is the only son of Rainier and his late wife Grace Kelly, the American beauty who exchanged Hollywood stardom for the life of a princess.
Well-traveled, multilingual and Monaco's top ambassador in recent years, the unmarried Albert is regarded as a shy, even reluctant, heir. Sports are a love: He is a five-time bobsledding Olympian and has headed Monaco's Olympic Committee since 1994.
Albert promised to devote himself "with strength, conviction and passion" to his new role as regent.
"The state of health of our father remains very fragile," he said in a statement. "Today, faced with the difficulty for my father in exercising his high functions, I will assume all of the royal powers in his name."
Rainier, 81, was hospitalized on March 7 and has been in intensive care for 10 days with breathing, kidney and heart problems, although he remains in stable condition.
The Council of the Crown, a commission appointed by Rainier, met on Thursday at the royal palace and decided after weighing his doctors' diagnosis that the ailing prince can no longer rule.
The regency means Albert takes over royal powers while Rainier is sick, but his father could regain them if he recovers, said palace spokesman Armand Deus.
"The sovereign prince is still Prince Rainier III," Deus said.
Albert has been groomed to rule the principality run for seven centuries by his family -- the Grimaldis.
But he has remained heirless -- causing such concern that the Constitution was revised in 2002 to ensure the continuation of the dynasty. His older sister -- Princess Caroline, now 48 -- would succeed him. She in turn, would be succeeded by her oldest son, Andrea Albert Pierre, now 20.
Albert studied in the US, at Amherst College, in Massachusetts, after receiving his high school baccalaureate diploma in 1976.
He returned home in 1981 after being awarded a degree in political science.
Befriended by numerous celebrities, Albert has remained doggedly his own person and, despite his retiring nature, increasingly assumed the role as Monaco's public face as his father grew frail.
"We were waiting for this," said Carlos Gonzales, a Monaco tour guide. "This is a way of saying his [Prince Rainier's] condition is irreversible. We all knew the end was coming."
Elsewhere in Monaco, life went on as normal. A construction crew was at work repaving the streets near the Monte Carlo Casino that are part of the Formula One circuit in the upcoming Grand Prix.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS