Is Charlene the 21st Century Grace?

It seems that attending Princess Victoria of Sweden's wedding did trigger a romantic reaction amongst royalty with Prince Albert of Monaco, 52, announcing his engagement to Charlene Wittstock, 32, yesterday.

Prince Albert, who is the ruler of Monaco, was first seen with Charlene in 2001, though there has been no official confirmation of the relationship until now. Perhaps Albert and Charlene were keeping the engagement under wraps so as not to steal Princess Victoria's thunder? Quite a polite thing to do.

It's hard to deny that Charlene, a Zimbabwe-born swimmer, who can boast representing her adopted homeland of South Africa in the Olympics and appeared in a swimwear shoot by Sports Illustrated, does bear an uncanny resemblance to Albert's beautiful mother, the legendary American film star Grace Kelly. Grace married Prince Rainer III of Monaco in April 1956, in one of the most referred to weddings of the 20th century. Sadly she died in car accident in 1982.

We've sourced some images of Albert and Charlene from Princess Victoria's wedding on the weekend, along with pictures of Ranier and Grace from their wedding day so you can see if you agree with the similarity between Grace and Charlene. See below also an official image of the engagement ring Albert proposed to Charlene with (which suitably reflects the prince's estimated fortune of $2.4 billion or perhaps is a family heirloom).

It will be fascinating to see the wedding that unfolds, for while Princess Victoria's did get much attention, Prince Albert's is certain to have the eyes of possibly billions more fixated upon it. As for the pressure of choosing a wedding dress after Grace came floating out in such a stunning gown, I hope for Charlene's sake she chooses a seriously fashion savvy and supportive team of bridesmaids who can be on-call 24-7 to attend every gown appointment. Not to mention a world class fashion stylist, hair stylist, makeup artist...

The other question that comes to mind is will Charlene become as popular a name to give to your daughter as Grace? For while Kylie Minogue in her Neighbours days may have made this name well known in Australia and the UK, I doubt that it's been that popular elsewhere before. If anything there's certain to be a flood of Charlene's popping up in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Whatever the case it's got to be good for anyone planning a wedding - with so much energy, not to mention funds, being poured into Albert's bash it's more than likely that there will be some great ideas floating around as a result.

--- Alicia Richardson