Charlotte Casiraghi is Prince Albert’s niece and Princess Caroline’s daughter. Charlotte grew up in Monaco and France, and I believe she lives in both Monte Carlo and Paris currently. She has two children, Raphael Elmaleh, 10, and Balthazar Rassam, 5. She’s 38 years old and going through a divorce to Dimitri Rassam. They announced it back in February and it truly has not been much of a scandal. I haven’t heard anything about Charlotte in months, honestly. Well, Charlotte gave an interview to the Telegraph on behalf of her Chanel ambassadorship. She was very close to Karl Lagerfeld, she has walked the Chanel runway many times and she often wears Chanel for big events in Monaco. But it wasn’t until today that I realized that she’s technically the “literary ambassador for Chanel.” As in, Chanel has their own print or book brand, and Charlotte is called upon to lead discussions with authors and such. Anyway, that’s why she spoke to the Telegraph, it’s part of Chanel work. Some highlights:
Going through her divorce: “Reading a lot of female writers has helped me not to live by expectations and judgments. For me, it’s important to be free from certain conventions.”
She hosts her maternal health salons in Monaco. “It’s a small country so it’s politically easy to set something up. I work with [the departments for] education, culture, health – in a larger country it would take such a long time to do, whereas in Monaco we can experiment. It is an opportunity.”
But she doesn’t feel like a “working royal”: “But I always try to detach myself from this “royal” status. Of course I love to contribute to Monaco, but my philosophy taught me that being on the outside allows more complexity and diversity. For example, sometimes I invite people to speak who I don’t agree with, trying to confront ideas. Freedom of expression, gender, feminism are all topics that we’ve tried to explore in audacious ways.” She doesn’t like being ‘official’? “No,” comes the swift reply. “I don’t particularly like this “official representing”, even though I do it if there’s a purpose or if it’s important for my family. But this brings pressure, people judge you and expect a lot from you when you have official status. I prefer to be free.”
She went to public schools in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence: “Never private schools, but schools with a lot of different social backgrounds. I wasn’t at a privileged school at all. So you’re confronted with the fact that your social and economic situation creates tension, comparison, rivalry. It was always difficult having… all that background.”
More on her divorce: “Life is constantly a struggle for your own emancipation. I think for women it’s a challenge having children… Any working mother feels harassed and torn, and men do not experience this in the same way. It’s unequal because we constantly think about what’s going on at home, and men don’t, right? Before you have kids you don’t realise you’re going to have to fight for your own space and creativity.
She wants to be free & private: “The best moment for me to read is as soon as I wake up, but with kids that’s impossible. If you want to have children and be creative… It’s sometimes hard. I’m still emancipating myself. Lots of female writers had very free lives, which they built for themselves. Too often we’re imprisoned in a vision of what a family is, and I want to live my life free from that, especially when people constantly judge your life and your choices… It’s always annoying to have people commenting [in the press]. You shouldn’t have to justify yourself. I don’t understand why my private life should be of interest.”
It’s sort of fascinating to hear a royal-adjacent woman with enormous wealth and privilege talk about the gendered labor imbalance and how she sort of wishes she could live a fully creative life away from her kids. It’s kind of amazing, actually. The one rumor going around about her divorce is that she felt like she had to be in Monaco and be the “stable parent” for her sons while Dimitri Rassam, a film producer, got to travel around and be creative and have a career. Gender inequality comes for all women, even wealthy pseudo-princesses. And I’m fine with her trying to carve out a non-royal identity too. In Monaco, the “working royal” bullsh-t isn’t a thing. Albert is seemingly close to all of his nieces and nephews, and Charlotte is regularly included in “royal events.” None of that is treated like a big deal at all.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
