At 27, Grace Patricia Kelly became Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco, wife of Prince Rainier, leaving behind a brief but celebrated career as one of Hollywood's most popular stars. Her iconic dress, a design of Helen Rose, was a gift from MGM Studios. In 1949, he married American actress Grace Kelly, and the two had three children together. They met in France, courted for a short while, got engaged in Philadelphia and whisked themselves back to Monaco the aforementioned principality whose throne Rainier ascended to in 1949 to spend their lives building up the glories of their tiny nation and remaining as glamorous as you might imagine. She died in September 1982 after driving around a hairpin curve in Monaco and crashing, with her 17-year-old daughter Stephanie in the vehicle. runs the Princess Grace Foundation . While shooting the Hitchcock thriller Dial M For Murder in 1954, she scandalised Hollywood by conducting an affair with her married co-star, Ray Milland. Prince Rainier and Princess Grace at a grand ball in Monte Carlo Casino, 1968 ( Image: Mirrorpix) The various headline-grabbing paternity secrets to beset the family have been the source of ill . Now Hitchcock is giving her the perfect excuse to leave in a matter of weeks. I dont know how to explain it. When asked how her French language skills were (the language spoken in Monaco), she replied, Comme ci, comme a, meaning so so.. Most Americans better remember her as the popular actress, Grace Kelly. According to Prince Albert, his father was running late, so the palace's maitre d . She told me to find a priest who would marry us." Who could have known these two would put a relationship in the history books that still fascinates us this much? Members of royal families from around the world along with stars of the likes of Ava Gardner were on prestigious guest list. "Grace was humiliated and she was extremely unhappy," Leigh told the Daily Mail. However, other sources claim that Rainier wasn't always the caring husband he appeared to be. What it has meant for people has been incredible. Then, Kelly got sick and their plans were delayed. Well make a show of how happy you are here. Thats not your decision to make, she says. Kelly agreed to the meeting. As revealed in the book Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl, Kelly didnt let Rainiers royal status go to her head. magazine, the young prince and princess couldn't even sit down for meals with their parents until they were teenagers. Even though she only made 11 films including 1952s High Noon, 1953s Mogambo, and a trio of Alfred Hitchcock classics Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief she cemented her reputation as a leading actress of the Hollywoods Golden era. The couple is hosting a garden party for the people of Monaco on the palace. When Grace Kelly walked down the aisle to Prince Rainier in 1956, the world thought they saw a real-life happy ending. With the elevators out, she ran down the stairs and met Galante. SheKnows is a part of Penske Media Corporation. They are heirs to a European throne. The couple married less than a year later on April 18, 1956 and went on to have three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert and Princess Stephanie. 3. This meant sending each other letters (via Monaco Tribune). ", According to the biography "Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess," Kelly sometimes reflected on what life with Cassini may have been like (via Livingly). In the '50s Kelly briefly dated millionaire playboy Prince Aly Khan, the leader of the Nizari Muslims, who gifted her an emerald-studded gold bracelet. A palace retainer quietly tells him: He never comes. The daughter of a socially ambitious Philadelphia brickworks owner, she became infatuated with several of her leading men. People dont just speak their minds.. By the early 1960s, she had survived two miscarriages and was supposedly tired of her duties as a Princess Consort. - Vintage Photograph 1277774 Condition: -- "These photos emanate from a working newspaper archive thus concede routine physical ". Within months, he had taken at least three mistresses. She also another nod for her supporting role in 1953s Mogambo. Nevertheless, she was thrilled for Kelly when she tied the knot with Rainier. Kelly met Rainier on one of her many visits to France. Read another story from us: Little Edie, Jackie Kennedys cousin lived 20 years in a mansion isolated from the world. However, her career was relatively short-lived. The films most contentious claim is that Grace eventually sought a divorce from Rainier. After all, this was a work trip for her and she had an obligation to appear at a cocktail event for her film The Country Girl at 5:30 p.m., according to People. As soon as she officially became a royal, Kelly became fully dedicated and gave up her Hollywood career. What followed was more difficult than I had thought.. It isnt only Rainiers tantrums and constant absences that have brought her marriage to the point of breakdown. Prince Rainier allowed MGM to film the entire wedding in exchange for ending Grace Kelly's seven-year movie contract. Vogue notes that Kelly and Kennedys lives intersected in unusual ways more than once. Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III at the Monte Carlo Ball, Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III Were Introduced for a Magazine Article and Then Fell in Love, Photo: FranK Hurley/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images, 70 Rare Photos From Princess Dianas Wedding, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. In fact, during their courtship, Kellys sister,Lizanne Kelly LeVine, recalled one particularly memorable dinner at which Kelly was treating Rainier like a regular Joe. Stevie Wonder name: What is Stevie Wonder's real name? That one decision [to marry Prince Rainier] changed my entire future.". Speaking little French, Grace is bored and homesick,. In April 1955, while attending theCannes Film Festival, Kelly accepted an invitation to appear at the Palace of Monaco for a photo shoot with the prince. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1949, Kelly began appearing in . The Hollywood Golden Girl was now Monaco's princess and future queen, and she went from red carpets to red velvet thrones. "How many wonderful roles I might have played by now? Duchess is seen visiting woke coffee brand she invested in - her first public Lovely in lilac! For Kelly, it was this visit that showed her what life with the Prince would be like. The grandiose ceremony took place at Monacos Cathedral of St. Nicholas with a guest list of 600 people, including Hollywood heavyweights like Cary Grant and Ava Gardner as well as society names like Conrad Hilton and Aristotle Onassis. Feb 4, 2021 - Prince Rainier the third was taller than grace kelly his wife, at 1.8 meters tall. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. Although the idea of marrying a prince may have seemed wonderful on paper, a friend of Kelly's, Judith Balaban Quine, said the princess eventually became disillusioned. The shocking and sudden death of the princess left the family devastated. Rainier proposed during his trip and the engagement was announced at a press conference at the Kelly family home. I think the family were hoping to stop the film and that this is their warning shot to producers who might want to do the full story about Rainiers promiscuity and cruelty, Ms Leigh said. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. After their initial meeting in 1955, Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly kept in touch while keeping their affair as private as possible. She did not know it either.". Both were seemingly at the top of their worlds before they met: He had stepped up to assume the throne on May 9, 1949, at the age of 26, after his grandfather died and she had just snagged the best actress Academy Award for the 1954 musical drama The Country Girl. Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier on their wedding day in 1965. Long before her royal wedding, Kelly was engaged to fashion designer Oleg Cassini, who worked with Kennedy frequently. As it turns out, Prince Rainier III wasn't the only man in Grace Kelly's life in 1955. He was motivated, as he explained, by his own parents' marriage. She met Rainier during a photoshoot in 1955 at his palace. Act, he snarls. May 11, 2016 - 1:11PM Princess Grace wearing the Cartier diamond engagement ring over 10 carats and currently in Sydney given to her by Prince Rainier in 1956. "It ended much more subtle and tragic than any storybook," Lacey says. Prince Of Monaco Rainier III - Biography and Short Documentary One clue, however: it leads to a reconciliation between Grace and Rainier, and she bears their third and final child, Stephanie. Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier, December 1959. Archives of the Princely Palace of Monaco. The amount was unbearable for Jack Kelly, Grace Kellys father, a self-made millionaire with a lucrative brick manufacturing business and who was known for winning two Olympic golds for rowing. In 1982, Princess Grace was killed when her car went off a mountain road, a route on which she had driven in To Catch A Thief (1955). But his words dont ring true, and when her plans for the movie are leaked to the press she suspects by palace plotters the princes 30,000 subjects are horrified. According to new documentary Grace Kelly: The Missing Millions, Kelly had to pay $2 million (approx 1.5 million) to the House of Grimaldi to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco, which caused her . When the information was passed along to Kelly, she declined the invite. According to Vogue, all of this meant that Kelly was eager to find a way out of Hollywood and Rainier seemed like the perfect option. Blonde, blue-eyed and with a sultry sex appeal that casting directors compared to Marlene Dietrich, Grace herself was hardly an innocent. Kelly met Rainier while she was in France in 1955 as part of the American delegation to the Cannes Film Festival. Grace Kelly, an epitome of beauty, reinvented her life from a high-class Hollywood actress to becoming Her Serene Highness, the Princess of Monaco, in 1956. she allegedly said. She died in September 1982 after. But he fit into the family beautifully., Had history gone a different way, Rainier might have romantically pursued another famous Hollywood blonde: Marilyn Monroe. Perhaps it was a conspiracy of the universe that her character was that of a princess in The Swan. She went to Monte Carlo to visit him in his 200-room pink palazzo.. After she submitted to an examination to prove she was capable of bearing children, he presented her with a 12-carat diamond engagement ring. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. His quest was a matter of urgency. The youngsters were so close to Maureen that they hated it when she went away on holidays. ", While Prince Rainier III was undoubtedly charmed by Grace Kelly when they met, reports suggest that the prince was already looking for a Hollywood bride. The celebrations began when Kelly traveled from New York to Monaco along with 50 family members and six bridesmaids. Oscar Cainer tells all. Monaco braced itself for a week full of festivities ahead of the wedding. While she tried to keep the details of her private life to herself, one thing that was clear was her dedication to her husband who died in 2005 from the day she decided to marry him. But what its meant for Monaco, for people around the world, and, how their story continues to fascinate people, thats something unimaginable.. Financial expert Gemma Godfrey, who contributed to a documentary about Grace Kellys fortune, has spoken out on this, and the pressure the couple were under. Now, 67 years . On April 18 and 19, 1956, she married Prince Rainier in what was called the 'wedding of the century.' Her son, Prince Albert, told People magazine how the actress was said to have felt about . Grace Kelly appeared in a pale pink wedding gown for the big day. Princess Caroline of Monaco has opened up about her relationship with her parents, admitting she and her brother Prince Albert were closer to their nanny when they were younger. In many ways, Grace Kelly was the epitome of 1950s Hollywood glamour. She had appeared in almost 60 television shows and many commercials before her 11 films, three with Alfred Hitchcock, the most of any of his leading ladies. Even in Hollywood, my private life was pretty much my own. During what reporters called 'the wedding of the century, then 26-year-old Grace Patricia Kelly became Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco in an intricate lace dress designed by MGM costume designer Helen Rose. In addition to the roots she laid down as a wife and mother, Kelly soon gave up the role and another Hitchcock ingenue, Tippi Hedren, got the role instead. Kelly faced issues with an electrical strike at her hotel and she barely made it on time at the palace. Grace Kelly - did she really love Prince Rainier? He was born as Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, on May 31, 1923, in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to Prince Pierre, Duke of Valentinois, and his wife, Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois. While Prince Rainier III of Monaco may have been searching for a high-profile wife to resurrect his country's economy, it seems that Grace Kelly was also searching for a way to escape Hollywood (via Vogue). Do I look that unhappy, Hitch? she asks wearily. Over dinner, he posed the idea to his editor in chief Gaston Bonheur and immediately everyone grew enthusiastic about the possibility. Kelly put her acting career on an indefinite hiatus, devoting herself to charity, motherhood and helping her husband. Princess Grace died on September 14, 1982 as she was driving along a hairpin bend above the Mediterranean principality with her daughter, Princess Stephanie, though the circumstances of that day are still cause for speculation, even three decades after her death. After seven months, Rainier came to the United States where he stayed in Kelly's family's Philadelphia home. She later also commented that her dress, which had prominent cabbage roses, was a terrible choice of outfit. "Do you realize if my mother hadn't been so difficult about Oleg Cassini, I probably would have married him?" After exchanging letters in a hushed romance, he asked her to marry him days after Christmas that year. That stipulation could have been a hurdle since at the time Kellys relationship with her studio was tense since she had refused to make a film with Robert Taylor. Smashing a glass he is holding to the floor, Rainier tells Grace he has changed his mind in the face of the outcry. A silver Rolls-Royce delivers Alfred Hitchcock played by Roger Ashton-Griffiths to the palace, where he is greeted by Graces scheming lady-in-waiting, Madge Tivey-Faucon (Parker Posey). ', Princess Caroline of Monaco (right) has opened up about her distant relationship with her parents Prince Rainier and Princess Grace, The royal made the revelations in a new book marking her brother Prince Albert's 60th birthday. Marriage is not a game of musical chairs with us. She helped place the little European monarchy back on the map of the world, in times when its gambling havens overlooking the Mediterranean coast were crippled with losses. "Neither of her parents liked me," Cassini once said. A palace spokesman said that her interment in the family crypt would take place in a few days. 1. She had three children with the prince Albert II, Stephanie, and Caroline. The story goes that her day was a bit hectic. By the time she had recovered, Cassini believed that "her parents had talked her out of it." The fee $7.6million in todays terms is staggering. Princess Stphanie, Prince Rainier III and Kelly's daughter, was also in the vehicle and was left with numerous injuries, including broken ribs. Or that my husband and I are constantly being divorced, which is also not the case, she said in that final interview. Marilyn Monroe was the first suggestion, according to author Liz Smith, who said of this: Everybody was highly amused by the idea. As his princess, she must submit totally to his rules which, according to the script, include smiling sweetly at his side and never voicing an opinion. Grace Kelly was the first actress to ever appear on a U.S. postage stamp, issued in 1993. You may find there are facts the history books forgot to mention. Being the Princess of Monaco as she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in April 1956. The wedding of Hollywoods darling and the prince of Europes longest-ruling family took place over two days: a 15-minute civil ceremony in the Palace Throne Room on April 18, 1956 (followed by a 25-minute recitation of 140 new titles that Kelly now held) and a religious ceremony the next day, in which she wore two custom gowns gifted to her by MGM by designer Helen Rose, according to People. Admirers recognise her as the embodiment of royalty in any sense a critically-acclaimed actress and the elegant consort of Monaco, as well as a loyal friend, loving mother, and stunning style icon. Rainier III was the Prince of Monaco who swept the American actress Grace Kelly off her feet. In the spring of 1955, some of the biggest names in cinema history were boarding an overnight train from Paris to Cannes to attend the Cannes Film Festival, an annual tradition since 1946. The shocking and sudden death of the princess left the family devastated. I dont know how to explain it. TikToker asks system to generate recipe for drinks named 'Grandmas Revenge' and 'Burning Inferno' - and one drink got a 3 out of 10 in taste, 'Best chef in the world' Guy Savoy is STRIPPED of a Michelin star at his Paris restaurant, Meghan Markle was 'surprised and disappointed' that Prince Harry 'had very little money', royal expert claims, Jill Biden insists again that Joe WILL run for President and he hasn't announced yet because he is too 'busy' - as it's revealed she has finished reading a copy of Prince Harry's Spare, Family say film is 'riddled with inaccuracies' and needlessly glamourised. Nod for her supporting role in 1953s Mogambo death of the outcry electrical strike at her hotel and she made... Motivated, as he explained, by his own parents ' marriage divorce Rainier... Showed her what life with the elevators out, Prince Rainier Albert II, Stephanie, and the was. That still fascinates us this much floor, Rainier came to the,. 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