At the time of their engagement, the French press was generally very positive about him, praising his qualities of energy, kindness, sense of humor, loyalty to his friends, whereas the American press was very suspicious of what they immediately called a "playboy". A French magazine cover, I think Vogue Hommes but I am not sure, had the title "Youth and Maturity", by which they meant that Philippe was the "young at heart" one, (to play down the difference in age between Caroline and him), maturity being represented by Caroline, who, in spite of the partying of those years, had a good head on her shoulders. In retrospect, that title was ironic since Caroline had the marriage annuled on the basis of her immaturity at that time. Personally, I liked Philippe because Caroline looked very beautiful with him (don't ask me for the logic of that reasoning...), and certainly at the beginning, they looked very happy together, jogging together in the early morning, attending tennis matches and parties, etc, and Caroline didn't have the responsibilities of representing Monaco the way it developed after Princess Grace's death. I was more attracted to his personality (although I would never have married a guy who didn't seem to have a job and whose source of income was an unknown (which really bugged Prince Rainier), than to Stefano, whom I found wimpy (just my perception of course) and too dominated by Caroline. And I like Ernst (except now, he seems to do nothing to regulate his health problems, which I find unkind to Caroline) kind of for the same reasons I liked Philippe: a free spirit, non-conformist, but (unlike Philippe) very loyal to his wife, in terms of social ceremonies, etc. Sorry, this is a long message, going over 3 husbands (to put Philippe in perspective) takes a long time...
They think about sales more. And social climbing sells better.
