Prince Emanuele Filiberto And Clotilde Courau: News-Pictures 1: May 2003-Sept 2004

[Josefine]

thank you Brenda, do you think there will be any royal guests at the wedding?

[Brenda]

Hello, Josefine :). I think that there will be royals at their wedding actually because I saw in an article that they plan to have a traditional wedding. It was from a web translation though, so I hope I did interpret it correctly. It also appeared to mention that they're getting married in October, yay, if so another royal wedding . Also, I've seen somewhere that Emanuele considers marriage to be very important in his life, so if he is at all that romantic, I'm quite sure that he would choose to have that kind of wedding.

[Josefine]

Originally posted by Brenda@Aug 16th, 2003 - 4:08 am
Hello, Josefine :). I think that there will be royals at their wedding actually because I saw in an article that they plan to have a traditional wedding. It was from a web translation though, so I hope I did interpret it correctly. It also appeared to mention that they're getting married in October, yay, if so another royal wedding . Also, I've seen somewhere that Emanuele considers marriage to be very important in his life, so if he is at all that romantic, I'm quite sure that he would choose to have that kind of wedding.

thanks for the info

so she may have a bit of a belly at the wedding

[Brenda]

Originally posted by Josefine@Aug 21st, 2003 - 10:10 am
thanks for the info

so she may have a bit of a belly at the wedding

I think, Josefine, that she shouldn't look exactly like a twig if they get married before she has the baby. I saw an Italian article that appeared to mention that their wedding is in September instead, so, hmmmm....I guess eventually is actually when they're getting married....lol

[Fireweaver]

Here's a pic of Clotilde's engagement ring.
Picture from IBL
Many, many thanks to Xicamaluca for alerting us that there were actual pics of the ring available :)

[xicamaluca]

Another pic from the ring

[Lyonnaise]

from Telegraph.co.uk

Heir to Italian throne prepares for first royal wedding in 70 years


Marriage to a beautiful French actress could be a first step in ending Prince's exile. Charlotte Eagar meets him in Rome **

In Britain, they channel their energies into gardening and riding. In Holland, they travel by bicycle to prove that they are of the people. But, conforming to a national stereotype, the Italian royal family, exiled from their homeland for 60 years, prefer fast cars and beautiful women.

Emmanuele Filiberto, 30-year-old Prince of Venice, great-grandson of Italy's wartime King Vittorio Emmanuele III, and heir to the Italian throne had his family not been banished, races cars for Mitsubishi.

His fine-boned fiancee, the French actress Clothilde Courau, 34,will be six months pregnant when she walks up the aisle in Rome on Thursday to be married. In a very Italian way, nobody is sure how many people will turn up to a wedding only agreed upon last month. "Did we ask the Pope?" Emmanuele (as he likes to be called) asks his press officer.

"You can't invite the Pope to a wedding." "OK. Mainly I am inviting friends. I don't want this to be too royal. We have invited Silvio Berlusconi [the Italian Prime Minister]. He has not replied yet, but then I sent the invitations out only last week."

Short notice or not, until last year it would have been impossible for the couple, who met competing in a celebrity pentathlon in Monte Carlo three years ago, to be married in Rome. The House of Savoy, the former Italian royal family, had been banished since the monarchy was abolished by referendum after the Second World War. The king was considered by many Italians to have abandoned his people when he fled Rome in September 1943, after surrendering to the Allies.

However, the Italian parliament revoked the act of banishment last year. In December, for the first time in their lives, Emmanuele Filiberto and his father returned from exile in Switzerland. "It was incredible, coming back," he says. "I am Italian. I feel Italian but I never knew Italy until then.

"I am longing now to live in Italy, to discover Italy. Clothilde, the baby and I will discover Italy together. I want to raise my baby in Italy. I have citizenship now."

Ah yes. The baby. "At the beginning, my parents were quite shocked. We even had some arguments but they began to understand my point of view. They realised I was happy so they accepted the marriage.

"It would be a lie to say that the baby didn't make the decision to get married easier," he says. "People say [Clothilde] did it on purpose and so on, but today when you don't want to have a baby you don't have a baby." However, he does concede that it was "a surprise, but a wonderful surprise".

He wants the marriage celebrations (cocktails for about 2,000 guests, then a private dinner for 200 at the Roman palazzo of a long-term Savoy supporter) to be a "popular wedding". "It's a thank you for the Italian monarchists."

The last royal wedding in Italy was held in 1930, when Umberto II - Emmanuele's grandfather and the last king - married Maria Jose of Belgium. This time round, the Queen did not receive an invitation but the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles did. He likes the Prince very much. "I met him in Saudi Arabia," he says. "They are not coming but they both wrote lovely letters."

Holding the wedding in Italy is bound to attract hostile attention from anti-monarchists. Although the December visit was a quiet affair, - the family flew in, saw the Pope, and left again - the grand homecoming three months later did not go entirely smoothly. In Naples, where Prince Victor Emmanuel was born, and from where his family sailed into exile in 1946, noisy demonstrations were staged by two traditionally opposing factions: anti-monarchists on one hand, and supporters of the Bourbon Kings of Naples, whose family was deposed when Italy was united in 1861 under the House of Savoy. Emmanuele brushes the protests aside. "A big fuss was made, but actually there were only about 20 people against us. It was fine."

Italians believe that Emanuele is heir to a vast fortune running into hundreds of millions of pounds, most of which was accumulated through a Lloyds of London payout after the family took out insurance against losing the throne. It has forfeited its claims on its palaces and estates in Italy and is backtracking on its demands for the return of the crown jewels.

In general, the family do not seem to be hated in Italy - just not respected. Prince Victor Emmanuele's reputation has never recovered since he was accused of killing a German tourist who was shot in Corsica in 1978, even though the prince was cleared by a French court after spending 23 days in jail while the death was investigated.

Rumours abound about the family, mainly because they are unknown quantities to most Italians. Emmanuele, according to the chatter, is gay ("I would say so outright if I was, but I am not," he responds) and a bit dim. He is a consultant to a Swiss bank, but Italians are keen to know why he worked for three years as a commentator on an Italian football programme, broadcasting by satellite from Switzerland. His answer suggests that he is actually quite shrewd: "So [Italians] would know who I was: just a normal guy."

Do "normal guys" wear monogrammed ("EF"), striped shirts? In Italy, stylish ones do. And despite being brought up abroad, Emmanuele seems terribly Italian - in his clothes and his actions. He talks of settling down happily with Clothilde but seems reluctant to give up racing fast cars. He also admits that in December, when his bride is due to give birth, he will be at the jet ski world championships in Africa.

Clothilde is not happy with that. "I have tried everything to convince him not to do it," she says. "Every woman in the world will understand: being pregnant, your husband in Africa, on a jet ski, risking his life. And I'm going to be by myself, learning Italian, living in Rome. I hope I am not too stressed for the baby."

Emmanuele is currently based in Geneva, but he and Clothilde intend to live in Rome. He looks mildly shifty when asked if he plans to go into politics. "I don't think so, but maybe I will move into the humanitarian side." As for thrones, he shrugs. "We'll see. Italy has been a republic for 60 years. That doesn't mean I must forget who I am and the name I bear, but I must look forward."

Emmanuele was previously engaged to Natasha Geitling, an American who worked at Sotheby's. When he met Clothilde at the pentathlon, he had to do all the chasing. The star of 25 films, she has been twice nominated for a Cesar, France's answer to the Oscars. "We fenced against each other," he remembers. "I said, 'You really have the eye of the tiger'. And that started long months of running after her." Clothilde says that Emmanuele pressed hard for the marriage. "It's because I love him that I find myself in this situation." And she gestures at her bump.

"Everything is so new in my life now.You can't compare this" - she gestures again at the bump - "with being an actress. This is a life."

[Alexandria]

Intresting article Lyonnaise ... So those pregnancy rumours weren't rumours afterall!

... If I were Clothilde I would definitely put my foot down about the father of my baby being in another city (let alone country) while I was giving birth (let alone the part about risking his life). It's her first baby and first of all, not to have someone share that momentous occasion when your baby comes into the world is a pretty big deal. And of course, I would want my husband to know how incredulous the pain of childbirth is! :P

... Can anyone tell me what the Italian consensus on the wedding is? With Emanuelle marrying a French-born actress (rather than an Italian girl) and the wedding taking place at this particular time because she is pregnant? I know Italians are fairly traditional and if the Italian royal family ever (don't know if it is even a possibility) were to be welcomed back in their roles, this is surely no way to do it???

[Josefine]

will she be Princess Clotilde

[Lyonnaise]

According to Point de Vue, she will be Princess Clotilde de Savoie. Here's the cover of last week's issue. I'm disappointed that they're calling her the New Grace Kelly. Sure they were both actresses and both married princes, but that's where the similarity ends in my opinion. I just don't see Clotilde having the same *wow* as Princess Grace.

[Julia]

Interesting articles. Very interesting. Thank you for posting the, Lyonnaise. :)

Clotilde is a lovely woman and may also be an actress as Grace was but that's about as far as the comparisson can go IMHO. She is lovely and seems to be a good match for E-F, though.

[Alexandria]

I don't know a lot about her, but she just seems to lack that certain je ne c'est quoi that Grace Kelly had. I can't put it into words exactly, but Grace had a certain air of elegance and class that was beyond words. Sort of like Jackie Kennedy. And I just don't see it in Clothilde (nor did I see it in Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy). And I don't buy for a minute that it's something Clothilde will come into in later years. Grace and Jackie had it from the get-go, they didn't develop it over years in the public spotlight or wake up with that grace and elegance just because they married into statured families.

[Alexandria]

(ANSA) ROMA, 20 SET - Al via la macchina organizzativa per il matrimonio di Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia e l' attrice francese Clotilde Courau, pronto anche il piano sicurezza. Il prefetto di Roma,Serra sta coordinando le operazioni. Il matrimonio si celebrera' il 25 settembre, alle 17, a S.Maria degli Angeli,in piazza della Repubblica transennata. Nella chiesa,potranno entrare solo i 1.200 invitati e i giornalisti accreditati. Seguira' un cocktail sulla terrazza dell' hotel Exedra,che si trova di fronte alla basilica.

[Alexandria]

www.hellomagazine.com

Prince Emmanuel Set to Marry

24 SEPTEMBER 2003
In what might be the most quickly-planned royal wedding in history – the engagement took place earlier this summer, the invitations sent out just over a week ago – Emmanuel Filiberto, the exiled crown prince of Italy, is set to wed French actress Clotilde Courau on Thursday.

The 30-year-old prince and his six-months' pregnant bride – who met in a celebrity event in Monte Carle three years ago – will walk down the aisle in Rome, at the historic Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli. The ceremony, according to Emmanuel, won't be "too royal".

Cocktails for 2,000 and a private dinner for 200 are on the agenda. "Mainly I am inviting friends," Emmanuel told the Sunday Telegraph. "I don't want this to be too royal. We have invited Silvio Berlusconi. He has not replied yet, but then I sent the invitiations out only last week." Among the guests will be Prince Albert of Monaco, Johnny Hallyday, John Malkovich, and fashion designers Pierre Cardin and Valentino. Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were also invited, but are unable to attend.

In addition to the celebrity-laden guest list, glamour is reflected in some of the details of the wedding as well. The 34-year-old bride will wear a Valentino gown along with a diamond tiara belonging to the House of Savoy, and the couple will exchange Damiani rings famously designed for the Italian jeweller by Hollywood actor Brad Pitt.

The last royal wedding in Italy was held more than 70 years ago when the prince's grandfather, King Umberto II married Maria Jose of Belgium. While the Italian royal family were legally banned from Italy after WWII, the government revoked the act of banishment last year, and Emmanuel and his father returned to their ancestral homeland from Switzerland.

www.hellomagazine.com

www.hellomagazine.com - Clotilde from last spring.

Italian 'prince' to wed actress


Filiberto rejects reports that his fiancee is an "anarcho-communist"
The grandson of Italy's last king is to marry a French actress this week, after overcoming his parents' opposition.
Emmanuele Filiberto, who was allowed back into the country earlier this year, will marry Clotilde Courau in a basilica created by Michelangelo.

The bride, who is six months pregnant, was initially viewed with disaste by Filiberto's father, Vittorio Emmanuel, because of her left-wing views.

"After two weeks of cold war, love and good sense prevailed," Filiberto said.

The 31-year-old banker said media reports that his fiancee was an "anarcho-communist" were speculation.

Guest list

However he acknowledged that she was "much closer to the culture of the Left than to mine, which is more moderate."


Vittorio Emmanuel and wife Marina Doria opposed Filiberto's choice
More than 1,000 guests have been invited to the wedding, which takes place on Thursday, including fashion designer Pierre Cardin and French rock star Johnny Hallyday.

Courau will sport a Valentino dress, a diamond tiara and gems belonging to the House of Savoy.

Prince Albert of Monaco, who introduced the couple three years ago, will be a witness.

The basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, built on the ruins of the Diocletian baths, is where Filiberto's great grandfather King Victor Emmanuel III married Helen of Montenegro in 1896.

A constitutional ban which kept the male Savoy heirs out of Italy for more than half a century was lifted late last year at the same time as the family condemned Mussolini's race laws.

The last Savoy monarch approved the laws which marked the start of the persecution and deportation of Italian Jews during World War II.

http://news2000.libero.it/fotogallery/fg1075/pg1.html

http://news2000.libero.it/fotogallery/fg1092/pg1.html (caution may contain some nudity.)

Royalist fury as prince marries socialist actress
By Bruce Johnston in Rome and Philip Delves Broughton in Paris
(Filed: 26/09/2003)


There was anger among Italy's conservative monarchists yesterday as Prince Emmanuel-Filiberto, second in line to the country's defunct throne, married Clotilde Courau, a French actress who is six months pregnant - and a socialist - in Rome.


Prince Emmanuel-Filiberto and Clotilde Courau at their wedding
Their hopes for a return to the glory days of the House of Savoy, whose members were allowed back into Italy last year, were dashed by a wedding criticised in Italy for being more appropriate for a footballer than a prince.

In a newspaper interview published yesterday, Emmanuel-Filiberto, 32, lashed out at critics of his bride. "First of all, Clotilde is not a communist," he said. Then referring to sniggers about her film career, he said: "Secondly, let any actress today who has not appeared in a film with her tits in the breeze, please raise her hand."

He added "I wanted the child. I have nothing to hide." Many of Europe's royalty turned down the invitation to the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, as did several of Emmanuel-Filiberto's own family because of inheritance rows with his father, Victor Emmanuel.

Among the prince's titles is that of Duke of Venice, but he chose to marry in Rome in order to re-establish links with his family's past. It was in the same basilica that his great grandparents, King Victor Emmanuel III and Elena of Montenegro, were married in 1896.

Mlle Courau, 34, has made 23 films and appeared on stage in Paris. She comes from the working class Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers and remains proudly Left-wing.

[Josefine]

Savoy Royal Family in Florence
Is this the honeymoon?

www.lifepress.com

[Josefine]

pictures taken Yesterday

www.lifepress.com

[angel]

I saw some pictures of Emanuelle at a disco opening.They were from October 1 and he was alone.
Did the honeymoon end so soon? And where is her preagnant wife?