The famous duo of journalists, Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, have launched a new investigation in the pages of Le
Monde
.
After the Bettencourts, Nicolas Sarkozy or François Hollande, this time it is about the princely family of Monaco.
And if we are to believe the first part of this investigation, Rainier III would have once thought of replacing Crown Prince Albert II with… his older sister, Princess Caroline.
Father and son had “difficult relations”, the heir being long considered “the despised of the clan, the forty-year-old who loses his means in front of his father”.
Rainier III, judging that he was “not up to the task” to succeed him, would have considered ceding the throne to Princess Caroline.
Information confirmed to Le
Monde
by Claude Palmero, the former property administrator of Albert II ousted on June 6, 2023, and lawyer Thierry Lacoste, also in disgrace.
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The sovereign who died on April 6, 2005 would have requested a legal opinion on the subject.
This is evidenced by a letter mentioned by the daily, dated December 10, 2001 and signed Patrice Davost, at the time director of Monaco's judicial services.
Through this missive, Rainier III would have liked to ensure, in the event that Princess Caroline succeeded him, that she could one day pass the torch to her eldest son, Andrea Casiraghi.
Contacted by
Le Monde
, Patrice Davost confirmed that he had “conducted a discreet investigation to find out if Andrea could inherit the throne”.
What happened next ?
The mystery remains unsolved because after the death of Rainier III, it was indeed Albert II who ascended the Monegasque throne.
Also read: Burned photos, secret payments, quarrels between princesses: these new explosive revelations about the Monaco family
Five notebooks of secrets
To carry out this investigation into the Grimaldi clan, Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme were able to count on the revelations of Claude Palmero, the former property administrator of Albert II.
Ousted on June 6, 2023, the former advisor has, since his dismissal, been accused of corruption and illegal taking of interests.
He denies it: “I never took a cent,” he retorts in the columns of Le
Monde
.
This is a 100% denial.
I am neither corrupt nor a thief.”
Anxious to “restore his honor”, Claude Palmero filed a complaint, at the end of November 2023, against the members of the princely family.
From his decades at the Palace of Monaco, he kept five notebooks with corrosive contents.
These contain the smallest details of Claude Palmero's actions, but also Albert II's reactions to his requests.
They also reveal the quarrels between some of the Grimaldis, the alleged excessive spending of the princesses of Monaco, and the supposed existence of confidential payments, paid to the illegitimate children of Albert II, Jazmin Grace and Alexandre, and to his former mistress.
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