Royals

Charlotte Casiraghi and Gad Elmaleh Step Out Together After Split: 'They Have a Strong Attraction'

"No one knows how love works," a source tells PEOPLE of the Monaco royal and her boyfriend

Published on June 5, 2015 02:40PM EDT

Charlotte Casiraghi is back in the saddle – and in the arms of her longtime love.

Just days after the Monaco royal, 28, moved out of the Paris apartment she shared with her boyfriend of more than three years, French comedian-actor Gad Elmaleh, the pair turned up together in Saint Tropez on Friday with their 17-month-old son, Raphaël.

Casiraghi – whose mom is Monaco’s Princess Caroline and grandma is the late American actress-turned-Princess Grace Kelly – is in St. Tropez for the Athina Onassis Jumping Competition and on Thursday took a nasty spill from her horse.

But she looked far happier on Friday, where she joined Elmaleh in the VIP grandstand between two of her jumps and the pair had their arms comfortably around each other.

Sources who confirmed to PEOPLE that Casiraghi had left the couple’s shared residence and settled back in Monaco with her son maintain there was always the possibility of a patch-up.

“They split – but no one knows how love works,” says one friend.

“They have strong feelings, a strong attraction, for each other,” adds the friend. “They have a child together and hopefully they’ll get back together. It’s possible. No one can say.”

Earlier on Friday, the couple went for a stroll in the Mediterranean village with Raphaël.

Confounding a firestorm of French media reports concerning couple’s split, “they looked very happy together with their son,” says an observer. “Things seems very cool and loving between them.”

Casiraghi raised eyebrows when she attended the Cannes Film Festival alone last month. Following the festival, she returned to Paris but soon departed.

“They haven’t been seen together for some time,” says the friend, “but what has happened between last weekend and then Monday – when Charlotte was at [Paris] Orly Airport with her son and her suitcases – and Friday morning in Saint Tropez, no one knows.”

Adds the friend: “Look, they’re a young couple – only together three, three-and-a-half years. What couple do you know hasn’t problems to work through?”

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