
The Palace of Monaco has released a set of images of Prince Albert II of Monaco and his wife Charlene posing with their twin babies Jacques and Gabriella at the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco.

The Christmas-themed photographs show a smitten pair of parents gazing at their newborn children, with Princess Gabriella in pink and Prince Jaques in baby blue.

Gabriella was born first at 5.04pm, and Jacques at 5.06pm, but it is Jacques who will be the future Prince of Monaco, because of the Mediterranean principality's male inheritance laws.

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The Palace of Monaco have released a set of images of Prince Albert II of Monaco and his wife Charlene posing with their twin babies Jacques and Gabriella at the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco

They are the first children for the 36-year-old former South African Olympic swimmer, who married Prince Albert II, 56, three years ago.

Prince Albert was by his wife's side as the children were delivered on December 10 at the Princess Grace Hospital, which is named after Albert's mother, the late Hollywood star, Grace Kelly.

Soon after 7.30pm, 42 cannon shots rung around Monaco, confirming that the babies had been born.

Albert had arranged the 42 shots, in place of the 21 that would boom for a single baby.

The babies are the first twins in the royal household, which dates back to the 13th Century.

Albert has admitted that he did not know the sex of the children before birth: 'It is one of the beautiful surprises that life offers us,' he said.

Gabriella was born first at 5.04pm, and Jacques at 5.06pm, but it is Jacques who will be the future Prince of Monaco, because of the Mediterranean principality's male inheritance laws

They are the first children for the 36-year-old former South African Olympic swimmer, who married Prince Albert II, 56, three years ago

In the UK, only one set of royal twins has ever been born - to King James I of Scotland and his wife Joan Beaufort in 1430.

It is thought that the twins were welcomed via caesarean section, but the doctor delivering them had no more than a symbolic hand in deciding the destiny of the Grimaldi dynasty.

In principle, there's no medical reason a doctor would have an active role in deciding which newborn is delivered first, even in the case of a caesarean section, an expert said.

'The obstetrician will always deliver first the twin that presents itself first when the uterus is opened at the time of caesarean section,' said Dr. Patrick O'Brien, spokesman for Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. 'We don't decide in advance which twin to deliver first.'

Had they both been of the same sex, the first one out would have taken the throne but because the Monégasque twins are a boy and a girl, the boy will automatically inherit.

The Christmas-themed photographs show a smitten pair of parents gazing at their newborn children

Prince Albert was by his wife's side as the children were delivered on December 10 at the Princess Grace Hospital, which is named after Albert's mother, the late Hollywood star, Grace Kelly

The babies are the first twins in the royal household, which dates back to the 13th Century