Charlene Lynette Wittstock is the Princess Consort of Monaco and a former Olympic swimmer.
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Charlene began her swimming career in 1996 (winning the South African Championship) and represented South Africa at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, with her team finishing fifth in the 4 × 100-metre medley relay.
However, Charlene retired from professional swimming in 2007.
Princess Charlene of Monaco is a South African and she was born to Michael Kenneth Wittstock, a sales manager, and Lynette Humberstone, a former competitive diver and swimming coach.
Though the Wittstock family is of German origin, Wittstock’s great-great-grandparents Martin Gottlieb Wittstock (1840–1915) and his wife Johanne Luise Wittstock (née Schönknecht; 1850–1932) emigrated to South Africa from the Pomeranian village of Zerrenthin in northern Germany in 1861 to escape hardship.
In South Africa, the Wittstocks worked as handyworkers and unsuccessfully prospected for diamonds.
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Charlene was given a certificate in 2014 which verified her Irish ancestry and her husband, Albert II, is the reigning Prince of Monaco and head of the Princely House of Grimaldi.
Charlene met Prince Albert at the Mare Nostrum swimming competition in Monte Carlo, Monaco, in 2000 and they got married on 1 July 2011.
On 10 December 2014, Charlene gave birth to twins Princess Gabriella and Hereditary Prince Jacques. Princess Charlene’s charity work primarily revolves around sports, AIDS, and underprivileged children.
Charlene founded the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation in 2012 to support her personal humanitarian endeavors.
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