[imagesource: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis / Corbis via Getty Images]

Princess Charlene has been away from her family for most of this year.

She spent most of that time here in South Africa, partly on a rhino conservation mission. Her family, including her twins, visited twice over the 10-month period.

The royal finally returned to Monaco on November 9, with a staged welcome home shoot complete with a few Instagram posts on her personal account and the palace’s official account.

But she was only home for a week before leaving again – this time, reportedly to an addiction treatment facility outside of Monaco.

Her husband, Prince Albert, keeps on assuring the public that her absence has had nothing to do with their marriage.

He has also confirmed that it has nothing to do with “cancer, COVID-19, or plastic surgery”.

This is following the information that she has been in and out of hospital for a couple of surgeries related to a sinus infection, including a medical emergency in September that may or may not have been related to the same cause.

There is now a great deal of speculation that Charlene could be struggling with a drug problem.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by HSH Princess Charlene (@hshprincesscharlene)

Here’s more from The Daily Mail:

Prince Albert said his 43-year-old wife is suffering profound “exhaustion, both emotional and physical” and will require clinical care lasting several weeks at a minimum following her return from a 10-month stay in South Africa.

The palace confirmed that Charlene would be recovering for the foreseeable future, releasing a statement on Tuesday that said: “The Princess is currently convalescing and will continue to do so for the coming weeks, allowing Her time to recover from a state of profound general fatigue.”

The statement said the couple have “both decided that a period of calm and rest is necessary to ensure the very best recovery for Princess Charlene’s health.”

It continued: “In order to protect the comfort and privacy essential to Her recovery, the Princess’ location will remain strictly confidential.”

CNN has the whole timeline leading up to her going to a treatment facility “outside of Monaco” if you need a recap.

The Royal Foibles blog notes that “exhaustion” is essentially Hollywood-speak for drug rehab:

But Albert also denies in this article that his marriage has anything to do with his wife’s current suffering, seemingly passing her current predicament off on her recent medical problems.

Many a palace insider has indicated to this author that such denial on Albert’s part is one of the reasons why his wife began abusing drugs and alcohol in the first place, and if the rumors concerning her years long struggle with cocaine dependency are true, and the damage resulting from it played a factor in her ENT infection, the psychological pain Princess Charlene had allegedly long endured has now crossed over into undermining her physical health, and could wind up killing her.

Charlene’s six-year-old twins, Prince Jacque and Princess Gabriella, held handmade signs on Monaco’s National Day to honour their mother – you can see this in the main image up top.

Some believe that the display was more performative than genuine and possibly even exploitative of the poor kids.

Ultimately, everyone just hopes that Charlene gets the help she needs, whatever that might be.

[sources:royalfoibles&dailymail&cnn]