The Palace of Monaco has released images of Prince Albert II of Monaco and Princess Charlene posing with their twin babies, Jacques and Gabriella, at the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco.
The Christmas-themed photographs show the smitten parents gazing at their newborn children, with Princess Gabriella in pink and Prince Jacques in baby blue.
Gabriella was born first at 5.04pm, and Jacques at 5.06pm, but it is Jacques who will be the future Prince of Monaco, because of the Mediterranean principality’s male inheritance laws.
They are the first children for the 36-year-old former South African Olympic swimmer, who married Prince Albert II, 56, three years ago.
The princess lived for a number of years in KwaZulu-Natal when she was training for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Prince Albert was by his wife’s side as the children were delivered on December 10 at the Princess Grace Hospital, which is named after Albert’s mother, the late Hollywood star Grace Kelly.
Soon afterwards, 42 cannon shots rung out around Monaco, confirming that the babies had been born.
Albert had arranged the 42 shots, in place of the 21 that would boom for a single baby.
The babies are the first twins in the royal household, which dates back to the 13th century.
Albert has admitted he did not know the sex of the children before birth: “It is one of the beautiful surprises that life offers us,” he said.
In the UK, only one set of royal twins has ever been born – to King James I of Scotland and his wife, Joan Beaufort, in 1430.
It is thought the twins were born via Caesarean section, but the doctor delivering them had no more than a symbolic hand in deciding the destiny of the Grimaldi dynasty.
In principle, there is no medical reason a doctor would have an active role in deciding which newborn is delivered first, even in a Caesarean section, an expert said.
Daily Mail and Staff Reporter