Like his future bride Charlene Wittstock, Prince Albert III of Monaco is a confirmed sports enthusiast, and like her he has represented his country in the Olympic Games. Ms Wittstock rose to modest fame as a South African Olympic swimmer, but soared to international celebrity as the fiancee of the Prince.
Prince Albert, who ascended to the throne on the death of his father Rainier in 2005, has taken part in five Winter Olympics as a member of the national bobsled team and in 1985 he drove in the gruelling Paris-Dakar motor rally.
He was also appointed to the International Olympic Committee in 1985 and became president of the Olympic Committee of Monaco in 1993.
He is active in athletics, handball, tennis, squash and skiing – not to mention holding a judo black belt – so it was no surprise that he decided to wed a woman who learned to swim at the age of three and has represented her adopted country, South Africa, in the summer Olympics.
In the performance of his many official duties, Prince Albert has earned a reputation among Monaco’s population of 32,000 as pleasant and laid-back. He is seen as more accessible and less autocratic than his late father.
The second child and only son of prince Rainier and the US film star Grace Kelly, Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi was born on March 14, 1958 and educated in Monaco and the US.
After serving briefly in the French navy, he worked as an intern for the Morgan Guaranty Trust of New York.
Following his mother’s death in a car crash in 1982, Albert returned to Monaco, where his sporting talents were allowed free rein.
In comparison with his elder sister Caroline and his younger sibling Stephanie, Prince Albert has managed to keep his love-life largely out of public view, although he has been seen in the past with a string of different women.
Indeed, for a long time the prince’s failure to marry and have legitimate children left royalists in despair.
Under the rule of male succession he was first in line to succeed his father despite Caroline’s being a year older than him.
However, in 2002 Monaco changed its Constitution so that if the Prince were to die without a legitimate heir, the the 700-year-old Grimaldi dynasty could continue through the female line.
Although he has fathered two children, a girl and a boy who were officially recognised after he had acceded to the throne, neither could succeed him as Monaco’s Constitution requires its rulers to be born in wedlock.