Albert II, Prince of Monaco

Albert II is the reigning Sovereign Prince of Monaco, a position he has held since the death of his father Rainier III on April 6, 2005. He is the head of the House of Grimaldi, which has ruled the Mediterranean principality since 1297.

He was born Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi on March 14, 1958, at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, the second child and only son of Prince Rainier III and the American actress Grace Kelly. He attended the Lycée Albert Premier in Monaco and earned a BA in political science from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1981.

He served as a midshipman in the French Navy aboard the helicopter carrier Jeanne d'Arc in 1981 and was a member of Monaco's Olympic bobsleigh team at five consecutive Winter Games from 1988 to 2002. From 1984 he assumed an increasing role in the principality's government, succeeding to the throne on his father's death and being formally enthroned on November 19, 2005.

His reign has emphasized environmental advocacy through the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, established in 2006, and reforms to financial transparency. In July 2011 he married the South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock; their twins, Princess Gabriella and Hereditary Prince Jacques, were born in December 2014. Jacques is the heir apparent to the throne.

The given name Albert is of Germanic origin, from adal ("noble") and beraht ("bright"), meaning "noble and bright." It is a masculine name, and he bears it.