‘Weak’ Prince Albert says yes to his ‘lonely’ wife Princess Charlene’s ‘crazy desire to spend money’ because he uses his riches to ‘buy family peace’, report claims

Prince Albert of Monaco has been branded a ‘weak’ leader who ‘uses money to buy family peace’, according to reports.

After questions were raised about the finances of the Monegasque Royal Family, journalists in the principality commented on the character of the 65-year-old premier. 

A dossier exposing the ‘secret notebooks’ of Claude Palmero, who was in charge of the Palace’s finances for more than two decades and a confidant of Prince Albert until he was ousted last summer revealed startling claims about the royal family’s finances – particularly those of Princess Charlene, 45.

The entries, which were shared with Le Monde newspaper in France, detailed extortionate costs spent by the Princess on things like the baptisms of her twins Jacques and Gabriella at around £600,000 and a general spending allowance of more than £1 million per year.

Now, speaking to Tatler, one of the journalists who broke the story has revealed Charlene has a ‘crazy desire to spend money’ which is granted by her husband to keep the peace.

Gérard Davet, an investigative reporter at Le Monde said: ‘Prince Albert says yes to everything. Charlene is very lonely in he palace; so her best friend is possibly the Prince’s money’. 

He added that the only person to ever put their foot down on Charlene’s spending was Mr Palmero, who filed several lawsuits against Prince Albert after he was ousted last year, including for defamation and unfair dismissal.

After Mr Palmero was walked out of his office by a Colonel who worked at the Palace and handed his severance letter, the Prince publicly accused his loyal ally of more than 20 years of corruption – which Mr Palmero flatly denies.

Speaking about Albert’s treatment of Palmero, an unnamed journalist in Monaco said: ‘Albert is a weak person… ‘I think his heart is in the right place, but he avoids confrontation.’

They speculated that the Prince’s disposition was due to experiencing ‘a lot of’ confrontation when his late father, Prince Rainier III, was alive. 

Elsewhere in the interview, Mr Davet reveals that the files he and his fellow reporter Fabrice Lhomme uncovered suggested Princess Charlene and her sister-in-law, Princess Caroline, are ‘not friends’.

FEMAIL has contacted the Monegasque Palace for comment. 

Among the explosive claims uncovered in the dossier were allegations that Princess Charlene hired illegal immigrants on less than £90-per-day to work for her, despite her personal spending allowance skyrocketing to £1 million-per-year.

Mr Palmero’s records suggested that ‘illegal migrants’ made up much of Charlene’s full-time personal staff of eight – something the accountant expressed concerns about.

‘Her Serene Highness the Princess makes people work for her who are not compliant,’ Mr Palmero warned Prince Albert, also referring to ‘a moonlighting Filipino woman who ties up dogs in the shower.’ 

In a letter written in January 2017, he said another employee from the Philippines had been ‘illegal for five years’, despite solely being on a one-month tourist visa. 

‘He gets paid 100 euros a day [£85] which is off the scale,’ Mr Palmero wrote.

In December 2014, Charlene gave birth to Prince Jacques, and Princess Gabriella, and immediately placed them in the care of illegal immigrant nannies.

‘Update on the hiring of nannies…We are completely illegal (even their tourist visa expired on January 7)’ Mr Palmero wrote on January 15th of that year.

‘They are not only in an illegal situation, but one entered with a false passport, Mr Palmero added.

Despite this, Mr Palmero released almost £600,000 to celebrate the children’s birth and baptism. 

On one day alone in April 2016, Charlene asked for the equivalent of £66,000, and this was ‘definitely too much,’ said Mr Palmero, especially as she also planned to rent a second villa on Corsica. 

‘Isn’t that a lot?’ asked the accountant, who was concerned that the Princess was taking money from funds that were ‘undeclared’ in terms of tax.

‘These practices are dangerous,’ Mr Palmero warned.

‘They are not only in an illegal situation, but one entered with a false passport, Mr Palmero added.

The former chief royal wealth manager in the Mediterranean tax haven claims he desperately tried to rein in Charlene’s ‘dangerous’ spending, and at one stage blocked the South African-born 45-year-old from taking on new staff. 

The books also allege that Albert spends millions every year from a secret French bank account to pay his former mistresses and love children – with Jazmin Grimaldi, 31, and Alexandre Coste-Grimaldi, 20, receiving allowances of £344,000 a year each.

This was while Charlene was pouring £826,000 into redecorating her holiday villa in Calvi, on the island of Corsica, along with £860,000 to decorate her office back in Monte Carlo.

Charlene was paying her personal chef the equivalent of £250-a-day from petty cash, said Mr Palmero, while her South African family were also receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds.

In February 2017, the accountant also released the equivalent of more than half-a-million pounds to pay off the Princess’s overdraft.

In December 2019, an alarmed Mr Palmero noted that Charlene had spent ‘around 15 million euros [£13m]’, over eight years, despite her allowance being ‘7.5 million euros’ [£6.4m]

This was while Charlene was also putting a combined sum of almost £2million into the holiday villa in Calvi, and her office redecoration.

‘It’s crazy!’ Mr Palmero wrote. ‘I have no control over the Princess’s spending’.