Playboy Prince Fulfills His Destiny

April 6, 2005 — -- An accomplished sportsman, a bright student and a confirmed bachelor, Prince Albert II of Monaco remains an untested monarch.

Albert, 47, became the ruler of Monaco on the death today of his 81-year-old father, Prince Rainier III. A formal investiture ceremony will take place after a mourning period.

Albert had already taken over his father's duties, becoming regent on March 31 after a royal commission decided Rainier was too sick to retain them.

Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre was born on March 14, 1958, in Monaco, the sovereign principality on the northern Mediterranean coast -- a state about the size of New York's Central Park. He is the only son of Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Grace Kelly, the stunning American actress who died in a car accident in 1982 at the age of 52.

As Monaco's heir, Prince Albert was groomed from his earliest days to succeed his father.

"I think Prince Albert will be a very good monarch because he is well prepared, he has been brought up to do the job," said Stephane Bern, a royal analyst and broadcaster on the national France Inter radio.

Prince Albert's father personally supervised his son's upbringing. He wanted to toughen up the sensitive, stammering, blue-eyed, blond boy who had inherited his mother's good looks, according to John Glatt's book "The Royal House of Monaco."

Albert graduated with honors from a Monegasque high school and then went on to Amherst College in Massachusetts. He graduated in 1981 with a degree in political science. The young prince loved America, where other children were less deferential to him than they were in Monaco and he could feel like anyone else, explains Glatt.

He stayed off the front pages of broadsheets during his time at Amherst and then joined the French navy. His father had served with distinction in France's army during World War II, receiving the Cross of War and the Bronze Star.

In the days following Princess Grace's death on Sept. 13, 1982, the shy 24-year-old was forced into the spotlight. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Albert tried his hand at business with a number of internships. In a span of less than three years, he worked in New York in financial management, in the beverage and marketing industries in Paris, and dabbled in advertising before working at a law firm back in New York.