The Quiet Royal Wedding
FOR four years, Charlene Wittstock lived mostly in the shadows, waiting for Prince Albert II of Monaco to propose. With no job, no college degree and no knowledge of French, she was installed by him in a small apartment in the center of the tiny Mediterranean principality, far away from home in South Africa. With no official status, she appeared at the side of the prince when summoned, to smile a lot but to say little.
She endured the nastiness of the locals, who gossiped about Prince Albert’s love affairs and predicted that he would never marry her. She stayed silent as stories were embellished about his siring of two children, one with an airline hostess from Togo, the other with an American tourist from California. She bided her time by swimming, gardening, lunching, playing golf and reading in a cafe.
But Ms. Wittstock, a South African national swimming champion who competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics, applied to her love life the same determination, perseverance and stamina that had inspired her backstroke.
“There was meanness, there were jealousies,” said Stéphane Bern, a celebrity French journalist who has known her for four years. “There was the indecision of the prince. Her every move was watched and judged. But she is very strong, very natural and very direct. And it worked.”
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