Final preparations are being made in Monaco for the wedding of Prince Albert II and South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock amid rumours that the bride had tried to call it off.
The couple are due to wed in successive civil and religious ceremonies tomorrow and on Saturday in a festival of royal pomp in the Mediterranean principality.
President Mary McAleese, who met the couple on their recent visit to Ireland, is due to attend the wedding.
Keen to dazzle the world with the new couple and give Monaco’s image a boost in the process, the palace is laying on two tonnes of red carpet, a Giorgio Armani wedding gown, 3,500 guests – including some 20 heads of state – a dinner prepared by chef Alain Ducasse and a hybrid Lexus to whisk away the newly-weds.
It has issued a decree encouraging residents to decorate their houses for the event.
The wedding is seen as the biggest occasion in Monaco since Prince Albert’s father Rainier III married Hollywood actress Grace Kelly in 1956, but preparations for the event have been clouded by claims that Ms Wittstock had cold feet.
The palace vehemently denied a report by French weekly L'Express that Ms Wittstock (33), a former Olympic swimmer, recently tried to leave on a one-way flight to South Africa.
“These rumours have no other goal than to severely damage the reputation of the monarch and thereby that of Ms Wittstock and severely undermine this happy event,” the palace said in a statement.
“I just spoke to her assistant and whatever the story is, it’s not true. I called her and asked if everything is okay and they said everything is fine,” said Ryk Neethling, a fellow South African Olympic swimmer.
Albert (53) has children with two other women.