Albert and Charlène of Monaco, who slept separately on their honeymoon

The royal couple formed by Charlene Wittstock and Albert of Munich has always been chat for the presumed frost that would run between the two. Since the day of weddingcelebrated with great pomp in July 2011, there was talk of an escape attempt (never confirmed) by the bride. And for years now rumors have been chasing each other that they want the two on the verge of divorce. Not even the latest appearances as a couple, not even the latest Christmas card in the format of a happy family has served to appease the rumors: according to the gossip, Charlène is in fact “trapped” in the public life of the Principality by an alleged agreement with her husband: 12 million euros a year to attend official events alongside him. And keep up appearances.

Now the details of the honeymoon some royals, brought to the surface by French TV, seem to reinforce the thesis of a marriage that started off on the wrong foot. A documentary entitled Royal family: secrets and scandals just broadcast on channel W9 has indeed recalled that Charlène and Alberto, during their honeymoon in South Africa, did not sleep together. The two had booked, at least ‘officially’, a suite with a sumptuous double bed and private pool (£4,000 a night) at the Oyster Box Hotel in Umhjanga Rocks, near Durban. But things didn’t go as planned: «Alberto and his wife in the end they have not slept in the same room or even in the same hotel», explained Pierrick Geais, journalist of Paris Match. Indeed, Prince Albert slept at the Hilton Hotel in Durban. While Princess Charlene stayed alone, but in a less sumptuous suite, at the Oyster Box. “It was supposed to be a fairytale honeymoon, but the princess slept alone 16 kilometers away from her prince», he wrote in July 2011 City Press.

A situation that the Royal House tried to justify at the time with a press release in which it specified that Alberto was also Durban for work: in fact he had to participate in some meetings of the Olympic Committee of which he is a member. And so, for practicality, she had decided to stay in the same hotel where the other members of the CIO slept: the Hilton Hotel in Durban, to be precise. An explanation that at the time hardly convinced anyone. Especially since the honeymoon of Charlène and Alberto was abbreviated due to “urgent business” that the two had to attend to in Monte Carlo.

– Albert and Charlène of Monaco with their children in the Christmas card

– Charlène of Monaco and Charlotte Casiraghi, complicity and laughter at the Christmas Village

-Charlène and Albert of Monaco celebrate the twins Jacques and Gabriella