Strasbourg, France: The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that French magazine Paris Match was justified in revealing the existence of Prince Albert II of Monaco’s illegitimate son because the story was in the public interest.

The judges said a French court was wrong to convict the magazine for publishing the story in 2005 because it had an importance that ‘went beyond the scope of his private life’.

The boy was born in 2003 to Nicole Coste, a French-Togolese flight attendant.

In France, Paris Match was ordered to pay 50,000 euros ($53,700) to Albert, who took over the throne in April 2005.

The European court’s judges ruled that the existence of the boy ‘could have public interest because of the rules of succession in the principality’ which exclude children born outside marriage.

Albert married former South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock in 2011 and the couple have twins.