Who's Your Daddy? Part Deux

Spectators at last February’s Olympics in Turin had more than winter sports to watch when Monaco’s Prince Albert staged his own show of sorts, snuggling with his latest love, South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock, in the stands at a ski event. “At times, he would speak quietly in her ear and she would let out huge laughs, then cover her mouth and giggle,” recalls one eyewitness. “From an Italian point of view, I would say it is amore!”

Time will tell if amore can keep them together. For the second time in less than a year, the playboy prince, 48, is in the headlines for confessing to an out-of-wedlock child, this time an eighth grader from Palm Desert, Calif. On June 1 Albert’s attorney Thierry Lacoste acknowledged the prince’s paternity of 14-year-old Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, whose mother, Tamara Rotolo, now 44, met Monaco’s heir during a three-week vacation to the French Riviera in 1991. The revelation followed by just 11 months Albert’s confession that he had fathered a son, Alexandre Eric Stéphane, now almost 3, with Nicole Coste, a former Air France flight attendant from Togo with whom he had a five-year relationship (see box, page 106).

Rumors about Albert’s fertile adventures are hardly new. Despite a middle-age paunch, balding pate and marked shyness, he has never wanted for loyal subjects, especially female. “First off, Prince Albert’s name starts with ‘prince,'” says one royal watcher of the monarch’s seductive powers. “He doesn’t push. He’s a little old-fashioned but very gentlemanly—and women love this,” adds a woman from Monaco who has dated him.

Tamara Rotolo, whom Albert eyed at a Monaco tennis tournament and invited to a party, first filed a paternity suit against him in 1992 (it was dismissed by a California judge due to a lack of jurisdiction). Albert himself fueled speculation that he might be Jazmin’s father last July when, asked on French television if he had sired children besides Alexandre, he admitted he had heard of other cases. But, he said, “dragging these [issues] out into daylight isn’t very elegant.”

So why come clean now? Royal watchers say the partying prince, who formally assumed his nation’s throne last July 12 following the death of his father, Prince Rainier, may be ready to settle down. His public outings with Wittstock, whom he met while she was competing in a swimming event in Monaco in 2001, signify something is up, say observers (see box, page 106). “He’s definitely putting everything in order,” says royal observer Isabelle Rivère. “He can now open the way, without further worries, to an engagement with Charlene”—possibly as early as this summer.

If there is a sense of urgency it’s this: Despite two children, Albert still needs to produce a legitimate heir. Monaco’s constitution stipulates that only offspring produced in a marriage sanctioned by the sovereign can assume the throne. Although neither Jazmin nor Alexandre is qualified to inherit the crown, both stand to collect a princely share of Albert’s fortune, estimated at $2 billion, which includes a yacht, hundreds of properties in Monaco and France and an antique-car collection.

Jazmin’s mother, Tamara Rotolo, fought for years to secure her daughter’s rights. According to Bruce McCormack, a Cody, Wyo., newspaper editor to whom she told her story in 1993, Rotolo, a former waitress, got pregnant in 1991 while she and a girlfriend vacationed in Monaco. At the time, Rotolo was married to (although apparently separated from) David Schumacher, then a tabloid reporter. After returning home to California, Rotolo and Albert talked on the phone every day. “Wherever the prince was, he would call,” says McCormack. “He was very supportive. He wanted to know about her pregnancy, her health, how things were going.” But after Rotolo actually gave birth, Albert refused any further communication, says McCormack. “There was no more cooperation and the door slammed shut.” Frustrated, Rotolo staged a confrontation when Albert visited the U.S. in 1993 (see box).

In Palm Desert, Rotolo, who lives in an upscale gated community, remained discreet about Jazmin’s lineage, although she named her Grace after her grandmother Princess Grace and Grimaldi after her father. “The news wasn’t a surprise for people close to her,” says a parent of one of Jazmin’s former classmates. Jazmin thrived at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School, winning a top student award and placing on the honor roll before graduating this month. “Overall, she’s a happy kid,” says the parent. “There’s no sign that [being the daughter of a prince] affected her.”

As for her father, observers say his rise to the throne has occasioned a makeover. “He is now sovereign and knows he can’t be seen with 36 different women,” says royal watcher Rivère. But will he actually settle down? Friends say despite a colorful past, the prince has the makings of a family man. “I can tell you,” says one, “Albert would make a good father.”

FATHER MEETS DAUGHTER

On August 23, 1993, schoolchildren were handing flowers to Prince Albert as he visited Cody, Wyo., when Tamara Rotolo stepped from the crowd with their 17-month-old daughter Jazmin. PEOPLE correspondent Vickie Bane, who was covering Albert’s visit, recalls the emotional encounter:

“Suddenly, out from under a rope holding back the crowd ran a tiny girl. Behind the girl was a tall, slender brunette who scooped up the baby before she reached the prince and announced, ‘Albert, this is your daughter.’ I watched the prince’s face turn bright red. The smile froze on his face, and he turned away without saying a word to Tamara or Jazmin. He never looked back.

“Rotolo told me that this was the first time she had seen the prince since July 1991, when she became pregnant. She had come to Cody that day ‘for Albert to meet Jazmin for the first time. If he’s not the father, why doesn’t he get off his throne and take the blood test?’ With that, she walked away, Jazmin in her arms.”

THE OTHER CHILD

Alexandre Eric Stéphane may be an heir to his father’s billions, but he doesn’t necessarily see Prince Albert very often. Nearly a year after the prince publicly acknowledged Alexandre as his son, tensions remain between him and the boy’s mother, Nicole Coste, 34, a former flight attendant. Coste is reportedly upset that Alexandre, now nearly 3, has been denied use of the Grimaldi name. (The royal family didn’t give Albert’s daughter Jazmin Grimaldi permission either.) Mother and son have kept a low profile, living at the $2.5 million home in Ville-franche-sur-Mer on the French Riviera that Albert gave them. But how often the prince visits “is impossible to say,” says royal observer Isabelle Rivère.