Sweethearts Candy Blog's

If she takes up swimming again, she won't be able to wear her engagement ring in the pool - she'd surely sink.

Prince Albert of Monaco has proposed to South African former swimmer Charlene Wittstock - giving her a ring that more than makes up for his reputation as an eternal playboy.

The royal palace said in a statement that the engagement was announced today between the 52-year-old prince and 32-year-old Wittstock.

It does not indicate a planned wedding date for the pair, who have been dating for four years. 

It does however raise hopes that she will finally provide the playboy ruler with an heir to the throne. 

The son of late Hollywood actress Grace Kelly already has children from two previous relationships – but under Monaco’s constitution neither can take the throne because they are ‘love children’. 

Only 'direct and legitimate' descendants born within marriage are allowed to rule the tiny Mediterranean tax-haven.

Earlier this year a Monaco government source told Point de Vue magazine: 'Charlene has beauty and style, and we are all praying that she will ensure the royal succession in our principality.   

'Albert has never settled down in the past, but knows that the time is now right to produce the next ruler of Monaco.'   

Albert has dated some of the world's most famous and beautiful women, including Angie Everhart, Brooke Shields, and supermodel Claudia Schiffer.

He has also battled persistent rumours he is gay.

Albert has a 15-year-old daughter Jazmin Grace Grimaldi with Californian Tamara Rotolo.

His fatherhood was only confirmed by DNA three years ago after a long legal battle.

In 2005, former Air France air hostess Nicole Coste, from Togo, proved that her son was Albert's.

Both cases cost Albert millions and he is still supporting the mothers and children financially.

The last time Monaco celebrated a wedding of its ruling prince was in 1956, when Albert’s father Rainier married Kelly, bringing a huge dose of glamour to the tiny Mediterranean principality.

But the Grimaldi dynasty that has ruled for more than seven centuries is also familiar with tragedy and bad publicity: Kelly died in a 1982 car crash, and her children, Albert, Caroline and Stephanie, regularly made headlines for the wrong reasons.

More camera-shy than his photogenic siblings, Albert once said press intrusion was partly to blame for his prolonged bachelorhood. 

‘Life will not be easy for my future wife,’ he told Le Figaro daily before he met Wittstock.

‘I became accustomed at an early age to the incessant presence of photographers. Some of my girlfriends who have been exposed, even for a very brief time, to this sort of life were not at all pleased,’ he said.

Palace insiders suggested that his refusal to wed persuaded his father from abdicating in his favour, and Albert only took the throne on the death of the family patriarch.

Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi was born on March 14, 1958 and educated in Monaco and Amherst College in Massachusetts in the United States.

Fluent in English, French, Italian and German, Albert became a roving commercial ambassador for his country's booming business interests for years and also served as head of Monaco's delegation to the United Nations.

Charlene Lynette Wittstock was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in January 1978. The prince's office said that before moving to Monaco, she had been a child-carer.

However, she is more famous for representing South Africa as a swimmer in the 2000 Olympics. Her sporting career was later curtailed by a shoulder injury.