Prince Albert II of Monaco Announces Engagement to Charlene Wittstock

On June 19, 2010, the world witnessed the lavish wedding ceremony of Sweden's future Queen, Crown Princess Victoria, to a commoner gym owner, Daniel Westling. But it seems the European royals caught a marriage bug after attending the ceremony that two of the most eligible princes in the world followed by announcing their engagements.

The first to announce his official engagement is the 52-year-old Sovereign Prince of Monaco, Prince Albert II, current head of the Royal House of Grimaldi to Charlene Wittstock, a former Olympian from South Africa, who is 32 years old. 

The Prince's Palace of Monaco's spokesman announced Prince Albert's official engagement to Charlene Wittstock on June 26, 2010. The royal wedding is set for the summer of 2011. 

Prince Albert has been Monaco's Sovereign Prince since April 2005 upon the death of his father, Prince Rainier III. He is the second child and only son of Prince Rainier and Hollywood actress, Grace Kelly. He has two sisters, Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie. 

Charlene Wittstock is a South African Olympian who took part in the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a backstroke swimmer. It has been reported that Prince Albert met Charlene in 2000 while she was competing in a national swimming event held in Monaco. However, their romance was kept under the radar and was known in public four years later. 

Charlene reportedly moved to Monaco in 2005 and began taking French lessons to communicate with the locals in their mother tongue. She became Prince Albert's constant companion at many social events.

The Playboy Prince

Prince Albert II has been known as a playboy prince for his entire bachelorhood.  He has dated a string of glamorous girlfriends, mostly supermodels. In July 2005, just before he was enthroned, he admitted to having a son with a flight attendant, Nicole Coste. The boy was born in 2003.

A year later, he admitted to having an illegitimate daughter born in 1992 to an American woman. The daughter was named Jazmin Grace and currently living in the United States. Prince Albert said that he has supported financially his two illegitimate children but no succession rights to the Monegasque crown.