CNN.com - Princess Caroline's husband ill
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MONACO -- The husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco is seriously ill, just days after the death of his father-in-law Prince Rainier, according to a palace official.
Prince Ernst August of Hanover was admitted to a hospital in the tiny Mediterranean state on Monday with pancreas pains, the unnamed official told The Associated Press.
He said Friday the prince's condition was serious but gave no further information. The pancreas is a gland that secretes a digestive juice into the small intestine and also produces insulin.
But one source close to the Monaco palace said the 51-year-old prince was in "a deep coma," according to Reuters.
Caroline's father, Prince Rainier III, died of heart, lung and kidney failure on Wednesday aged 81. He will be buried next Friday beside his wife, former Hollywood actress Grace Kelly. (Full story)
Caroline, 48, is the eldest of the three children of Rainier and Princess Grace, who was killed in a 1982 car accident. Caroline's brother, 47-year-old Albert, succeeded his father as the principality's new monarch.
Ernst August married the princess in 1999 and the couple have a daughter. The prince has often made tabloid headlines in Germany with his explosive temper.
He was sentenced to pay 445,000 euros ($570,800) in fines last November for beating a German club owner on a Kenyan island resort, according to Reuters.
German newspaper Bild quoted Monika, Princess of Hanover, the prince's stepmother as saying Ernst August was in hospital but gave no details as to his condition.
"Yes, it's true, Prince Ernst August is in hospital in Monaco," she told the daily. "I have no information from Monaco. I don't know how he is doing."
