When the veteran journalist Arlene Prinsloo was commissioned to write a book about Her Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco, her goal was simple: to pen the story of this South African farm child and great former Olympic swimmer in an honorable way.
Never did this seasoned journalist, and self-confessed royal fanatic, think that her words would one day show off on international bookstore shelves, and that, moreover, in the very language by which Princess Charlene is now surrounded on a daily basis.
Charlene: In Search of a Princesslaunched in 2022 by Jonathan Ball publishers in South Africa, has recently been translated and is now available in France as Charlene Story (Charlene’s story) sold.
This unauthorized biography was Prinsloo’s first book and tells about Charlene’s life and career from her growing up as a farm child in Zimbabwe, to her family’s emigration to South Africa where her impressive swimming career kicked off.
A big focal point is of course her meeting and marriage with Prince Albert II of Monaco and the birth of her adorable twins.
“I have to confess, I shed a few tears,” Prinsloo tells RNews about her book’s French translation.
“It was a big moment for me.”
Representatives of the French publishing house, L’Archipel, approached Gill Moody of Jonathan Ball during the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2022 and asked to publish the book under their name in France.
Princess Charlene’s life at the side of Monaco’s Prince Albert has been the subject of discussion for years, especially in the French media and tabloid press.
Her eight-month hiatus from the royal limelight after traveling to South Africa in March 2021 for her conservation work with rhinos has sparked gossip in particular about her marriage and mental health.
“It’s a terribly big compliment, not because I wrote it, but actually more to know that there is a French publisher who is willing to tell Charlene’s side of the story,” explains Prinsloo.
Philippe Delorme, a French historian and journalist, also wrote a foreword for the French copy. Prinsloo says that while writing her book she happened to read some of his comments about Charlene.
In addition to the preposition boast Charlene Story also with a stylish new cover, which according to Prinsloo is “extremely chic and typically French”.
However, she notes that there are contradictions between the cover photo, which was taken in 2013 at the Princess Grace Awards gala event in New York, and photos in which the princess appears these days.
“She’s not trying to pretend. She herself has said in interviews that she is well aware of the allegations that she looks unhappy in photos and does not smile everywhere, but she is not like the other royals who smile in public and all glamour is, but in the inner courts it is a different story.”
Prinsloo admits that she now feels more protective of the princess after her book.
“Because I myself work in the media, I know what unsolicited things have been written about her, because she is a soft target. I am incredibly proud of her, because she comes from our own soil.”
Despite speculation about Charlene’s marriage and health, Prinsloo believes that the Monaghan princess is currently on the road to recovery.
“She keeps what has come her way private in terms of health. She doesn’t necessarily look sad to me, I think she’s just trying to keep her emotions in check at times. It is good that she also attends fewer public appearances, and it seems to me that Albert offers her the space to get well in her own time.”
Prinsloo also says that the princess’s darker hairdo, which turned heads recently during the 80th Monaco Grand Prix, is also symbolic of her new life phase.
“She changes her hairstyle when something big happens in her life. I see the new hair color as entering a new phase of improvement. I’m ecstatic about it.”
This journalist, who during her remarkable career, which spans three decades, for Netwerk24, Rapport, Die Burger and Image worked and also royal news as a blogger for Saree and Netwerk24 covered, his big dream is to one day meet Charlene in person.
“I am not a sensational journalist, I never have been. My dream is to talk to her in person and just write something nice about her. I want to do the type of interview where you don’t just ask the usual questions and get the usual answers.”
Prinsloo himself was also among the British crowd for major royal events, including Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II’s funerals, as well as Prince Harry and Prince William’s wedding days.
She was recently in London to Network24 to report on King Charles’ historic coronation.
Not only was she able to see the ancient golden carriage and Red Arrows of the British Air Force in living bodies, but also to recite the Lord’s Prayer together with the thousands of people who descended on the streets of London – something she describes as goosebumps.
“I am sure that there were quite a few atheists in the crowd, but still thousands of people prayed together. Moreover, I recited it in Afrikaans. Especially that moment was worth the blisters and sore knees.”
- Listen here to RNews’s podcast interview with Arlene Prinsloo Charlene: In Search of a Princess.
- Charlene, In Search of a Princess cost R265 (price subject to change).
