Monaco’s Prince weds Olympic swimmer

'Bride was having second thoughts about the wedding':

Monaco: Prince Albert II of Monaco and South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock have got married in a civil ceremony in the tiny principality. The wedding took place at the royal palace by the Mediterranean, where a more elaborate religious ceremony was to be held on Saturday.

Up to 3,500 guests are to attend lavish celebrations in Monaco afterwards.

Wittstock, 33, who swam in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, is now Her Serene Highness, Princess Charlene.

Earlier in the week the palace denied reports in the French press that Wittstock was having second thoughts about the wedding.

Prince Albert II, 53, has been the ruler of Monaco since the death of his father, Prince Rainier III, in 2005.

The guest list includes heads of state and royalty, from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to the heir to the Spanish throne, as well as fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Charlene Wittstock’s wedding dress was designed by Giorgio Armani.

Thousands of Monegasques crowded the plaza outside the palace for the civil wedding.

Inside, Philippe Narmino, the president of Monaco’s Council of State, declared the couple “united by bonds of marriage”.

The event was clouded by press reports suggesting that Ms Wittstock had come close to returning to South Africa, after learning secrets about Prince Albert’s private life.

The room in Monaco’s palace where the civil ceremony of the royal wedding of Prince Albert II and Charlene Wittstock was held The civil ceremony took place in this lavish room at the palace

The royal family dismissed the claims, as well as suggestions she had only turned back after royal aides persuaded her to stay.

“These rumours have no other goal than to severely damage the reputation of the monarch and thereby that of Miss Wittstock and severely undermine this happy event,” said the palace. Ryk Neethling, a fellow South African Olympic swimmer said: “I just spoke to her assistant and whatever the story is, it’s not true.

“I called her and asked if everything is okay, and they said everything is fine.”

Charlene Wittstock was born in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo, moving to South Africa with her family at the age of 12.

Sunday, Al Jazeera