Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco
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 A $1million 'bribe' to return to Hollywood, dark threats about her children and an angry, abusive husband - revealed for the first time in the Nicole Kidman film script that has enraged the Monaco royal family. They believe the controversial new film, Grace of Monaco, could pave the way for more revelatory projects about her life. Prince Albert of Monaco and his sisters have branded a new Hollywood film about the life of their mother Grace Kelly as 'pointlessly glamorised and historically inaccurate'. The ruling family of the tiny Mediterranean tax haven also attacked some scenes in the forthcoming movie starring Nicole Kidman as 'pure fiction'. American-born Kelly was one of the world's most famous film stars until she married Albert's father in 1956 and became Princess Grace of Monaco.
Anger: Prince Albert of Monaco and his sisters Princess Caroline (left) and Princess Stephanie (right) have branded a film about their mother Grace Kelly as 'pointlessly glamorised' The High Society and Dial M for Murder actress died in a car accident on a winding road above the principality in 1982 at the age of 52. Oscar-winner Kidman is now starring as Kelly in the biopic called Grace of Monaco - due for release next year - that centres on her life in 1962 as a young princess in Monaco. The film also stars British actors Robert Lindsay as Greek shipping billionaire Aristotle Onassis, and Derek Jacobi as Count Fernando D'Aillieres.
Oscar-winner Kidman seen left on the film set, is starring as Kelly, right, in the biopic called Grace of Monaco - due for release next year - that centres on her life in 1962 as a young princess in Monaco US star Tim Roth plays Grace's husband Prince Rainier III of Monaco in the film directed by Frenchman Olivier Dahan. Prince Albert is said to have been sent scripts before filming began in Monaco and the south of France last autumn in a bid to win his support for the movie, French daily le Figaro reported. But Albert and his sisters Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie have now issued a statement saying they had 'no part' in the making the making of the film. They wrote: 'We have had absolutely no association with this project which is claims to be about the lives of our parents.
In character: Nicole Kidman brings Grace Kelly to life in one of the Princess of Monaco's most famous outfits, alongside on screen husband Tim Roth
Set for release in 2014: The film Grace Of Monaco - which is directed by Olivier Dahan - begins six years into the former actress' marriage to the Prince, where she must help her husband reform Monaco's tax laws
Day job: Kidman was pictured on set alongside Milo Ventimiglia, who plays publicist Rupert Allan, on Sunday as she filmed scenes for Grace Of Monaco 'For us, this film does not constitute a biographical work, but portrays only a part of her life and has been pointlessly glamored, and contains important historical inaccuracies as well as scenes of pure fiction.' Kidman said recently of the movie: 'What really interested me about this film is how it covers Grace's transition from film star to Princess in 1962. 'It reveals her great humanity but also her fears and frailties as she leaves her career behind.'
Silver screen: The film 'Rear Window' (1954) starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Kelly was one of the world's most famous film stars until she married Albert's father in 1956 and became Princess Grace of Monaco Picture a woman bereft of make-up coming down to breakfast in her rollers. This is a woman who loves gardening - and not just pottering about with a watering can, but the heavy digging part too. She likes the circus, and enjoys the company of bohemians and eccentrics. She moves in the most elite circles, but is proud of the 'commoners' she calls friends. She could drive any car, but chooses to pootle about in a London taxi, 'for fun'. You might be surprised to discover that this intriguing creature is none other than Grace Kelly - aka Princess Grace of Monaco - a woman known the world over for her poise and elegance, but not exactly renowned for a laugha-minute reputation. Devastatingly beautiful, and regal to match, Vogue once dubbed her 'as remote as a Snow Queen'.
Grace behind the glamour: Grace Kelly was known for her poise and elegance but in reality, she was down-to-earth and humble - with a passion for limericks Should you pop along to the new exhibition on Princess Grace at London's Victoria & Albert Museum next month, it is the immaculate, almost untouchable version that you will be greeted by. For it is primarily about her 'look' - one extolled by Women's Wear Daily in 1955 as 'a fresh type of natural glamour'. The picture being drawn at the moment, though, comes from a most reliable source. Few were as close to Princess Grace as the extravagantly named Louisette Levy-Soussan Azzoaglio, otherwise known as her PA. Louisette, a well-preserved 75-year-old, worked for the iconic figure for 19 years, and shared the most intimate moments of her life. Snow queen: Grace had always been something of a femme fatale character in Tinseltown Still working for the first family of Monaco, she has agreed to a rare interview about the Princess she knew. And it is one she knows will raise eyebrows. She falls about laughing as she recalls her famous employer's love of dirty jokes. 'She wasn't stuffy. She had a mischievous sense of humour, a glint of naughtiness in her eye and a great passion for limericks - even saucy ones,' she says. 'The actor David Niven shared her love of banter. There were gales of laughter every time he visited the palace.' Louisette laughs off the idea that Princess Grace always floated around the palace in designer gear. 'The everyday clothes she wore at home were simple and made by local seamstresses, not Parisian designers. Often she went without make-up. She wore her blonde hair either loose or in a chignon. 'When she was gardening, she wore trousers, and swapped her Hermès gloves for a stout pair of gauntlets.' Of course, the world has always been intrigued by the question of who the 'real' Grace Kelly was. The daughter of a building tycoon who won a rowing gold medal at the 1920 Olympics, she became Hollywood royalty in the early 1950s when she starred in films like High Society and Rear Window. But it was when she married a real-life prince, Rainier of Monaco, in 1956 that her status as a global icon was cemented. Her new husband's desire for her to have a 'fitting' royal life involved her bowing out of acting completely. But the Hollywood rumour machine was less easy to escape. Grace had always been something of a femme fatale character in Tinseltown. Even before Prince Rainier was on the scene, she was the subject of Hollywood gossip about her romantic affairs - many involving married men. Liaisons with William Holden and Ray Milland, two of the film world's most unrepentant lotharios, were reported. Both were, it is said, 'out of their minds' with passion for her. Milland's angry wife would later complain that Grace was a 'home-wrecker' who had stolen her husband. A newspaper columnist once told Bing Crosby - who allegedly proposed to her - that Grace was a nymphomaniac. Princess Grace celebrated the quirky and individualistic. The flamboyant surrealist artist Salvador Dali was another friend. 'I think she was amused by his bohemianism,' recalls Louisette. 'She enjoyed the company of eccentrics.' But a friendship with a very ordinary Italian woman, who just happened to be a fan, showed how much Grace wanted to remain 'ordinary' too.
Banter: There were gales of laughter every time David Niven visited the palace Each year, this woman would arrive at the palace with scrapbooks of cuttings, all of them featuring Princess Grace. Instead of recoiling in horror, or sending a minion to deal with her, Grace would insist on meeting the woman herself, and having tea with her. Every year they would 'mull over her articles and enjoy a chat. Over the years, the two women became friends. They never missed their annual meeting.' Such associations were, however, frowned upon in many quarters. 'I recall opening an anonymous letter deploring the Princess's long association with a commoner,' recalls Louisette. 'The writer purported to be a Genoese aristocrat. The Princess and I read it and laughed. The letter was binned - and the friendship continued.' But Princess Grace's life came to a tragic end in 1982, when, aged just 52, she suffered a stroke at the wheel of her car. She was driving along Monaco's treacherous coastal road, known as the Corniche. Her youngest daughter, Stephanie, was in the passenger seat, but escaped unscathed as the car swerved off the road and down a mountainside. 'I was destroyed when I heard about her death,' says Louisette. 'She was just so vibrant with life, I'd almost imagined she was immortal.'
Family fun: Grace Kelly with her parents and siblings in Ocean City, New Jersey, in September 1954
Courting the stars: Prince Rainier III plays tennis in Palm Beach in 1950 after announcing his marriage plans with Grace Kelly
Royalty: Princess Grace of Monaco with her son Prince Albert, husband and daughter Princess Caroline in Philadelphia in 1963
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 A new film starring Nicole Kidman about the life of Grace Kelly has enraged the Monaco royal family, which has denounced the work as being full of fiction Late on a January evening in 1962, Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco is drinking heavily in her 235-room pink palace overlooking the Mediterranean. When she gave up her Hollywood career to marry Prince Rainier – the ruler of the tiny tax haven – Grace Kelly, as she then was, believed that she had found the perfect husband. Six years later, however – after bearing him an heir, Albert, and an elder daughter, Caroline – she is so disillusioned she has decided she will flee back home to America, where she has been offered $1 million to star in Marnie, a new Alfred Hitchcock thriller. The fee – $7.6 million in today’s terms – is staggering. But it’s not the money that has attracted her, she confides to her husband’s chaplain and closest adviser, Father Francis Tucker, who has joined her in the pink palace for a glass of whisky. Rainier’s tyrannical rules and explosive temper have worn her out, the beautiful 32-year-old tells the elderly priest. What will happen, she asks him, if she accepts the Hitchcock role and seeks a divorce? ‘Your children will suffer most,’ replies Tucker. ‘They are heirs to a European throne. You’ll be lucky to see them again. I suppose the world will also hang its head in disappointment.’ The shock scene is taken from the script of Grace Of Monaco, a new film in which Nicole Kidman portrays Grace as the lonely and desperate victim of an abusive husband. The project, which also stars Tim Roth as Rainier and Frank Langella as Father Tucker, was recently denounced by Grace’s son, Prince Albert, and his sisters Caroline and Stephanie, as ‘needlessly glamourised’ and riddled with ‘major historical inaccuracies and a series of purely fictional scenes’. But the 106-page script, which has been seen exclusively by The Mail on Sunday and is registered with the Hollywood Writers’ Guild, is based on hundreds of interviews biographers have conducted over many years with palace insiders and other first-hand sources. The family’s real fear, it seems, may be that the film has broken a long-standing Hollywood taboo about bringing the truth about the marriage to the big screen – and it may set the stage for more embarrassing projects. While Rainier sleeps in a separate room from Grace in the script, and is said to be constantly ‘busy’ during the daytime, the production glosses over accusations that he was unfaithful. ‘This film really is a very slim slice of Grace’s life and it is nowhere near as negative as it could be,’ Wendy Leigh, a biographer of the princess, said last night. ACCORDING to her 2007 book, True Grace, the suave, cigar-smoking prince began cheating on Grace soon after she became pregnant during their honeymoon. Within months, he had taken at least three mistresses. ‘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 Rainier’s promiscuity and cruelty,’ Ms Leigh said. ‘Grace was humiliated and she was extremely unhappy. She was surrounded by decadence and Rainier’s disreputable friends.’ Blonde, blue-eyed and with a sultry sex appeal that casting directors compared to Marlene Dietrich, Grace herself was hardly an innocent.
, pictured left in 1955, is being played Nicole Kidman in a new film about her, Grace of Monaco
Princess Grace of Monaco, actress Grace Kelly, with her family Prince Rainier, Princess Caroline and Prince Albert The daughter of a socially ambitious Philadelphia brickworks owner, she became infatuated with several of her leading men. 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. She met Rainier during a photoshoot in 1955 at his palace. Six years her senior, he was seeking a wife with the help of a crony, the Greek shipping baron Aristotle Onassis, played in the film by Robert Lindsay. His quest was a matter of urgency. If he failed to conceive a legitimate heir, Monaco would become a French protectorate under the terms of a 1918 treaty. After she submitted to an examination to prove she was capable of bearing children, he presented her with a 12-carat diamond engagement ring. ‘I fell in love with Prince Rainier,’ she confides in the film’s opening scene. ‘What followed was more difficult than I had thought.’ A silver Rolls-Royce delivers Alfred Hitchcock – played by Roger Ashton-Griffiths – to the palace, where he is greeted by Grace’s scheming lady-in-waiting, Madge Tivey-Faucon (Parker Posey). Madge has been chosen for her job by Rainier – her chief qualification for the role being her willingness to spy on Grace’s every move. Hitchcock is puzzled that there is no sign of the prince. A palace retainer quietly tells him: ‘He never comes. Far too busy.’
Actress Grace Kelly (later Princess Grace of Monaco) and His Serene Highness Prince Rainier III of Monaco on 19th April 1956. Speaking little French, Grace is bored and homesick, occupying herself by preparing pumpkin soup and other American dishes for Ray, as she calls Rainier in rare moments of tenderness The Monaco climate does not agree with her. Her eyes are reddened from conjunctivitis and she suffers from hayfever and insomnia. Hitchcock turns up just as she is composing a secret letter to her mother to confide she is miserable and wants to end the marriage. Now Hitchcock is giving her the perfect excuse to leave in a matter of weeks. ‘Universal will pay you one million dollars,’ he says. ‘It’s going to be the role of a lifetime.’ ‘Do I look that unhappy, Hitch?’ she asks wearily. ‘You look tired, Gracie,’ he says.It isn’t only Rainier’s tantrums and constant absences that have brought her marriage to the point of breakdown. 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. At a New Year’s Eve party on the Onassis yacht, he grows red-faced with rage when she engages French President Charles de Gaulle in a debate about the UK-US special relationship. Rainier furiously confronts her when they return home. ‘This is not America, Grace! People don’t just speak their minds.’ ‘What did you expect me to say?’ she asks. ‘I don’t know. You used to be an actor. Act,’ he snarls. Madge, he adds, has informed him of Hitchcock’s visit. ‘She is very loyal,’ he reminds his wife. Pecking a kiss on her forehead, he retires for the night, closing the door to his bedroom behind him. Some biographers claim Rainier was violent as well as a control freak. During a tennis doubles match, he allegedly aimed a ball straight at Grace’s face. When it hit her, the friend who was his doubles partner defended him, saying he was just ‘desperate to win’. The film treads carefully on the issue. He is verbally abusive to Grace, flying into a rage when she shears her long hair into a fashionable bob. He shouts that she did not seek his permission: ‘It looks dreadful. It yells of disrespect.’ When Grace finally plucks up the courage to tell Rainier that she would like to accept Hitchcock’s million-dollar offer of the leading role in Marnie, he assures her: ‘I won’t stand in your way.’ But his words ‘don’t ring true’, and when her plans for the movie are leaked to the press – she suspects by palace plotters – the prince’s 30,000 subjects are horrified. Smashing a glass he is holding to the floor, Rainier tells Grace he has changed his mind in the face of the outcry. ‘You’ll have to call Mr Hitchcock and turn him down,’ he orders. ‘We’ll make a show of how happy you are here.’ ‘That’s not your decision to make,’ she says. ‘I am the prince, and your husband,’ he storms. ‘You will and you must!’ In the end, the role of Marnie went to another Hitchcock protegee, Tippi Hedren. The film’s most contentious claim is that Grace eventually sought a divorce from Rainier. The director, Olivier Dahan, has not identified the script’s precise sources for the claim, but they would appear to include a mysterious book, Grace: A Disenchanted Princess, published under a pseudonym in France in 2004. It quoted one Rainier relative, Christian de Massy – whose mother, Princess Antoinette, was the prince’s sister – as recalling that Grace was heartbroken when she was forbidden to do Marnie.
Controversial: British actor Tim Rother plays Grace Kelly's husband, Prince Rainer, in the film Despondent about life in a ‘golden cage’, she allegedly consulted an American divorce lawyer but, after being advised that she would lose her children, resigned herself to her fate in Monaco. The royals – who were shown the screenplay when Dahan applied for permission to shoot in Monaco – claim that to their ‘astonishment’, their ‘numerous requests for changes’ were ignored. DAHAN has promised, however, that the film, which he started to shoot last August in Monaco and Paris, will be released on schedule early next year. ‘I think we have a misunderstanding,’ he said, insisting that he neither needs the royal family’s permission, nor has sought it. ‘We never asked them to endorse anything,’ he stresses. The new film draws to a close when Grace stumbles on evidence that Antoinette, portrayed by Geraldine Somerville, is conspiring with France to seize control of the principality in a coup. As part of this treacherous deal, de Gaulle has agreed that Christian, who at the time was just 13, will assume the throne. The Mail on Sunday is withholding the exact details of the suspense-filled denouement to the purported plot – which critics claim involves considerable licence on the film- makers’ part as Antoinette clashed with her brother in the Fifties. One clue, however: it leads to a reconciliation between Grace and Rainier, and she bears their third and final child, Stephanie. The screenplay ends with one simple line: ‘Grace Kelly never acted again.’ Worn down by disappointment, she died in a 1982 car crash, apparently after suffering a stroke. The world thinks of Grace Kelly as a fashion icon, movie star, princess, wife and mother, but in Philadelphia she's first and foremost remembered as a hometown girl who never forgot her roots. So it seems fitting that an exhibit on Kelly's upbringing, Hollywood career and storybook ascent to royalty will make its only U.S. stop in the area where she spent her early years, organizers said at a news conference unveiling details of 'Grace Kelly: Beyond the Icon' at an event Thursday that was held, aptly, in the Hotel Monaco in downtown Philadelphia.
Hometown girl: An exhibit on Grace Kelly's upbringing, Hollywood career and storybook ascent to royalty opens October 28, 2013 at the Michener Art Museum in suburban Doylestown, Philadelphia (pictured Monaco, 1959) 'She never lost touch with her family and the Philadelphians that she grew up with,' said Kelly's nephew Christopher Le Vine, who recalled his aunt packing up some Philadelphia scrapple — a love-it-or-hate-it loaf of pork scraps and cornmeal — to bring back to Monaco so the palace chef could re-create the humble dish. 'She was going to tell him that it was a certain special pate from Philadelphia ... for petit dejeuner (breakfast),' Le Vine told the laughing crowd. 'She had her Philadelphia roots with her wherever she went.'
In color: A stunning photo of the princess from a 1954 issue of Time magazine will be on show
Fairytale moment: Kelly pictured in Philadelphia in January 1956 showing her engagement ring to her parents while her fiance, Prince Rainier III of Monaco looks on
From movie star to royalty: Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III sit at their civil marriage ceremony in the throne room at the Princely Palace of Monaco, on April 18, 1956 The exhibit opens Oct. 28 at the James A Michener Art Museum in suburban Doylestown, not far from where Kelly made her professional stage debut at the Bucks County Playhouse in 1949. On view will be personal photos, love letters from her husband Prince Rainier of Monaco, her 1954 best actress Academy Award for 'The Country Girl,' film clips and home movies, as well as iconic fashions from gowns and the Yves Saint Laurent 'Mondrian' dress to the Hermes 'Kelly' bag she made famous. Another stunning color photo on show depicts Kelly in a 1954 issue of Time magazine. Monaco's ruling sovereign, Prince Albert II, said in video-recorded remarks his mother 'was indeed a talented woman who became an international fashion icon but that is just the surface of her life.'
Wedding day: Kelly looks out from behind a satin veil in her elaborate wedding dress
Celebration: The newly married couple walk in the Gallery of Hercules in the Princely Palace of Monaco, following the official exchange of their marriage vows
Entourage: Princess Grace poses with her maids of honor before the religious ceremony
Royal banquet: The newlyweds eat lunch after the religious matrimonial ceremony in the Court of Honor, with their towering wedding cake in the background 'Those of us who were fortunate enough to know my mother, her family and friends, knew her to be a genuine, warm and loving woman — a woman who always put her family first,' he said. 'I hope that through experiencing this exhibition you will be able to get a glimpse of the real Grace Kelly, the woman behind the icon, my mother.' Monegasques appreciate their late princess, who died in 1982 in a car crash in Monaco, less as a screen legend and more as a humanitarian and philanthropist responsible for making Monaco a vibrant arts center and protecting the rights of vulnerable children, said Maguy Maccario Doyle, consul general of Monaco in New York.
Glamorous: Six years after the wedding, Kelly (pictured at the Princely Palace of Monaco in 1962) looks every inch the star in a head scarf and fashionable spectacles
Oscar-winner: On view will be Kelly's 1954 best actress Academy Award The Country Girl
Screen beauty: Kelly seen with Cary Grant in 1955 movie To Catch a Thief. 'There are many places in Monaco that today remind us of her presence,' she said.'Her memory endures, and certainly the principality of Monaco will forever bear the imprint of her presence and the heartache of her absence.' |
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| From Queen of Hollywood to Princess of Monaco: How Grace Kelly's glamour is still captivating 30 years after her deathShe was born a commoner, metamorphosed into a Hollywood star, died a princess, and now lives on as an icon. Even thirty years after Grace Kelly’s untimely death, the serene images of the Philadelphia-born Hollywood actress are as glamorous as they are poignant. 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.
Hollywood royalty: Grace Kelly, pictured in a publicity still for the Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window, starred in only 14 movies over five years, but remains one of the icons of the silver screen Amazing grace: Grace's effortless elegance, as well as her talent and beauty, ensured that she skyrocked to Hollywood royalty, starring in three Hitchcock films before she retired to marry Prince Rainier III in 1956 Too sexy? Grace Kelly, photographed a month before her wedding in 1956, thought the photograph of her, left, is 'too sexy,' according to Paramount photographer Bud Fraker; right, Ms Kelly as Frances Stevens in the motion picture To Catch a Thief Icon: Grace Kelly was known as much for her acting abilities as she was her breath-taking beauty Ms Kelly was born to a wealthy family in Philadelphia in 1929, and went on to quickly climb the ranks of Hollywood, starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and High Society, a musical. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for her work in the 1954 film The Country Girl, beating out fellow star Judy Garland. She also another nod for her supporting role in 1953’s Mogambo. In all, the model-turned-actress starred in 14 movies over a span of five years. But then the life of the blonde with the shy smile took a dramatic turn. At the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, Ms Kelly met Monaco’s Prince Ranier III. After exchanging letters in a hushed romance, he asked her to marry him days after Christmas that year. But the engagement wasn’t announced to the press until January 5, 1956, because Ms Kelly’s parents had to be firmly swayed to grant their permission. Ms Kelly’s father told the Prince of Monaco before giving his consent: ‘Royalty doesn’t mean anything to us. I hope you won’t run around the way some princes do, because if you do, you’ll lose a mighty fine girl.’ In her infancy: Grace Kelly, pictured in 1930, a year after she was born; she grew up in Philadelphia, the daughter of a wealthy family Art imitating life: Kelly leans in to kiss James Stewart in a scene from the classic 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film, Rear Window, left, and right, Kelly appeared as a film-princess with a film-prince (Alec Guiness), in the film version of Ferenc Molnab's famous play, The Swan; she would be a real-life princess by the film's release Walkabout: Kelly goes for a stroll with her Great Dane on the studio lot between shooting sessions in 1955 And so, Ms Kelly retired from acting at the tender age of 26, and began planning for the next stage of her fairy-tale life. Long before this generation’s royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, and even before that of William's parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, there was the another spectacular event, where American actress Grace Kelly was to become a real-life princess. 'People sometimes described her as cold and distant, but she was full of enthusiasm, and very curious about the life she was discovering.' -Louissette Levy-Soussan Azzoaglio, secretary to Princess Grace 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. It is said that the Duchess of Cambridge's dress was influenced by Princess Grace's timeless gown. After the pomp of the wedding, the new royal tried adjusting as best she could to her new life. The next few years were a struggle as she found that being a princess was much different from being an actress. Still, she brought her spritely attitude toward antiquated palace customs, banning the law that required women calling upon her to wear a hat, or for any representative calling on the princess to be female. She also said that it was difficult separating Grace Kelly the actress and Princess Grace, the wife of a head of state. But throughout the challengers of her marriage, the princess was always enamored with her prince. She once said of her husband: ‘He’s enormously sweet and kind…he wants a close and loving family, just as I do. He’s very bright, has a wonderful sense of humour, makes me giggle, and is very, very handsome…he’s a good person. And I love him.’ She had three children with him – Albert II, Stephanie, and Caroline. Hollywood to actual royalty: The animated face of Kelly radiates happiness on board the liner, Constitution, as she leaves from New York for Monaco to become the bride of Prince Rainier, left, and right, after the wedding to the prince Her Serene Highness: In what was called the wedding of the century, Prince Rainier III of Monaco married Grace Kelly in Monaco Cathedral in April 1956 Departing: Prince Rainier and Princess Grace leave the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, followed by the two page boys and four flower girls, for a sunny ride in an open Rolls Royce to the chapel of Monaco's patron saint, following their wedding Married bliss: The newly married couple appeared on the balcony the day after the ceremony, as Monaco welcomed their new princess Official duty: Prince Ranier and Princess Grace of Monaco leave the White House here October 11, 1956 following their 30-minute visit with President Eisenhower, and described their meeting with the President as 'purely social' Family matters: Princess Grace Kelly shares a smile with her son Albert II in 1959 New life: The royal couple posed on the steps of the palace with their children: Princess Stephanie , 14 months; Princess Caroline, 9; and Prince Albert, 8 on their 10th wedding anniversary, and right, the Monaco Reigning Family, taken for the twentieth anniversary of the sovereigns' wedding in 1976 Foreign affairs: Princess Grace of Monaco donned an exotic-looking veil and sequins for a masked ball in Venice in 1967 Jet set: Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco looking lovely in leopard with Prince Rainier at Gatwick Airport in 1959, left, and at Heathrow Airport in 1970, right Having a ball: Princess Grace shares a laugh as she dances with French dancer and socialite Jacques Chazot in 1968 High flying adored: The princess is pictured in 1977 with Stanley Balfour-Lynn of American Medical International holding a bouquet of flowers Lady in waiting: Princess Grace of Monaco pictured at home at her Palace in Monaco, in March 1971 Diplomatic duties: Princess Grace, joined by her son Prince Albert II, greet pilgrims during the pilgrimage in Lourdes in 1979 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. Initial reports said that she suffered a stroke, though there is still speculation of how the Rover P6 she was driving plunged 45 feet down. There are rumours that Princess Stephanie was quarrelling with her mother, and that she was even driving the car. It was the same hairpin curve that she zoomed around in the 1955 film To Catch A Thief. In the film, Ms Kelly gushed: ‘Have you ever seen any place in the world more wonderful?’ Guillaume Rose, Monaco’s head of tourism, told the AFP news agency that the classic movie is ‘the best advertisement we ever had.’ Laid to rest: Prince Rainier of Monaco and his children Princess Caroline and Prince Albert are pictured at Princess Grace's funeral in 1982 Nation in shock: Left, a mourner praying at cross at the site of the car crash that killed Princess Grace, and right, Prince Rainier of Monaco with his daughter Princess Caroline at the funeral Aftermath: A rose was attached to a fence at the place where the Princess of Monaco was killed in an car accident in La Turbie, France, near Monaco, on on 14 September 1982 Same setting: Hitchcock's 1955 classic To Catch a Thief, which starred Cary Grant and Grace Kelly took place along the scenic roads above Monaco where the princess met her tragic end; Prince Albert will screen the movie tomorrow Paying tribute: People lay down flowers on the vault of Princess Grace of Monaco on September 13 at Monaco's Cathedral; her son Albert II will join Saturday in a public screening of To Catch a Thief Iconic: The sculptural costume created by Greek designer Nikos Floros inspired by the wedding dress worn by Grace Kelly for her marriage to Prince Rainnier of Monaco during the gala of the Princess Grace of Monaco Foundation, in Monaco today Line of succession: The royal couple had three children - Prince Albert II, pictured with his wife Princess Charlene, left, Princess Caroline, centre, and Princess Stephanie Even now, the princess’ legacy lives in the small Mediterranean country. ‘She had been a professional actress, she was a professional princess,’ her secretary of 19 years, Louissette Levy-Soussan Azzoaglio told AFP. ‘The princess polished up Monaco’s image’ from the moment she arrived, Ms Azzoaglio said. ‘She belonged to another world. ‘People sometimes described her as cold and distant, but she was full of enthusiasm, and very curious about the life she was discovering.’ Monaco’s royal family observed the anniversary of her death with a private ceremony in a palace chapel. AFP notes that Prince Albert II will be present at a screening Saturday of the famous film To Catch A Thief.
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