Prince Albert of Monaco Found His Couple
Prince Albert of Monaco is finally tying the knot - and an old classmate from Amherst College couldn’t be happier.“Thank God,” said former state Sen. Warren Tolman, who has known the former playboy prince - and father of two illegitimate children - since their frat-boy days on the western Mass. campus.
The palace in the tiny French principality announced yesterday that the 52-year-old royal is engaged to stunning South African former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock, 32, whom he’s dated for several years.
“Not only is Charlene beautiful and smart, she’s unflappable,” said Toland, an attorney at Holland & Knight. “But what really struck me is that she truly cares for him and has his best interests at heart. It’s about time.”
Tolman said he and his wife spent three days with the royal sweeties “a couple of years ago.” More recently, he caught up with the couple when Albert visited MIT last April to discuss environmental and energy issues and to screen his documentary, “Antarctica 2009: A Continent in a State of Alert.”
Tolman said that, although Charlene possesses some of the same qualities of Albert’s late mother, Princess Grace, the former Grace Kelly remains to him “the most glamorous woman in the world, period.”
“It’s a tough comparison,” he said. “I met Princess Grace in 1981 at Albert’s graduation,” he said. “I opened his dorm room door and she’s sitting on his bed folding his jeans. She was so beautiful - even in her 50s - and charming and down to earth. I was so intimidated and she immediately put me at ease.”
Tolman said when he saw the happy couple in April, they invited him and his wife, Carolyn, to Monaco in the fall.
“I think now we may hold out for the wedding,” laughed Albert’s Boston BFF. “I hope we’re invited! I’m going to e-mail Charlene right now.”
According to protocol, royal couples must wait at least six months between the announcement of the engagement and the wedding day, a palace spokeswoman said yesterday. Hmmm. A royal December wedding???
News reports said Albert - a former Olympic bobsledder - met the swimming champ in 2000 when she was in Monaco for a tournament. Wittstock swam for South Africa at the Sydney Olympics that year but did not medal.
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