Star Metro - Ill Princess Charlene returns to Monaco: palace

"In accordance with her doctors and while her recovery is going well, their royal highnesses have agreed together that Princess Charlene can now continue her convalescence in the principality with her husband and their children," a palace statement said on Saturday.

It added that "the coming weeks should enable her to recover completely in order to be able to resume her official duties progressively".

The South African ex-swimmer, who married Prince Albert of Monaco in 2011, was admitted to a private Swiss clinic for treatment for "extreme fatigue" in late November, sources told AFP at the time.

She is also thought to have undergone dental treatment.

"She was clearly exhausted, physically and emotionally. She was overwhelmed and couldn't face official duties, life in general or even family life," Albert told People magazine in November.

Zimbabwean-born Princess Charlene was hospitalised after collapsing in September in South Africa, where she had been living for several months.

The statement on Saturday said that she still needed "calm and serenity".

The couple has been dogged by rumours about their rocky relationship almost since their marriage, which was briefly hailed as a fairy-tale match for a prince long described as the world's most eligible bachelor.

Her prolonged absence in South Africa last year sparked speculation in European celebrity magazines that they were headed for divorce, while recent dramatic weight loss suggested she was unwell.

She underwent surgery in October for an ear, nose and throat infection after checking in under a pseudonym in a Durban hospital, a palace source said at the time.

Albert is the son of Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly, an American film star who died in a car accident in 1982.

S.Belanger--SMC