![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/494df946-3c9c-47e7-9f9d-80e08aa53298.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSigns of a romance between a French populist and an Italian princess have led to political controversy and fevered speculation about a new trans-Alpine dynasty. <\/p>\n
Jordan Bardella, 30, the chairman of the National Rally and favourite for next year\u2019s presidential election if he runs instead of his mentor Marine Le Pen, left a Paris gala last week in the company of Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.<\/p>\n
The princess, 22, is the eldest child of Prince Carlo, one of two Bourbon claimants to the defunct throne of Naples, and a socialite and influencer who is said to have met Bardella in Monaco last spring.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Prince Carlo and Princess Camilla with their daughters Princess Maria Carolina, left, and Princess Maria Chiara<\/p>\n
JEAN CATUFFE\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
Bardella, a slick media operator with fierce control over his brand, was assumed to be honing his appeal by appearing before cameras with the Italian princess at the soir\u00e9e while Le Pen, whom he has begun to eclipse, was defending herself at the start of an appeal<\/a> against her conviction last year for embezzling EU funds. <\/p>\n \u201cObviously, he\u2019s doing it to make himself look presidential, appearing with a first lady while the trial gets under way,\u201d a right-wing politician told Le Parisien. La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper, saw the princess\u2019s appearance as part of the National Rally\u2019s drive to woo traditional, conservative voters. \u201cWill an Italian princess be the next first lady of France?\u201d asked Adnkronos, an Italian news agency.<\/p>\n Le Monde, which is hostile to the National Rally, asked: \u201cWhat game is Jordan Bardella playing? Why did he appear alongside the Italian heiress of a \u2018royal\u2019 family, among the wealthiest of the international jet set, during a party that brought together Paris\u2019s elite?\u201d<\/p>\n The outing of Bardella, as the son of Italian immigrants who trades on his humble upbringing in Paris housing estates, with the princess \u201cis quite a slap in the face of history\u201d, Le Monde said, adding: \u201cBardella claims to be the voice of a \u2018forgotten people\u2019 and the \u2018authentic spokesperson for a France despised by the elites\u2019, yet in appearing in public with the heiress to a fortune worth several hundred million euros \u2026 his choice has not gone unnoticed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Le Pen prot\u00e9g\u00e9 boosts statesman credentials with anti-US stance<\/a><\/p>\n The National Rally hit back at Le Monde. \u201cThis oozes social contempt against Jordan Bardella and stoops to tabloid-style gossip, trampling on his private life,\u201d Alexandre Loubet, a Rally MP, tweeted. Pierre-Romain Thionnet, an MEP for the party, called Le Monde\u2019s comment \u201cshameful and obsessive\u201d.<\/p>\n Marine Le Pen and Bardella in Paris, 2024<\/p>\n BERTRAND GUAY\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n Bardella\u2019s calculated \u201cvideo-opp\u201d has broken with the secrecy he has cultivated around his private life. Since ending a relationship in 2023 with Nolwenn Olivier, Marine Le Pen\u2019s niece, he has not been publicly linked with anyone. Last June he told a TV interviewer that he was not gay<\/a> and said only that his dream woman would be clever and a brunette.<\/p>\n Interest in Bardella is intense because of the prospect that the appeal judges will uphold Le Pen\u2019s conviction and maintain a five-year bar from standing for election, ruling her out of the April 2027 elections. She has anointed Bardella as her replacement<\/a>. Opinion polls show him to be the most popular politician in France and the easy favourite to win, although many analysts believe his youth and inexperience will deter voters once the campaign starts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Signs of a romance between a French populist and an Italian princess have led to political controversy and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-240728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Marine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/9ae421c9-86ac-4495-ba24-abcf2bab7c93.jpg\")
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