What I always try to discuss is the public functioning of royals, state visits, official visits, the history, genealogy, heraldry, the palaces, the pomp and circumstance, the constitutional position of the monarchies in the various countries, their functioning as head of state, their influences in politics and/pr society, whatever.
My contributions however have never crossed the bottomline which is frequently crossed in especially the Grimaldi forums. And I have always tried to back my posts with references, sometimes already in the post, or provided when requested so.
This discussion on Albert and Charlene really is almost surreal, with even lengthy discussions that a love is 'over' or is 'renewed' purely on basis of gossip or interpretation of pictures.
Amen to that. But in the end, even of all of us boo Charlene, it is Prince Albert himself who makes the decision. Like Prince Felipe did not bother at all about a noble virginal partner which was 'required' for a future King of Spain.
Or a future King of Norway who simply weds an unmarried mother of someone else's son. A better illustration of the uselessness of this sort of Albert & Charlene thread is not available.
I am just catching up on some posts here, and I'm sure you have had your share of responses to your posts.
You are right to some degree, IT is actually Albert that is disappointing to me! Which is why I think I have finally lost much interest in Monaco in general, after reading & participating on these boards.
Charlene showed us who she was from the beginning, and she has been true to herself in her immaturity, self-promotion, lack of substance and wanna-be image, she has given herself with the help of Albert.
But it is Albert (the near 50 yr old monarch) who chooses to date her & women like her in the past. I tried to give him a break with the other women & rationalize these relationships away,
because the very reason why I liked Albert all these years in the first place was because I believed him to be discreet & discerning in his taste for women & that this is the reason he had waited to get married? Which in my mind has proved to be quite a joke? It seems it was Rainier who had the brains & good sense to save Albert from himself and Albert was not even the ruling prince at the time? I think it was MW...? Who stated above that Albert thinks he can act like a regular Joe? He must realize there are two sides to the position he was born into? He is the ruling Prince of Monaco, & he appears to actually enjoy having his private life in the tabloids? He has done everything to promote it! And to promote his publicity loving girlfriend? Especially in a year he is supposedly paying tribute to his mother, Princess Grace. What a contrast in the way Prince William & Harry (half Albert's age) promoted their mother, to the shoddy way Prince Albert has promoted his, by shoving his girlfriend front and center (as if she was already the Princess of Monaco) in the face of all of Monaco 24/7, this is not paying tribute to his mother by promoting his girlfriend in this immature way, who I am quite sure would not be on the scene if his mother was still alive today.
When Albert showed up in Turin with the same type of publicity loving woman, only months after having to admit to not only the chlidren, but that he actually had affairs with these type of publicity wanna-be women, I knew then, I was probably disillusioned to Prince Albert being the man that I thought he actually was? I was hoping he might just be foolish enough to be wearing some rose colored glasses for a short while and that they would fall off before he lost any more of his reputation. But that is clearly not the case, it has only gotten worse & like the very unprofessional & amaturish photo spreads of Charlene (that she so enjoys?-"she's
finally getting photo's of herself where the paparazzi is not popping out of bushes"???)
I am afraid that Prince Albert has promoted himself in the same light & that is too bad, for however smart he may be in other areas he has shown himself in a very distasteful & immature way in his private life. He seems quite clueless & does not have very high standards for whom he dates? If she is willing to be on the cover of a magazine because of who she sleeps with & he seems not only to not be bothered by it but to also be behind this?
It is no mystery why The Grimaldi threads differ from the other royal threads regarding state visits, heraldry, history, etc.... That is precisely the problem, this board reflects what Prince Albert has decided to promote in a tacky pop star fashion. Since taking reign he has chosen to promote not much more than his private life & the woman in it by having her appear in amature photo spreads, appear on the cover of magazines (that will actually oblige the two of them), and interviews, promoting her as if she is already princess. I think some people think he is putting the cart before the horse? The people of Monaco did not meet Grace until she got off the boat a few days before the wedding & she was an Oscar winning actress who was interviewed for who she was & not who she was sleeping with at the time? Charlene does not mind being promoted in this way, she seems to gravitate to it? If Albert cannot find a girl who respects her own privacy, as well as his & wants to be shown off like a prize pony, perhaps this is a clue he might be dating the wrong woman? And you can hardly blame anyone on this board to give the attention to her that she has asked for!
I believe Albert is not a very modern guy in his ideas about women (whatever he believes of himself), he is not looking for a partner that he respects as his equal (heaven help us, if it is?)
He seems to belong to that group of men who look upon women as if they are something to be procured & then there are the women who accommodate those men as being nothing but an object to be procured, to massage a man's ego & lack of confidence in himself? The trophy girlfriend for insecure men. I think it is apparent that with Albert's weight gain over the last few years & an appearance of a man much older than his years, that this is a man who does not feel good about himself, that is sad. But that he is so obvious about it with his choice of women in his life, make it that much sadder - You don't know if you want to dislike him or pity him? Neither being a sentiment a man would want.
Fine, so be it, this relationship is a business & financial deal, no matter who it is, who is fooling themself, some men & women do not care? This is no mystery to most of these women who are posting on this board. I think they just wanted the prince to be a real prince of a man & are having to come to grips with the fact that this part of the fairytale
is just that!
oh also, there is a saying:
"A picture paints a thousand words"