Palaces, princes, and riches galore: You might think that royal life is easy,
but Monaco's Princess Caroline would probably disagree.
Princess Caroline might have grown up in a palace, but that doesn't mean she had the
happiest childhood. In fact, she has often said that she felt a great deal of pressure
in her youth, presumably because she lived so fully in the public eye. She once admitted:
"I was raised with a sense of duty,
obedience and... guilt. What I had to do always came before what I wanted to do."
Caroline's mother, Princess Grace,
always claimed that she held her and her sister to high standards.
"Our children were brought up with a certain amount of discipline, and found it quite natural."
She once told People magazine that the girls were aware of their positions as royals, implying that
they had to carry themselves a certain way. That pressure didn't let up when Caroline went to
university either, as she felt she had to work harder to prove that she deserved to be there.
It didn't help that her parents played a slight role in her upbringing. In the book,
Albert II of Monaco, The Man and The Prince, Caroline revealed that she and her siblings were
probably closer to their nanny than their parents. She added that she and her brother, Albert, would
get so upset when the nanny went on vacation, that they'd cry until their mother called her back.
It's safe to say that every princess wants to find her happily ever after — sadly, Princess
Caroline's first marriage was more or less a total disaster. In 1978, at just 21 years old,
she married a French banker 17 years her senior; his name was Philippe Junot. Her parents took an
instant dislike to Junot, apparently believing their marriage was just a form of rebellion
for Caroline. Whether they were right or wrong, Caroline and Junot divorced just two years later.
Caroline was probably more embarrassed than heartbroken, since Junot was known
to be quite the casanova; he was rumored to have cheated on her throughout their
relationship. Even when the couple had just separated, Junot was seen traveling
with another young woman, whom he claimed was his secretary. Soon after, he insisted:
"Our marriage is no more than a formality. There is nothing holding us together."
Junot later told Ladies Home Journal that Caroline had gotten jealous when he was
seen dancing with an ex and retaliated by flirting with other men. He then suggested
that it was okay for a man to be unfaithful to his wife, as long as he doesn't make his
affair obvious. Yet, Junot blamed the media for their split, saying:
"The press is responsible for creating an atmosphere of infidelity between Caroline and me."
"Princess Grace of Monaco died today of a brain
hemorrhage she suffered in the fiery crash of her automobile yesterday."
Perhaps one of the first major tragedies of Princess Caroline's life was her mother's
unexpected death, which occurred when Caroline was just 25-years-old. Princess Grace died at
age 52 after she suffered a stroke while driving a car with her other daughter,
Princess Stephanie. Their vehicle fell off the side of a steep mountain and plummeted
100 feet down a ravine. Stephanie survived the wreck, but Grace died the next day.
Caroline was said to have been the only family member to whom Stephanie
initially confided about the crash; she reiterated what Stephanie told
her in the book Rainier and Grace: An Intimate Portrait. She recalled:
"Stephanie told me, 'Mommy kept saying,
I can't stop. The brakes don't work.' [...] She said that Mommy was in a complete panic."
Caroline seemed to take on the most responsibility in the wake of her
mother's death, stepping into Grace's shoes to help her devastated father,
Prince Rainier III, lead their country. At the time, he said:
"The way she is handling the jobs I have given her is a source of great satisfaction to me."
It seemed like things were turning around for Princess Caroline when she
married Stefano Casiraghi in 1983. The palace spokesperson even released a statement saying:
"Happiness has finally returned to a family which recently has had its share of personal tragedies."
Sadly, that happiness didn't last long. In 1990, Casiraghi was killed after his
catamaran flipped over during a race in the French Riviera.
Caroline had been in Paris when her husband died and rushed home after she was informed.
She later made the difficult decision to leave her native Monaco for a village in France,
so she and their young children, Andrea, Charlotte, and Pierre, could rebuild their lives
in private. Her brother, Prince Albert, seemingly commended her for that, telling People in 2017:
"She really raised her kids well. Without a father for many years, that's important."
The princess never publicly discussed Casiraghi's death, but he was widely regarded as her true
love. Their daughter, Charlotte, however, later shared that her father's untimely
death had left her with a feeling of loneliness throughout her life. Charlotte told the media:
"My personal experience has been of sad events, such as my father's early death,
but these are things that happen to everyone, no matter where he comes from."
Princess Caroline has never enjoyed a positive relationship with the press — and for good reason.
She'd been hounded by reporters as a teen, making headlines for any minor departure from
royal standards. A 1975 People magazine article seemingly blamed her for that negative attention,
citing how she flunked her university exams, smoked in public, and once wore a gown with
a high slit. There were also rumors that she had been photographed nude on a beach,
which were supposedly fabricated for blackmail. Caroline even spoke out
about press speculation suggesting Stephanie had been to blame for their mother's death.
"I think we're past — I'm past the rage phase. Because it doesn't bring you anything."
Princess Grace was aware that her daughter hated the media attention at least,
lamenting that she couldn't live the life of a normal student. The former Hollywood movie star
had long been used to the public's fascination, but Caroline was much different. She once said:
"I don't want to compete in mother's field."
Years later, Caroline worked hard to live her adult life in private. In 2004,
she sued a German tabloid for publishing photos of her children,
eventually winning what turned out to be a "landmark" case. She filed another
lawsuit against the German media in 2012 after vacation photos of her and her husband, Prince
Ernst August of Hannover, were printed. That time, however, the courts didn't side with the princess.
Princess Caroline's third marriage didn't turn out all that well. The royal married Prince
Ernst August of Hanover in 1999 amid scandalous rumors that she was already pregnant with his
child. The press was particularly excited by the fact that Caroline had been friends with his first
wife, Chantal Hochuli, who reportedly learned of their relationship from a tabloid newspaper.
"Wow."
Like her first husband, Ernst was widely rumored to be unfaithful to Caroline. In
2009, for example, he was spotted canoodling with a French socialite,
which led to Caroline moving out of their home. The clearest evidence of
his infidelity came in 2010 when Ernst was photographed at Christmastime,
kissing another woman on a beach in Thailand. A French tabloid published the photos, writing:
"The prince and his friend only had eyes for each other."
The couple finally separated, and Caroline took their daughter back to Monaco with her. While
they've never officially divorced, Ernst has gone on to date a number of younger women since then.
In 2005, Caroline's father, Prince Rainier III, died. Caroline was no doubt devastated to lose her
father, as she appeared to have grown close to him after her mother's death. It can't have helped,
either, that her husband had fallen into a coma the day before Rainier's death. Ernst had
been hospitalized for acute pancreatitis; he was placed in intensive care shortly
after waking up from the coma. While Ernst's medical condition was by no means his fault,
it meant that Caroline likely worried about his health as well as the grief of her father's death.
Ernst's coma was closely connected to his heavy drinking. He was eventually able to return home,
but the palace revealed he'd need constant medical attention. At the time,
the Prince admitted to Hello! Magazine that the whole ordeal changed him for the better,
acting as a kind of wake-up call. He said:
"My lifestyle was more than heavy. [...] But from now on,
that's going to change. Only now I have realized the real danger. I could have died."
Unfortunately, his change of heart didn't last long.
As if cheating wasn't bad enough, Prince Ernst's violent and inappropriate behavior
frequently made headlines too. A few of those incidents happened in front of Caroline;
in 1999, for example, he reportedly assaulted a journalist with an umbrella outside their
home. Then, in 2004, he was accused of assaulting a nightclub owner in Kenya.
Ernst's drinking seemingly caused a lot of problems for Caroline — and her position in
Monaco. In one instance, he was photographed publicly urinating on Turkey's pavilion at the
Hannover Expo 2000. That resulted in a diplomatic nightmare for Monaco, since Turkey took it as an
insult. The prince's behavior seemed to get worse after they separated too. In 2018, for example,
Ernst was hospitalized after his son's wedding, reportedly for food poisoning. However,
the rumor mill suggested that he had really gotten sick from over drinking.
As recently as 2020, Ernst was arrested in Austria for drunkenly attacking police officers,
who responded to his home after he reported that
an employee was threatening him. He later told an Austrian newspaper:
"A policeman hit me. I think they were drunk,
at least they gave the impression. They chained me to an ambulance."
Ernst was taken to the psychiatry unit that night, and later received a 10 month suspended
jail sentence. Months later, he was arrested again, this time for threatening his employees.
At this point, it's clear that Princess Caroline is a very important member of Monaco's royal
family, and has been since her mother's death in 1982. However, it's her younger brother,
Prince Albert, who became the country's Sovereign Prince when their father's health was failing in
2005. Albert wasn't married at the time, however, and had sired illegitimate children. That led
Rainier to change Monaco's constitution to make it possible for Albert's siblings to
inherit the crown if Albert didn't have heirs of his own. Because of that, Caroline remained the
country's matriarch for years and eventually became Heiress Presumptive to the throne.
That all changed in 2011, however, when Albert married former Olympian Charlene Wittstock.
Princess Charlene subsequently assumed Caroline's role as Monaco's First Lady;
she and Albert then had twins, knocking Caroline out of her position as heir to the throne.
"Everyone has their own timing, everyone has their own path in
life and their own way of doing things. And I took the slightly longer road."
In the aftermath, Caroline apparently felt upset that
her role in the royal family had been reduced.
There are also reports that this dynamic caused tension between Caroline and Charlene,
because Charlene felt dismissed in her own way. Albert seemed to have contributed to that, too;
he once even told People that he often goes to his sister for advice. He explained:
"I confide in my wife as well. But Caroline's my sister, and I've known her a little bit longer so
usually I'll try and bounce things around her when I'm not sure about a situation."
Princess Caroline's relationship with Princess Charlene may have been strained,
but she was naturally quite upset when her sister-in-law became very ill. In November 2021,
sources told Page Six that Charlene came close to death while visiting her native
South Africa. It was later discovered that she had suffered complications from a sinus surgery,
and therefore had to undergo multiple corrective procedures. Then, when Charlene returned to Monaco
over six months later, she went to a rehab for exhaustion. She later told Monaco Matin:
"My state of health is still fragile. [...] The road has been long, difficult and so painful."
During that time, Caroline reportedly stepped in to assume Charlene's role as Monaco's First Lady,
in much the same way that she had done after the death of Princess Grace. During an event in 2022,
one royal commentator explained to the Express:
"She's been at his side for many events. She's been right there
with Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques . Playing the doting aunt,
holding their hands and kind of being like a temporary 'first lady of Monaco.'"