Has Prince Albert made accountants sexy?

Until a year ago, I'd always thought of Prince Albert of Monaco as rather boring. Sandwiched between his tabloid worthy, multi-married sisters, Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie, he seemed to be a contrast. Whereas they were wild, "Albie" as his mother nicknamed him, seemed laid back and calm. You could almost compare him to his mother, the late Princess Grace, in temperment. But without his mother or sister's glamour, he was just a balding, middle-aged man in a suit, appearing no different than the balding, middle-aged, workaholic accountant in your neighborhood.

Not that Prince Albert didn't have his share of rumours and tabloid interest. He's been linked with Claudia Schiffer, and labelled a playboy. The bigger rumour seems to be his sexuality. After many years of playing the field, one would have thought that he would have settled down. It's only in the last two years that he's come out of the shadow of his sisters. His succession in April 2005 made him headline news, sandwiched as it was between the more newsworthy death of Pope John Paul II and Charles and Camilla's wedding. But it wasn't until a few months after that event that he came into his own right with the news that he was acknowledging a child he had fathered out of wedlock, Alexandre Coste.

Were this some other dynamic public figure, it may have come as no surprise.For mild mannered, accountant-like Albert, it was different and his decision to step up to the plate was rather unique in an age where public figures try to keep controversial aspects of their lives private. Prince Albert is no ordinary public figure but a ruler, with not one illegitimate child to his name but two, Jazmin Grace Grimaldi. Now that he has a steady girlfriend, Charlene Wittstock, rumours of his sexuality have been replaced by marriage rumours. And despite having two illegitimate children, his image seems to have improved instead of diminished.

At least in my case it has. I'll never look at the accountant next door in the same way again.

© Marilyn Braun 2007