Prince Albert of Monaco has been accused of hiding payments to his ex-lovers from his wife Princess Charlene.
The royal’s disgruntled former accountant, Claude Palmero, disclosed the prince’s finances to several notable French newspapers, which allegedly included lavish secret gifts to his former lovers.
Palmero, who was fired by the prince last year, is a prominent member of the “G-4,” or “Club of 4,” which is a group of four powerful individuals who previously controlled much of Monaco’s uber-expensive property market.
In an interview with Le Monde, one of France’s most notable newspapers, Palmero said that Albert, 65, has been paying Jazmin Grimaldi — a 31-year-old illegitimate daughter he fathered during a brief fling with Tamara Rotolo — $86,000 every three months and bought her an NYC condo that boasted a $3 million price tag.
According to the Times of London, the palace also pays kidnap and ransom insurance for Alexandre Coste, 20, Albert’s illegitimate son with Nicole Coste, a former Air France flight attendant from Tonga.
Palmero adds that Albert’s sisters Princess Stéphanie, 58, and Princess Caroline, 67, have both taken advantage of their brother’s finances, and have used “the crown jewels as personal fashion accessories,” he told the French publication.
The allegations are based on books kept by Palmero, 67, during his time as the royal family’s accountant for over two decades.
In a separate interview with French newspaper Libération, Palmero added that Albert kept a secret account at a French bank, under the initials AG, to secretly pay his former mistresses and their children.
His estranged wife, Charlene, has, too, benefited from her husband’s wealth, as Palmero noted that her multi-million dollar allowance had been topped up frequently, including a whopping $1 million sum allocated just for revamping her office space.
Albert has since issued a statement in response to the accusations, telling the French publication, “The attacks that [Palmero] makes against me and against the state [of Monaco] and its institutions show his true nature and the little respect … he has for the family and the principality.”
His lawyer, Jean-Michel Darrois, told Le Monde that there has been no wrongdoing on Albert’s part.
It has long been speculated that some of Charlene’s issues stem from Albert’s philandering past.
Last year, Charlene, 46, was reported by the French outlet Voici to have moved out of the palace, and to be living in Switzerland and only seeing her husband by appointment.
What’s more, her Instagram account, which boasted 464,000 followers, was suddenly deactivated, only fueling rumors of a dramatic split.
Albert’s marriage has been the subject of rumors since Charlene reportedly fled the palace before their 2011 wedding — only to return and weep through the nuptials.
The gossip intensified in 2021 when Charlene went to South Africa for what turned out to be a months-long stay; Albert said Charlene’s long stay in South Africa was purely for medical reasons.
In recent years, Prince Albert had been repeatedly hit with financial scandals after being accused of corruption leveled by a Wikileaks-like website, at the same time as battling to prove that his marriage to Charlene is alive.
For nearly two years, a mysterious online site called “Les Dossiers du Rocher” — the Rock Files — has exposed what it claims are the corrupt secrets of Albert’s inner circle.
Last summer, Palmero found himself in hot water after the site accused him, and three of his affiliates, of fraud, cronyism, and corruption as well as undue influence on Monaco’s rich real estate and property market, France 24 reported.
The report prompted Albert to dramatically cut ties with Palmero, and saw the prince admit that he had lost confidence in the family’s longtime accountant.
The crises threaten the price’s future, as well as the Grimaldi family’s near-eight centuries of rule over the world’s second-smallest state.
The Post has reached out to Prince Albert and his attorney for comment.