Princely Behavior? Ernst Is Angry

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/26/2001 at 01:30 PM EDT

Prince Ernst August of Hanover, 47, the German nobleman husband of Monaco's Princess Caroline, 44, was ordered on Monday to pay more than $440,000 for yelling over the phone last year at Anne-Kathrin Berger, a senior editor of the German newspaper Bild (which, translated, means "picture.") The paper had reported that the prince urinated in public, say prosecutors. Ernst August has appealed the fine, which is but one of three for rowdy behavior that are currently pending against him. In the most recent, he is accused of flying into a rage and shouting obscenities during a phone conversation with Berger after her paper reported that he was seen relieving his bladder at the Expo 2000 World's Fair in Hanover. His other fines include one for $525,000 in connection with the beating of a disco owner on Lamu Island off Kenya, reports the Associated Press. There's also a $350,000 judgment against him for injuring a photographer in Salzburg, Austria, during a music and drama festival. Prosecutors say that the prince has challenged all three fines, although no court dates have been set.