Grace Kelly became the Princess of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III,
but was married life truly more luxurious than her former life in Hollywood?
Here's why Grace Kelly's marriage was more complicated than you thought.
In 1955, Grace Kelly was on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival in France,
when she agreed to be a part of a magazine cover with Prince Rainier III. Per Biography,
she re-routed to the Prince's Palace of Monaco for the shoot, only to jet back to Cannes afterward.
As her friend, "Gone with the Wind" star Olivia de Havilland, recalled to People,
"She was in a state of enchantment."
Enchanted she may have been, but the blonde
beauty was already engaged to fashion designer Oleg Cassini.
When Kelly called off her wedding to Cassini, he reportedly bluntly said of Prince Rainier,
"One of the reasons I believe you're marrying this
man is because this is the best script that you ever received in your life."
And while Grace did indeed get the role of her lifetime, her complicated marriage would
eventually take center stage. In fact, according to the book "Once Upon a Time:
Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier," the actor hinted
that maybe it wasn't her choice who she ended up marrying, as she reportedly told a friend,
"Do you realize if my mother hadn't been so difficult about Oleg Cassini,
I probably would have married him? That one decision changed my entire future."
While the union between Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III wasn't officially an
arranged marriage, many have alleged otherwise.
As the author of the book "Once Upon a Time" wrote, Grace once alluded that her parents
pushed her to marry Prince Rainier. But what exactly did a royal have to gain from it?
According to "Grace Kelly: The Secret Life of a Princess," at the time, Monaco had an
independence agreement with neighboring France, which ruled that the sovereign city-state "would
revert to French control" if the Grimaldi royal family "failed to produce an heir."
Although Prince Rainier was in a relationship with a French actor before meeting Grace,
the woman wasn't able to have children. As a result, the "Rear Window" actor was subject to
a "physical examination" to make sure the same issue didn't happen to the Grimaldis again.
After the exam, and a shocking $2 million dowry,
Prince Rainier and Grace courted for a mere two weeks, and then he popped the question.
While the marriage may have been political, it was allegedly economical,
too. As film producer Robert Evans claimed in his autobiography, "The Fat Lady Sang,"
it was actually Aristotle Onassis who came up with the idea. Per Evans, Onassis told Rainier,
"The right bride could do for Monaco's
tourism what the coronation of Queen Elizabeth did for Great Britain."
Like any royal wedding, the 1956 union between Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly was a highly
publicized affair. As Vanity Fair details, there were almost 2,000 reporters present
during the ceremony. Plus, MGM filmed the wedding and broadcast it live to over 30 million European
viewers. While there's no doubt a royal getting married is an exciting moment, it's the historical
timing of it that makes it so iconic. As their son, Prince Albert, told People years later,
"It was such an incredible affair, and it’s left such a mark on people [...] But
what it’s meant for Monaco, for people around the world, and,
how their story continues to fascinate people, that’s something unimaginable."
While many dubbed the fairy tale "The Wedding of the Century," Grace reportedly
quipped that it was "the Carnival of the Century," per Vanity Fair. Prince Albert
indeed confirmed his mother's anxiousness around the entire event, telling People,
“Mom said it was 'overwhelming,' [...] It was so exhausting [...] when they left on
their honeymoon and got on the boat, they both just kind of passed out from exhaustion and
had a good night’s sleep before they got on with enjoying their honeymoon the next day.”
Of course, being one of the most in-demand actors in the mid-1950s meant Grace Kelly had a thriving
social life. 1954 was a big year for the star, as she received her first Academy Award nomination,
and even won her first Golden Globe. At that point, she signed a seven-year contract with
MGM and also began working with the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, who became her, quote,
"friend and mentor." And in 1955, she won an Academy Award for her role in "Country Girl."
"When I was acting, my private life was very much my own."
However, Grace Kelly's marriage in 1956 to Prince Rainier III effectively wiped
her Tinseltown dreams away. According to "Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess
Grace and Prince Rainier," Princess Grace would invite her A-list pals to visit her in Monaco and
spend time at the palace. However, Rainier would apparently "cringe," especially when
friends would call his wife "Gracie" instead of using her princess title. The tension between
the couple was portrayed in the 2014 movie "Grace of Monaco" starring Nicole Kidman.
Sadly, Kelly didn't realize that marrying Prince Rainier would mean
throwing her acting dreams aside. Grace told the Los Angeles Times in 1964,
"I miss acting [...] Once you're bitten with the acting bug, you never really get over it."
"I don't feel as though I achieved enough in my career to stand out more than many other people."
Unfortunately for Grace, Rainier disapproved of the actor resuming
her silver screen career. He reportedly once declared to the press, per Kinfolk,
"I don't want my wife to work."
This sentiment would continue later on in their lives, too,
as biographer James Spada told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel,
"I feel that the prince contributed to her unhappiness in later life [...] He
was not an emotionally giving person. He did not let her live her own life.
When she began giving her annual poetry readings,
her way of finding a means of self-expression, he didn't attend them for several years."
In the mid-70s, an opportunity came for Grace to get a taste of her old life back.
According to "Once Upon a Time" in 1976, the "Rear Window" star's old agent, Jay Kanter,
contacted her about a business opportunity with 20th Century Fox to have Grace serve
as the first woman on the board. To Kanter's surprise, Grace accepted.
However, the main reason for Princess Grace's desire to serve as a board
member was the opportunity to be involved in show business again,
as meetings were either in Los Angeles or New York. Kinfolk quotes her as explaining,
"It gets me away from Monaco at least four times a year."
If you push aside the apparent fact that Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly came from different
backgrounds, thus causing snags in their marriage, their time together was complicated romantically,
too. In fact, many have suggested that both parties were involved in extramarital affairs.
According to celebrity biographer Wendy Leigh, within a mere month of their wedding, Rainier
had gotten involved with "at least three" other women. Leigh wrote in her book, "True Grace,"
"Grace was humiliated and she was extremely unhappy."
Interestingly enough, it's reported that Princess Grace didn't take her husband's salacious romps
quietly. She once reportedly revealed to her hairstylist, according to the Express,
"I know my husband has affairs with other women [...] That's
very frustrating to me and makes me very unhappy."
As a result, the former actor reportedly reignited some of her own old flames,
such as with Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra.
"Not everybody's lucky enough to marry a prince."
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III had three children, Prince Albert, Princess Caroline,
and Princess Stephanie. However, their familial relations weren't exactly flourishing.
Caroline revealed in "Albert II of Monaco, The Man and The Prince,"
"For my brother and I, [nanny] Maureen was the key figure in our life [...] When we were little,
we were probably closer to our nanny than to our parents."
That being said, it's not like the Grimaldi children didn't have any strong ties to their
parents. Albert was apparently much closer to his mother than his father. Albert told People,
"Coming to live here and having to behave in a certain way must have been hard for her at first."
"My children give me a great deal of happiness."
As for Prince Rainier, it seems that as his children grew up, he finally wished
he treated them with more paternal fondness, with the Chicago Tribune quoting him as musing,
"My only regret is to have not been available enough to take care of my
children during their tender years, and it is too late to make up for lost time."
After silver screen legend Grace Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco, many believed that
she became incredibly depressed living in the microstate. In fact, the book "High Society:
The Life of Grace Kelly" reveals that the actor even once boldly told a reporter,
"I don't expect to be happy, and I don't look for happiness."
While the biography suggested that Grace wasn't suffering from depression all the time,
she still had periods of sadness and loneliness. Grace herself alluded to
the difficulties of suddenly moving across the pond, as she said in a "20/20" interview in 1982,
"Mediterranean countries [...] don't accept change very easily."
Many have compared Princess Grace's experience marrying into royalty as
that of the late Princess Diana's, and, interestingly enough, the two crossed
paths, too. As Lady Diana once revealed in "Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words,"
"I remember meeting Princess Grace and how wonderful and serene she was,
but there was troubled water under her, I saw that."
Much like the incredible amount of paparazzi that has plagued the British royal family,
Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly never really had any privacy.
As the author of "Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl" revealed to Closer Weekly,
"The one thing that she would talk about was time [...] She
would say that she [wanted privacy] a little bit."
The former Hollywood icon allegedly had no idea how rarely she would be
able to escape for some one-on-one time with her husband. Interestingly enough,
at the time of Grace and Rainier's wedding in the mid-1950s, Monaco wasn't the glamorous
playground for the wealthy that it is now. Biographer Jeffrey Robinson told Closer Weekly,
"[T]he electricity and plumbing were 19th century French [and] even the telephones didn't work."
With the sudden shift of lifestyle,
along with her personal life suddenly being put under the microscope,
it's no wonder that this royal marriage was as complicated and exhausting as it was.
Unfortunately for Grace and Rainier, the paparazzi weren't just after them, but their children, too.
Her daughter, Stephanie, had to go to her gymnastics classes in the trunk of their car,
as Princess Grace revealed in a 1982 "20/20" interview,
"[J]ust so [the paparazzi] wouldn't follow her."
After her death in 1982, many people have come forward to discuss Grace
Kelly's alleged difficulties with her husband, Prince Rainier III.
However, it's also possible that Kelly embraced her new family and marriage
after leaving Hollywood. Princess Grace mused to "20/20" the same year of her untimely death,
"[The paparazzi] make up things; they make up romances [...] According to the
press [...] my husband and I are constantly being divorced, which is also not the case."
As for Rainier, while rumors of infidelity plagued the royal, he may have genuinely
held a lot of love for his wife. According to "My Days with Princess Grace of Monaco,"
"Prince Rainier never recovered from the loss of Grace, and never remarried."
Per The New York Times, Grace Kelly died in Monte Carlo on September 14,
1982, suffering a cerebral hemorrhage as a result of a fatal car accident.
It's been suggested that the Grimaldi royal family, much like a handful of other historical
families, are cursed. According to Britannica, the Grimaldis originally hailed from Genoa,
Italy, officially gaining control of Monaco in 1419. Prince Rainier III's great-grandfather,
Albert I, gave Monaco a constitution in 1911. That being said, the menacing lore that has plagued
the family persisted even before then. Per ABC News, the story goes that in the 13th century,
Prince Rainier kidnapped a witch who cursed the entire family's bloodline, and declared,
"Never will a Grimaldi find true happiness in marriage."
Sure enough, things haven't exactly been easy for the Monaco royal family since then,
and as the Independent so succinctly put it,
"Scandal, divorce and rumors of infidelity have dogged them for
decades [...] they have been dubbed Europe's most dysfunctional family."
Rumors of curses aside, it seems that Grace Kelly
and Prince Rainier III's marriage was filled with talk of infidelity,
and the world is yet to recover from Princess Grace's traumatic and untimely death.
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