Ah, this is a tough one, that's for sure. And a sad one, unfortunately.
I actually like Ernst because he makes me laugh (seriously, who but he would have been caught on tape having an affair in Phuket, Thailand).
Yet at the same time he makes me mad because he doesn't conduct himself with dignity & propriety befitting his royal status. And in the end such conduct hurts not only himself, but more importantly his
family. It's easy to see why he's supposedly considered an outcast amongst royalty. A selfless person would think of his/her family first & foremost, not oneself and one's own pleasures & delights above all else. I would have hoped he had outgrown such behavior, being in his mid-50s, but, no, some men never grow up (e.g. Mick Jagger). I just hope that his bad example/behavior wasn't or will not be emulated by his children. And I hope that he was a good father to them growing up, and will continue to be for little Alexandra.
As for Princess Caroline, I feel sorry for her when it comes to marriage (you can tell she wants to be a good Catholic). I sincerely believe she wanted her first marriage to be for life, and would have stayed with playboy Phillipe Junot because that's what good Catholics do. However, her mother convinced her to leave him, and she fought & fought for years to annul her first marriage (obviously, her faith means a lot to her). So then she marries the sweet & handsome Stefano Casiraghi, thinking it would be for life, having three gorgeous children with him, then tragically he dies. And Caroline is now a widow. Left in a quandry, she tries to put her life back in order, takes her time, knows her children need a father, so for almost 10 years she stays single. Then alas she falls in love with a fellow personage from the nobility, someone that could possibly understand her, someone that she has known for a long while, whom makes her laugh, her father approves of him (as well Princess Grace did long ago), he gets along well with her children (even buying Andrea a motorcycle for his birthday), and more importantly their children get along well also (all being of a similar age). So they get married and have a baby together, like the Brady Bunch. Or leastways that's the way it started out. But once the children are grown and out on their own, Ernst's drinking and obnoxious behavior get worse, and he and his wife have drifted apart. The children are no longer there to cement them, except for little Alexandra, so what's left? Caroline wants to stay married for life, like a good Catholic, despite everything. But what does Ernst want? That's the million dollar question. From his behavior, it looks like he might want a divorce, but will Caroline grant him one? So so sad, so very sad. One wants to grow old with one's spouse (e.g. HM Queen Elizabeth & the Duke of Edinburgh; The King & Queen of Sweden, et al). Poor Caroline, I feel so sorry for her.