Royal Central reported in July on Princess Charlene of Monaco drawing controversy from her statements regarding her opposition to the killing of sharks in the waters around the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean in an interview with Paris Match.
The victims’ families expressed their anger on Facebook stating that Princess Charlene was spreading “totally false ideas.” Her Serene Highness responded to the families and apologised for her earlier comments saying that they had been “taken out of context and were reproduced incomplete.” The response, through her press secretary, was sent in August, and the families have now revealed what the Princess said in full:
“HSH Princess Charlene regrets that her words were taken out of context and reproduced incompletely, thus raising a certain misunderstanding and misinterpretation.The Princess is obviously sensitive to the pain and sorrow of families whose loved ones have been the victims of a shark attack. As she is committed daily with her Foundation on raising awareness and saving lives in the face of the dangers of the sea, including drowning, the Princess sympathises with all her heart to the suffering of families. All measures must be put in place so that such tragedies cannot happen again by preserving access to the sea for the populations of which it constitutes their natural environment.”
The families responded by thanking Charlene for her apology, “We thank the Princess of Monaco for her repositioning which is more respectful for the dead victims and for our grief.”
They also hope that she will take the opportunity to meet the families of the victims who have offered to speak to her in person about what happened to their loved ones, “Considering her interest in this issue, we now hope that she will accept in return our proposal to meet a representative of the victims’ families so that he/she can tell her about our grief and despair.
“In the meantime, her response is a measure of how much we have become prey to opportunistic and unscrupulous predators, whose only purpose is to maintain divisions and hatred without respect or compassion for our children who were victims of shark attacks.”
