page_title: Albert II, Prince of Monaco
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Albert II, Prince of Monaco / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Prinses Gracia van Monaco doopt op Floriade een lelie
context_page_description: Albert II is the reigning Prince of Monaco and head of the princely house of Grimaldi. He is the son of Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace. Prince Albert's sisters are Caroline, Princess of Hanover, and Princess Stéphanie. In July 2011, Prince Albert married Charlene Wittstock. They have two children, Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques.
  Prince Albert II is one of the wealthiest royals in the world, with assets valued at more than $1 billion, which include land in Monaco and France. Prince Albert owns shares in the Société des bains de mer de Monaco, which operates Monaco's casino and other entertainment properties in the principality.
context_section_description: Albert was born in the Prince's Palace of Monaco. He has ancestry from Italy, Ireland, Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Mexico, Belgium, and Monaco and is American-Monegasque by birth; he renounced American citizenship in his early adulthood. He was baptized on 20 April 1958, by Monsignor Jean Delay, archbishop of Marseille, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of Monaco, before being presented at the balcony of the Palace to the people of Monaco. His godmother was the Spanish queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, and his godfather was Prince Louis de Polignac (1909–1996). Albert graduated with distinction from the Lycée Albert Premier, in 1976.
  He was a camper and later a counselor for six summers at Camp Tecumseh, on Lake Winnipesaukee, Moultonborough, New Hampshire, in the 1970s. He spent a year training in various princely duties and enrolled at Amherst College, in western Massachusetts, in 1977 as Albert Grimaldi, studying political science, economics, music, and English literature; he also joined Chi Psi fraternity. He speaks French, English, German, and Italian.
  He spent mid-1979 touring Europe and the Middle East with the Amherst College Glee Club, and also undertook an exchange program with the University of Bristol, at the Alfred Marshall School of Economics and Management in 1979. He graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.
  Prince Albert's mother died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in 1982. She was aged 52. In 2017, in In Depth interview with Graham Bensinger, the Prince stated that his mother's death was a traumatic event for him and the family. He also revealed that his father was "never the same man" after the loss.
caption: Prince Albert with his mother in 1972
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