The photographer and son of Beatle John Lennon, Julian, has just published a book in which he shares the most striking images of his twenty-year career. For the cover he has chosen a portrait of Princess Charlène of Monaco made moments before their wedding, on July 1, 2011 in the principality.
The now wife of Prince Albert confessed to Lennon, her close friend, minutes before their royal wedding: “Jules, I don’t know if I can do this.”
The princess had hired Julian Lennon to take some photographs of her during her preparation. However, Charléne was so nervous that she had a moment of anxiety. “She sat there, staring at herself in the mirror, as if numb. He turned to me and said, “Jules, I don’t know if I can do this.” I said, “What are you talking about?” She then replied: “I can’t do it, I’m not sure I can take the photographs, there are too many distractions.”
“This is a historic moment; let me just be a fly on the wall,” he asked the princess, who finally accepted, although Lennon had just ten minutes to do his work.
Of the hundreds of photographs he tookJulian fell in love with one, which is the cover of his book Life’s Fragile Moments. “I cropped it a certain way and thought, ‘Oh my God, there it is. It’s Princess Grace, it’s the 1950s.’ So I converted all the photographs to black and white.”
The story that Lennon tells confirms those nerves that the princess felt and that were evident throughout the ceremony in which she said ‘I do’ to Albert II. Many claimed that their tears were due to sadness rather than happiness.
She herself has denied that on numerous occasions. “She was so absolutely exhausted that when we put the rings on, I, who was so nervous, saw that she was putting it on the wrong hand. I think Alberto told me something like: ‘Honey, it’s this hand’.
The princess has also spoken about the rumors that existed about an alleged escape attempt days before the wedding. “They said he was running away. Where was he running to? To the dark side of the moon? I think it’s impossible, though, for anyone on the outside to understand how horrible, how much pressure there was for both of us. Enormous. “You wouldn’t believe it,” he explained in an interview in 2019.
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