SoCal Teen’s Dad Is Prince of a Guy
By Scott Gold, Lance Pugmire and Susannah Rosenblatt, Times Staff Writers
7:55 PM PDT, June 1, 2006
PALM DESERT, Calif. — Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi, his serene highness, sovereign prince of Monaco, confirmed Thursday that he has partaken in a centuries-old tradition among European monarchs: He has fathered an illegitimate child, this one the ponytailed daughter of a former waitress who lives near Palm Springs.Thirteen years after the mother first made a paternity claim against Prince Albert II, nine years after his father suggested that he needed a bride before he could ascend the throne, a year after he took the throne as a bachelor anyway, his lawyer issued the confirmation to a French newspaper.In Thursday’s Le Figaro, lawyer Thierry Lacoste said the prince “officially recognizes a paternity that was legally established a few weeks ago.” A Royal Palace official said the prince will make no public statement until he returns from a trip taken outside his monarchy. A copy of the girl’s birth certificate, obtained on Thursday, lists Albert as the father.
Albert’s daughter is 14-year-old Jazmin Grace Rotolo, an honor-roll member at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church and School, a small cluster of sand-colored stucco buildings shaded by palm trees, 13 miles outside Palm Springs — far from Albert’s posh Mediterranean playground.
While she could receive a share of the prince’s fortune, which has been estimated at $2 billion, she will not join the line of succession to the throne, because Monaco’s constitution requires that its rulers are the products of formal Catholic unions.
Jazmin Grace’s mother, 44-year-old Tamara Jean Rotolo, could not be reached for comment.
Rotolo, who comes from a working-class background, apparently met Albert in 1991 while vacationing in the Cote d’Azur region of France, near Monaco, according to media reports in Europe. Rotolo filed a 1992 lawsuit alleging the prince’s paternity, but a Riverside County Superior Court judge later dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.
In Palm Desert, an affluent community peppered with gated communities and high-end luxury stores, the news was met, alternately, with astonishment and apathy.
“You have got to be kidding. That’s hysterical,” said Maureen Hagen, 67, a resident in the Ironwood Country Club, where neighbors said Jazmin Grace and her mother live.
At St. Margaret’s, a scrum of international media waited for Jazmin to leave school as drivers zoomed by on Highway 74, shouting: “Leave her alone!” and “You jerks!”
At a nearby tobacco shop, salesman George Salas — perched under the head-shot photos of famous customers, including Joe Pesci and Frank Sinatra — was unimpressed. With so many celebrated faces in town, Salas said with a shrug, “What’s a princess?”
At first blush, the revelations might seem a thorough embarrassment to Monaco, which is, at least on paper, a somber and devout country.
Albert declared upon taking the throne last year that he would make it a top priority to clean up Monaco’s reputation.
The effort has seen some success; Albert has stressed ethics and Monaco has launched a series of fraud investigations, belying Monaco’s reputation as a tax shelter and a haven for corruption.
However, this is the second time in less than a year that Albert has acknowledged fathering a child; last summer he admitted that he had fathered a son with a flight attendant from Togo.
Centuries ago, monarchs such as King Henry IV and King Charles II were renowned for their ability to produce illegitimate children — those two were believed to have 22 between them — because the broods were seen as evidence of virility. That has changed with changing morality, and the rise of tabloid journalism.
“I don’t care whether he’s done it or not. But this stiff-lipped, prudish way of handling it is disturbing,” said Herman, whose latest book, “Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Husband and Passionate Politics” was released last month. “It’s not like he has a wife who would be publicly humiliated if this came out.”
Staff writers Lisa Richardson, Cynthia H. Cho and Jonathan Abrams contributed to this report.
Source: LA Times
