Princess Caroline of Monaco’s husband Prince Ernst August of Hanover denied in court on Monday drunkenly beating up a hotel manager with a knuckle duster on the Kenyan island of Lamu in 2000.
The German aristocrat… said through his lawyer at his retrial in Germany that he gave Josef Brunlehner “two symbolic slaps” because he was annoyed about the noise and laser show at the hotel disco.
“One for the music and one for the light,” the 55-year-old said.
Those royals! “Your honor, I slapped him only twice. Symbolically!”
Ernst and Princess Caroline have been married since 1999; he’s her third husband. They have one daughter, Alexandra, age 10.
The BBC notes mildly that Prince Ernst has “courted controversy” before:
In 1998 he was fined after breaking the nose of a TV cameraman.
And in 2000, he was photographed urinating outside the Turkish pavilion at the World’s Fair in Hanover.
Here’s how the prince looks when he’s not slapping somebody symbolically:
From the Who2 blog:
| Latest: | The 'S' in 'Harry S. Truman' Really DID Stand for Something |
| Next: | Imelda Channels Gordon Gekko |
| Prev: | R.I.P., James Knox Polk |
| Tags: | Prince Ernst of Hanover, Princess Caroline of Monaco |