The Royal Fanzine

Some things remain the same. Mother worries about her little ones going off to school. Do they have enough food in their lunch boxes? Do they have the no-talking-to-strangers code drilled into their skulls enough times? Are the buckles on their shoes too tight, or loose enough to become unfastened, and thereby cause them to trip and suffer a sprained ankle, or worse? Of course, royal moms have a lot of assistance. The bodyguards are there, in the shadow of the royal kids' every step, and the nannies and cooks at the palace ensure no little high-born darlings are going to be underfed or neglected in anyway.  Of more pressing concern to the royal moms of Generation Z, perhaps, are things like texting or tweeting when they should be attending to the lessons. Bullying, too, is a potential, and much more serious problem. Just look at what happened to poor Princess Aiko of Japan! Aiko's uncle Akishino and his wife, Kiko, decided not to send their little son, Hisahito, to Aiko's s

While Katie Nicholl and crew @GMA would say, unequivocally, that 2011 has been the Year of The Duchess of Cambridge, we at @TheRoyalFanzine have something to say about that! Of course, it is true that the Royal Duchess Formerly Known as Catherine Elizabeth Middleton has had more magazine covers than her 17-years-older aunt-in-law. As Catherine Middleton alone--forget about her marital covers--she was on the cover of People magazine, and even made Vanity Fair's best-dressed list, almost every year of the last decade. Sophie? Sure, she's been mentioned in those magazines a few times. She was even on the cover of People at the times of her engagement and marriage to Prince Edward in 1999. But mostly, she's lucky to be on the cover of Majesty or Hello! I mean, let's face it. Most People readers are likely to furrow their brows in some confusion if you ask them what they think about Sophie, The Countess of Wessex. -Sophie? Countess of Where? -Prince Edward's wife.

With this week's passing of the 63rd annual Red Cross Gala, the editors of The Royal Fanzine thought it would be a good idea to explore the history of Monaco's annual summer Gala. Marcia Tracy reports. The Monegasque Red Cross Gala -- or, Gala de la Croix Rouge --  has been held every late July/early August in the Salle des Etoiles  in the Sporting Club -- Sporting d'Eté   de Monte-Carlo -- since it's inception in 1948, by the present sovereign's great-grandfather, Prince Louis II. It's presidency is served by the sovereign, Prince Albert II. Until 1957, the year after Prince Rainier III gave Monaco a new princess, the event remained low-key. The purpose of the ball is to raise funds for Monaco's division of The Red Cross. It was in 1957 that the Red Cross Gala became what it is today. Since 1957, the ball has hosted performers including: Eddie Fischer, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Gloria Gaynor, Frank Sinatra, Julio Iglesais, Elton John, Liza Minel

Camille Marie Kelly Gottlieb is considered one of the "lucky" ones of the illegitimate child coverage. She is fully acknowledged by her mother, a princess, and is rarely hidden from family events (her uncle Albert's enthronement, the circus festivals of 2009 & 2010, and more recently her uncle's civil and religious wedding ceremonies). Marcia Tracy reports for The Royal Fanzine! She is the illegitimate daughter of Her Serene Highness Princess Stephanie of Monaco and (allegedly anyway, Princess Stephanie has never publically admitted exactly who her father is) former Monaco palace bodyguard, Jean-Raymond Gottlieb. She was born in Monaco at the Le Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace on July 15, 1998. Her name is Camille Marie Kelly Gottlieb. Camille-likely a name her mother liked, however it could also be speculated that it is after Prince Honoré Camille Léonor Grimaldi de Goyon de Matignon Marie-likely, a name Princess Stephanie liked, but it could also be

Charlotte Louise Juliette Grimaldi was born 30 September 1898 and was the daughter of Louis II, Prince of Monaco, and the mother of Prince Rainier III. She was the only child and illegitimate daughter of HSH Prince Louis II of Monaco. She was born in Algeria, the daughter of a prince and cabaret singer, Marie Juliette Louvet. Due to Monaco’s constution at the time of her birth, Monaco was due to pass to her father’s cousin, Prince Wilhelm of Urach, Count of Württemberg, 2nd Duke of Urach upon his death. To prevent this, on 15 May 1911, when Charlotte Louvet was only twelve years old, a law was passed recognizing Charlotte as Louis's daughter, and making her a member of the sovereign family. Though it was later held to be invalid under the 1882 statutes, an Ordinance of 30 October 1918 allowed her to be adopted. Louis legitimated and adopted Charlotte in Paris on 16 May 1919, when she was twenty years old, bestowing on her the surname Grimaldi and granted her the title Duchess of

As previously reported, illegitimate children are nothing new to Monaco. Illegitimate children go back for many generations in the modern princely family of Monaco. Princess Charlotte of Monaco who is considered the "convenient" illegitimate Grimaldi ; then eight of Princess Charlotte's great-grandchildren-Andrea, Charlotte and Pierre Casiraghi, Camille Gottlieb , Jazmin Grace Grimaldi and Alexandre Coste , and Louis and Pauline Ducuret and three of "The Convenient One"'s own grandchildren were also originally illegitimate at one point or another in their lives. Marcia Tracy spotlights more of Monaco's inconvenient children for The Royal Fanzine . Baroness Elisabeth-Anne de Massy was born in 1947, the eldest of the three de Massy children. At the time of her birth, her uncle Rainer III was single and childless, so many Moneguese looked to Elisabeth's mother, Princess Antoinette of Monaco  for security in the succession to Monaco. This increased