Photos of Monaco’s newborn royals, Princess Gabriella and Crown Prince Jacques Honore Rainier, were released by the Palace this week. The photos were taken at the Princess Grace Hospital, where the twins were born to parents Prince Albert and his wife, Princess Charlene. The Princess Grace Hospital is actually named for Prince Albert’s mother, the twins’ paternal grandmother, and late Hollywood legend, Grace Kelly.
The photos were released via the royal family’s official Facebook page .
“A beautiful Christmas gift to Monaco, friends of the Principality of Monaco and the royal family,” said the post.
With the princess, who was born two minutes before her twin brother on December 10, dressed in pink while the prince sports blue, it’s easy to tell the royal twins apart. Despite the fact that Prince Jacques is technically the baby brother, he will be next in line for his father’s throne under Monaco’s laws of succession. As CNN reports , the Monaco law of succession reads that “succession passes, upon death or abdication, to the direct legitimate (descendant) of the previous prince.”
This puts Prince Jacques in the lead, but his twin sister Princess Gabriella is next in line to the throne after him. And while Gabriella will be the “second child in the line of succession,” according to the royal family, Jacques “is the Crown Prince” and receives the title of Marquis of Baux in Provence, while Princess Gabriella will be known as the Countess of Carlades in Auvergne.
In the pictures, though, the tiny prince and princess are just adorable babies, being presented to the world by proud parents via Facebook, the same way many other new parents present their own babies to their friends and family.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , the royal twins are the first children born to Charlene Wittstock, the former South African Olympic swimmer. Charlene became Princess Charlene in 2011, when she married Prince Albert, despite troubling rumors that their relationship was in peril. As also reported, although these twins are the first for Charlene, they are not Prince Albert’s only children. The prince actually has two older children — Jazmin, 22, and Alexandre, aged 11 — from prior relationships. But because the older two children were both born outside of marriage, neither of them can claim royal titles.
Of course, Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques aren’t the only royal babies who will make an appearance in the upcoming months. Prince William and his wife Kate are expecting their own child, the second for them, this spring. For more on that, and how the young royals are preparing their own crown prince for the arrival of a new sibling, click here .
[Images via Facebook and raredelighst.com]
