Prince Albert and Princess Charlene welcomed their twins Gabriella Thérèse Marie and Jacques Honoré Rainier on December 10, 2014. The palace issued a short statement confirming the births, sharing, “The births took place on 10 December 2014 at the Maternity of the Princess Grace Hospital Monaco. The princess and the children are doing well” (via Hello! magazine).
Despite the fact that Prince Jacques was born two minutes after his sister Gabriella, he is ahead of her in line for the throne. Albert had previously explained that in Monaco, if a set of twins is made up of a boy and a girl, the boy is the one who inherits the throne. Hello! magazine also noted that the twins were celebrated throughout the country by church bells, which rang for 15 minutes, boat horns, and the firing of 21 cannons for each baby at Fort Antoine.
While he stated that he believed Charlene knew the biological sex of the twins ahead of time, Albert shared that he chose to wait until their birth to find out. He told the Monaco Matin, “You know, one doesn’t often have the opportunity to have such pleasant surprises in life, that is why I prefer not to know the babies’ gender before the birth.”