Grace Kelly & Prince Rainier III of Monaco are married by Monaco's Bishop Gilles Barthe | Grace Kelly: her amazing life in pictures - Photography Photography Previous slide Next slide 18 of 42 View All Skip Ad Grace Kelly, the Fifties film star who became a princess, was born in 1929. After making her name in films such as High Noon, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief, she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco on April 19 1956 and retired from acting. She died in a car crash in 1982 after suffering a stroke while driving. 1948: American actress Grace Kelly and her sister Elizabeth wish their brother, Olympic medal-winning rower John B Kelly Jnr, good luck at Henley Royal Regatta, Henley-on-Thames Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images A 1950s portrait of US actress Grace Kelly. Between 1950 and 1953, the young actress appeared on stage and in live TV productions. Credit: Rex Grace Kelly (1929-1982), is shown in this portrait from the early 1950s.

In 1951 she made her little-noticed film debut in the film 'Fourteen Hours', but stardom would have to wait another two years. Credit: Getty Images 1953: Ava Gardner, Clark Gable and Grace Kelly in 'Mogambo'. This film won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Credit: Everett Collection / Rex Features/Everett Collection / Rex Features 1954: James Stewart and Grace Kelly in 'Rear Window' Credit: Moviestore Collection / Rex Features Grace Kelly on the set of 'To Catch A Thief', some of which was filmed on the riviera, where she met Prince Rainier of Monaco Credit: Keystone/Getty Images Grace Kelly on the set of To Catch A Thief Credit: Rex 30 March 1955: Presenter Bette Davis poses with Marlon Brando, winner of the Best Actor Academy Award for On the Waterfront, and Grace Kelly, who won Best Actress for The Country Girl Credit: Everett Collection / Rex Features 5 January 1956: Prince Rainier III of Monaco and his fiancee Grace Kelly show her mother her engagement ring at the Philadelphia county club where the Kellys announced the engagement of their daughter and the prince Credit: AFP/Getty 23 February 1956: US actor Gregory Peck is flanked by Grace Kelly (R), awarded Favourite Actress for "Henrietta" and Jean Simmons, named Best Actress in a Musical Comedy during the 10th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood Credit: AFP/Getty Grace Kelly in her final

 film High Society (1956) 27 February 1956: A dummy of the stamp to be issued by Monaco Stamp Office for the wedding of Prince Rainier with US actress Grace Kelly, to be held 19 April 1956 Credit: AFP/Getty/AFP/Getty Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco, pictured in the 1950s Credit: REx 12 April 1956: Prince Rainier III of Monaco and his fiancee US actress Grace Kelly are all smiles aboard his yacht Deo Juvante II in Monte Carlo's harbour, as Grace Kelly arrives from the USA for their wedding ceremony Credit: AFP/Getty/AFP/Getty 19 April 1956: A close-up of Grace Kelly during her wedding ceremony with Prince Rainier of Monaco Credit: AFP/Getty 19 April 1956: Grace Kelly on her wedding day Credit: Rex/Rex 19 April 1956: Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco are married by Monaco's Bishop Gilles Barthe Credit: AFP/Getty 19 April 1956: Prince Rainier III of Monaco and US actress and Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly are seen during their

 wedding lunch Credit: AFP/Getty Prince Rainier placing the wedding ring of Princess Grace's finger during the marriage service in Monaco Cathedral.

Credit: AP Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco during their wedding ceremony in Monaco on April 19, 1956 Credit: AFP/Getty Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, pictured during their wedding service at Monaco Cathedral Credit: AP Prince Rainier III of Monaco and US actress and princess of Monaco Grace Kelly salute the crowd as they leave Monaco's Saint Nicholas Cathedral after their wedding ceremony Credit: AFP/Getty Prince Rainier III of Monaco and US actress and princess of Monaco Grace Kelly after their wedding ceremony Credit: AP Prince Rainier and Princess Grace wave after their wedding Credit: Everett Collection / Rex Features/Everett Collection / Rex Features Prince Rainier of Monaco and Grace Kelly at the ceremony for the arrival of USS Constellation in November 1956 Credit: Rex 13 March 1957: Prince Rainier and Princess Grace walk down a street in Lausanne, followed by residents.

The couple had just arrived there for a few days of holiday shortly after the birth of Princess Caroline Credit: AFP/Getty/AFP/Getty 19 April 1958: Prince Rainier of Monaco (holding their daughter Caroline) and Princess Grace present their new-born son Albert to residents of the principality from the balcony of the palace, a day before the baptism of the child Credit: AFP/Getty/AFP/Getty 29 October 1959: Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III of Monaco and their two children, Princess Caroline, 3, and 19-month-old Prince Albert, leave a hotel in Saulieu en route to Monaco Credit: AFP/Getty 19 April 1966: Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco chat at the Maestranza bullfight in Seville Credit: AFP/Getty 1969: A formal family portrait at the palace in Monaco Credit: Forum Press / Rex Features/ Forum Press / Rex Features 1969: Sophia Loren and Princess Grace attend a fancy dress ball in the Casino of Monte Carlo Credit: Sipa Press / Rex Features 1972: Princess Grace holidays with Princesses Caroline and Stephanie Credit: SIPA PRESS / Rex Features 29 November 1

973: Princess Grace of Monaco attends a dinner reception in Versailles Credit: AFP/Getty 1973: Princess Grace and Prince Rainier pose with their children Caroline, Albert and Stephanie at the Grimaldi Palace Credit: FORUM PRESS / Rex Features/FORUM PRESS / Rex Features 1979: Prince Rainier of Monaco and his wife Princess Grace relax at Roc Agel, their summer residence near Monaco Credit: AFP/Getty/AFP/Getty 15 May 1980: Princess Grace of Monaco faces cameras while she arrives to attend a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock at the 33rd Cannes Film Festival Credit: AFP/Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images 1981: Prince Charles and Princess Diana take part in their first public engagement, at the Royal Opera House with Princess Grace of Monaco Credit: Reginald Davis / Rex Features/Reginald Davis / Rex Features 16 June 1982: A portrait of Princess Grace of Monaco Credit: AFP/Getty 1982: people look at the location of Princess Grace's fatal car crash on the Cote d'Azur Credit: Armando Pietrangeli / Rex Features/Armando Pietrangeli / Rex Features 13 September 1

982: Police surround the site of Princess Grace's fatal car accident Credit: AFP/Getty 18 September 1982: Monaco's Prince Rainier and his eldest daughter Princess Caroline attend the funeral of Princess Grace Credit: AFP/Getty Monaco’s Prince Rainier dead at 81 - World news | NBC News Monaco’s Prince Rainier dead at 81 Europe’s longest-serving monarch was married to late Grace Kelly Below: Advertise Eric Gaillard / Reuters file Prince Rainier, second from right, attends a Monaco national day celebration with Prince Albert, left, Princess Caroline, second left, and Princess Stephanie, right, on Nov.

19, 2000. updated 4/6/2005 3:21:39 PM ET 2005-04-06T19:21:39 + - MONACO — Prince Rainier III, whose marriage to American film star Grace Kelly brought elegance and glamour to one of Europe’s oldest dynasties, died Wednesday at the hospital treating him for heart, kidney and breathing problems. He was 81. Rainier’s royal palace announced his death nearly a full month after he was first admitted with a lung infection to a heart and chest clinic that overlooks Monaco’s glittering, yacht-filled harbor. He had been Europe’s longest-reigning monarch. The prince's funeral will be held on April 15 at the 19th-century Monaco Cathedral where he and Princess Grace wed. Prince Albert, Rainier’s son and heir, was at his side when he died at 6:35 a.m. Rainier’s doctors called Albert a little before 6 a.m. to tell him the end was near, the palace said.

Rainier, who assumed the throne on May 9, 1949, also endured the tragedy of his famous wife’s death and relentless scandals — including international criticism of the principality’s tax laws — that plagued the final two decades of his rule. Recurring health problems The leader of Europe’s longest-ruling royal family, the Grimaldis, Rainier suffered recurring health problems in recent years. The silver-haired, portly prince underwent heart surgery in 1999. He had two operations the following year, including having a nodule removed from a lung, and was hospitalized in 2002 for fatigue and bronchitis. AP file The wedding of Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Hollywood actress Grace Kelly on April 18, 1956. Rainier died early Wednesday. Advertise Recurrent chest infections put him in the hospital on numerous occasions. Most recently, he was hospitalized March 7 at Monaco’s Cardio-Thoracic Center with a chest infection. He was placed in intensive care two weeks later with heart and kidney failure and hooked up to a respirator.

Prince Rainier’s public appearances grew increasingly rare as his health deteriorated, although he attended Monaco’s top social event, the Red Cross Ball, in August 2004. A Mass for the royal family was being held in the chapel on Wednesday evening. The family and royal household will observe a three-month period of mourning, ending July 6, the palace said. Monaco government officials will observe a one-month mourning period. Drums used at the traditional midday changing of the palace guards were covered with black cloth Wednesday. Rainier's son to assume throne Monaco had been preparing for the demise of its prince for several years. Prince Albert is unmarried and has no children. Monaco changed its succession law in 2002 to allow power to pass from a reigning prince who has no descendants to his siblings. Albert has two sisters, Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie, both of whom have children. Under Rainier’s leadership, the Mediterranean enclave partially shed its image as “a sunny place for shady people” and became a hub for the high-tech pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Rainier was known as the “builder prince” for his many infrastructure projects, and he increased the size of his territory by 20 percent with land reclamation.

“I am like the head of a company,” he once said of his role in transforming Monaco. In 1993, Monaco gained the political recognition Rainier sought for his principality with its entry into the United Nations. But it was his April 18, 1956, marriage to Hollywood heartbreaker Grace Kelly that put Monaco on the world stage and defined the golden age of his reign. For many, her death in a car accident on Sept. 14, 1982, signaled the end of Monaco’s halcyon days. “She was always present and ready to do things either with me or for me if I couldn’t do them,” Rainier said of his late wife in a 1983 interview. “Let’s say the change is that we worked as a team and the team has been split up.” Family had stormy past Rainier Grimaldi was the 30th descendant of Otto Canella, who founded the house of Grimaldi that has ruled Monaco since 1297.

Born May 31, 1923, the son of a princess born out of wedlock, Rainier was heir to a family with a stormy past — a harbinger of the scandals to come. Advertise The marriage of his great-grandfather Prince Albert to Lady Mary Douglas Hamilton was dissolved in 1880. Albert’s son, Prince Louis II, had a youthful romance with a French girl in Algeria that produced Princess Charlotte, Rainier’s mother. In 1920, Charlotte married Rainier’s father, Prince Pierre de Polignac. Rainier was born in 1923 and his parents divorced soon after. Educated in England, Switzerland and France, Rainier undertook military service near the end of World War II. He became Monaco’s ruler at age 26 when his grandfather died in 1949. As a youth, Rainier had a long romance with French actress Gisele Pascal, became a keen fan of jazz and studied oceanography, later helping to finance Jacques Cousteau’s Oceanographic Institute in Monaco. He also developed a love of fast cars.

A glamorous marriage He met Grace Kelly in 1955 when he was 31 and she was the 25-year-old star attraction of the Cannes Film Festival. Kelly already had an Oscar from the 1954 film “The Country Girl,” one of only 11 movies she made. In January 1956, they announced their engagement and were married in April. Ten months later they had the first of their three children, Caroline. Albert’s birth came the following year, on March 14. Stephanie was born Feb. 1, 1965. Over the years, Rainier worked to consolidate his authority and expand Monaco’s economic base as a tax haven for international millionaires who gambled at the territory’s swanky casino. New luxury hotels, towering high-rises and some of the world’s most expensive real estate now hug Monaco’s coastline. Gambling receipts account for only 3 percent of the revenues of the principality, home to slightly more than 32,000 people.

Rainier also won battles with France to keep his principality’s ban on personal income tax and with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis for control of the company that operates Monaco’s gambling operations and most of its luxury hotels. In the years following Princess Grace’s death, Monaco’s royal family increasingly became grist for the world’s tabloids. Princess Caroline’s rocky first marriage ended in 1980, and her second husband was killed in a boating accident in 1990. Her third husband, German prince Ernst August of Hanover, was ordered to pay more than $440,000 in 2001 for yelling at an editor of a newspaper that reported he had urinated in public. Princess Stephanie was known for her tempestuous affairs. She had two children by a former bodyguard, then married him in 1995. The marriage lasted 18 months, ending after he was photographed cavorting poolside with a Belgian stripper. She had a third child in 1998 and refused to reveal the name of the father. She later had a much-publicized romance with the director of the Swiss national circus. The reputation of Monaco itself has also fallen under scrutiny.

In April 2002, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development listed Monaco as one of seven tax havens refusing to cooperate with a major international effort to end harmful tax practices and tax evasion. Even Rainier’s fairy-tale marriage to Grace Kelly was a target. A 1994 biography of Princess Grace claimed that the marriage had gone sour and that Rainier’s “neglect” forced her to find solace in alcohol — and younger men. © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. BBC ON THIS DAY | 19 | 1956: Prince Rainier marries Grace Kelly 1956: Prince Rainier marries Grace Kelly Prince Rainier III of Monaco has married the American film actress Grace Kelly. The religious ceremony follows yesterday's civil ceremony held in the throne room in the Palace of Monaco. The celebration of the Nuptial Mass was held in the Cathedral of Monaco. Miss Kelly looked every bit the film star in her ivory gown made of silk taffeta and lace.

The couple did not look at each other during the ceremony, but sat, stood and knelt facing the high altar as instructed by Monsignor Marella, the Papal Legate from Paris. They spoke their vows so quietly that it was hard to tell whether they made them in English or French, the national language of Monaco. At the end of the ceremony, a message was read out from the Pope. Then the couple drove through the streets of Monte Carlo in an open-top car, waving to thousands of well-wishers. The couple, who announced their engagement in January, are spending their honeymoon cruising around the Mediterranean aboard Prince Rainier's yacht, Deo Juvante II - out of the public eye for the first time in months. Nervous bride Yesterday's civil ceremony, conducted by the president of the Monaco Supreme Court, was attended by the couple's close family and friends. In Monaco, as in France, a civil marriage must take place before a religious ceremony. Miss Kelly, wearing a beige, lace dress with a close-fitting hat, was noticeably nervous throughout the proceedings. Following the legal formalities the couple made a short appearance on the balcony of the palace where approximately 500 members of the public waited below.

The newly-married couple, surrounded by an abundance of red and white flowers, waved to the crowds for a few minutes before going back inside.

Grace Kelly's wedding to to Prince Rainier of Monaco is still the most glamorous | Daily Mail Online Next The princess bride: Newly revealed family pictures of Grace Kelly's marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco show why the event is still the world's most glamorous wedding, even after 60 years Monday marks the 60th anniversary of the wedding of film star Grace Kelly and Monaco's Prince Rainier III The pair were wed in an epic two-week event that brought together countries on both sides of the Atlantic The couple had two ceremonies, one in the palace Throne Room and one in the Saint Nicolas Cathedral The Cathedral wedding was watched by an estimated 30million people worldwide - an unprecedented event Kelly's white wedding dress, given by film studio MGM, took 36 seamstresses three weeks to make The ceremonies were preceded by a week of celebrations with guests including Cary Grant and Conrad Hilton Prince Rainier III of Monaco - Telegraph Royalty Obituaries Prince Rainier III of Monaco His Serene Highness Prince Rainier III of Monaco, who died yesterday aged 81, turned the tiny principality which he inherited on the Côte d'Azur into a mini-Manhattan of concrete and glass - a process made possible by the glamour conferred by his marriage

 to the film star Grace Kelly.

12:02AM BST 07 Apr 2005 Monaco, in origin a fortified rock overlooking the Mediterranean between Nice and Menton, is hardly bigger than Hyde Park. In the 1930s Somerset Maugham, reacting against the riff-raff attracted by its casino and tax advantages, called it "a sunny place full of shady people". At the time of Rainier's accession in 1949, however, even the economic auguries seemed doubtful. In that year the Société des Bains de Mer, which ran the casino, several hotels and various other tourist attractions, registered serious losses. Monaco had profited from the fact that gambling was illegal in France from 1836 to 1933; after the war, though, competition developed, both on the Riviera and elsewhere.

To make matters worse, in the early 1950s the Société Monégasque de Banques et de Métaux Précieux, which held 55 per cent of Monaco's reserves, and much of Rainier's own fortune, went bankrupt; moreover, Aristotle Onassis, the Greek shipping magnate, had acquired control of the Société des Bains de Mer. It was Onassis who first had the idea that Rainier should improve the image of Monaco by marrying an American film star. Marilyn Monroe was informed, and though not interested - she thought Monaco was in Africa - did not doubt her capabilities. "Give me two days alone with him," she said, "and of course he'll want to marry me." Rainier probably never heard about the matrimonial plots which Onassis was hatching for him. Nevertheless, when Grace Kelly, widely acclaimed as the most beautiful woman in the world, turned up at his palace on May 5 1955 for a photo session, he took advantage of their brief encounter to initiate a correspondence.

Related Articles Hélène Pastor 22 May 2014 Grace Kelly, for her part, had fallen in love with the south of France the year before, when she was making Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant. Rainier's courtship benefited from the promotional talents of his chaplain, Father Tucker, an Irish-American with contacts in Grace Kelly's native Philadelphia. "I want to thank you," he wrote to Grace Kelly, "for showing the Prince what an American Catholic girl can be, and for the very deep impression this has left upon him." In fact Grace Kelly's past had been a good deal less than virginal, but her messy love affairs had only quickened her resolve to find a more enduring purpose. Rainier visited America at the end of 1955, and his engagement to Grace Kelly was officially announced on January 5 1956.

Her father, Jack Kelly, a brick manufacturer and self-made millionaire who had also won two Olympic gold medals for sculling, was initially unenthusiastic about providing a dowry - "My daughter doesn't have to pay any man to marry her" - but eventually agreed to pay $2 million towards the cost of the wedding (Onassis also made a contribution) and to set up a trust for Grace's benefit. The wedding, on April 19 1956, caught the imagination of the world's media, even though heads of state - the Queen, President Eisenhower and General de Gaulle - remained aloof. By the standards of Rainier's family, which was said to be subject to a matrimonial curse laid on a renegade ancestor in the 13th century, the marriage turned out remarkably well. Princess Grace took her duties seriously, set up the Princess Grace Foundation to administer her charities, founded a ballet school and built convalescent homes. Meanwhile, her superstar status put Monaco on the map. It is true that Princess Grace did not find her life in Monaco entirely satisfying.

In 1962, after she had had two miscarriages, Prince Rainier relaxed his ban on her appearing in films to the extent of giving her permission to appear in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. But she had to withdraw when it became clear that the Monégasques recoiled from the idea. Later, in the 1970s, Princess Grace would spend a good deal of time in Paris. But if the Rainiers had their differences, their partnership remained solid. And the prestige which Princess Grace gave Monaco undoubtedly helped Rainier to fulfil his ambition of making the principality a viable proposition. In the 1950s Monaco had benefited from Onassis's investments in the Société de Bains de Mer. Rainier, however, meant to govern absolutely, and did not hesitate to overrule the National Council (in which Onassis angled for support) if it resisted him. Since Onassis saw Monaco in terms of a playground for the rich, whereas Rainier thought in terms of more wide-ranging commercial development, a showdown between the two was inevitable. First, though, Rainier needed to settle his differences with the French government.

President de Gaulle looked sourly upon the exemption from income and inheritance taxes which French subjects could achieve by establishing residence in Monaco, and in 1962 French customs officers blocked the main roads leading in and out of the principality. The next year Rainier was obliged to renegotiate Monaco's independence by conceding that French citizens would no longer be able to claim tax privileges. Rainier was now ready to confront Onassis. In 1964 he regained control of the Société des Bains de Mer by the simple, if high-handed, means of creating 600,000 new shares in the company, to be controlled by the state. Within a week Onassis's yacht Christina had slipped away from Monaco. Left to his own devices, Rainier set out to transform a faded gambling resort into a rather more diverse centre of tourism. He also used the favourable tax climate to attract banking and such light industries as plastics, cosmetics and jewellery. The Prince was never happier than when poring over plans for new buildings; and with a constant stream of foreigners eager to establish residence in order to escape taxes, and American capital flowing freely into Monaco as a result of his marriage, he had both the motive and the means for construction.

From the commercial point of view, most of the developments - and particularly Loew's Hotel and Conference Centre, which was wedged into the cliff below the old casino, on the site of an ancient pigeon shoot - proved hugely successful. Aesthetically, its benefits were very much less obvious. Princess Grace did what she could to limit the damage to buildings of the belle époque, and managed to save the Hermitage Hotel. But she could not prevent Monaco becoming a megalopolis, albeit still studded with odd glimpses of the past. Big yachts in the harbour towered over gnarled fishermen mending their nets; old cafés remained in the shadow of concrete monstrosities; games of boules took place alongside traffic snarl-ups. Later, and particularly after Rainier's daughter Princess Caroline married Stefano Casiraghi in 1982, there was a wave of Italian investment, accompanied by rumours (always denied by Rainier) of a Mafia presence and much money-laundering.

On the credit side, some 50 acres (part of which had been 120 ft under water) were reclaimed from the sea in the mid-1980s, and used for 2,000 flats, various small businesses and a sports ground. Up to the mid-1990s Rainier could point to a flourishing economy. Whereas, at the beginning of the 20th century, the casino had accounted for 95 per cent of Monaco's revenue, by the 1980s it was producing only three per cent, as proceeds from VAT swelled the principality's coffers. Rainier presided over an economy in which even the social security system made a profit; in which unemployment was virtually unknown amongst the 5,000 native Monégasques; and in which 24,000 tax exiles found relief from income and inheritance taxes. Moreover, with white-gloved policemen on every corner, and telephone-tapping of suspicious characters, the denizens of Monaco could feel secure against burglary and mugging. If Rainier had hardly achieved his aim of creating an orthodox commercial economy, he had certainly succeeded in capitalising on his inheritance.

Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi was born on May 31 1923 into a princely family whose meagre possessions had never inhibited their capacity for vicious internal feuds. The Grimaldis first made their mark in the 12th century, as a seafaring (not to say piratical) family in Genoa. Their connection with Monaco dates from 1297, when François Grimaldi, known as "the Spiteful", captured the Rock from the Genoese, who had fortified it since 1215. Although François was soon expelled, a kinsman of his bought the lordship of Monaco in 1338; and soon afterwards added to it the nearby villages of Roquebruna and Mentoneas (now Roquebrune and Menton). Although the Grimaldis were again chased off the Rock by the Genoese in 1355, they were able to re-purchase Monaco in 1419. This time they clung on to their prize, though compelled in the early 17th century to accept Spanish protection.

No one troubled to object when, in 1612, the lord of Monaco began to refer to himself as "Prince". The Grimaldis lost their principality during the French Revolution, when Monaco became part of the Alpes Maritimes département of France. Even after it was restored to them in 1814, the Grimaldis hardly felt secure. Indeed, in 1861, after France and Sardinia had joined forces to throw the Austrians out of Italy, France gained Menton and Roquebrune, where the Grimaldis' taxation had long been resented. But Monaco itself emerged from these negotiations with its independence confirmed. Meanwhile Prince Charles III, or more accurately his mother Princess Caroline, had hit upon the means of restoring the Grimaldis' fortunes by introducing a casino in 1857. The Société des Basins de Mer was set up to run the enterprise, with the stipulation that no native Monégasque should be allowed into the casino. The business did not prosper until the injection of Rothschild money made possible the building of hotels, and of a new casino which opened in 1864. So Monte Carlo (named after Prince Charles) was born.

Yet, though the Grimaldis were now well off, they remained as quarrelsome as ever. And at the end of the 19th century, their natural talent for discord was sharpened by a startling mésalliance. A laundrywoman who worked for Louis Grimaldi, Rainier's grandfather, asked him to keep an eye on her daughter Marie, who worked in a Montmartre night club, when he went to Paris. This Louis did to such effect that he had a daughter with Marie, called Charlotte. For some time the rest of the Grimaldis would have nothing to do with either Marie or Charlotte. But in the absence of any other heir, Louis's father, Prince Albert, arranged in 1919 for Charlotte to be legitimised and (the next year) married to an impoverished French aristocrat, Pierre, Comte de Polignac. A daughter, Antoinette, was born at the end of 1920; and three years later Rainier became the first Grimaldi heir to be born in Monaco since 1758.

Having discharged his procreative duty, de Polignac, sensible of being disliked almost as much by his wife as by his father-in-law, left Monaco. "To make love," Princess Charlotte complained, "he needs to put a crown on his head." By the terms of his divorce settlement, he was forbidden to return to Monaco; and the carabineri were given instructions to eject him bodily if he flouted this ban. The Grimaldis employed an English nanny, Kathleen Wanstall (said to be a cousin of Winston Churchill), who resolutely refused to speak, or even listen to, a word of French. De Polignac, who had retained rights over Rainier's education, insisted on his going to an English prep school, Summer Fields, at St Leonards, where he was known as "Fat Boy Monaco". Rainier went on to Stowe, from which he ran away; when he was returned to the school the authorities placed him in the sanatorium. Meanwhile, Prince Louis and de Polignac continued to wrangle over their rights to control the boy until the British High Court decreed, in March 1936, that Rainier should be returned to Louis's custody.

Thereafter the prince was sent to an easy-going school at Le Rosey, in Switzerland, where he was much happier. He had just gone to Montpellier University when the Second World War broke out. After the fall of France, Prince Louis of Monaco threw in his lot with the Vichy regime, whereas Rainier, who remained in Montpellier, followed his father in developing sympathies with the Free French. He also acquired a mistress, the French actress Gisèle Pascal. In 1943 he graduated from Montpellier and went on to the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris. He returned to Monaco in September 1944, a month after the Germans had left, and demanded (unsuccessfully) that the principality's pro-Vichy minister should be dismissed. Rainier then joined the French army, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery under fire in Alsace. Subsequently he became a liaison officer with the Americans at Strasbourg, and at the end of the war went to Berlin, where he served in the Economic Section of the French military mission.

After leaving the army in 1947, Rainier took a villa at Beaulieu-sur-mer, where he carried on his affair with Gisèle Pascal. His intellectual interests were confined to zoology; he loved animals, and would later have a small private zoo in Monaco. As to his other pursuits, he enjoyed a whiff of danger, whether skiing, motor racing, piloting speedboats or spear-fishing in the Red Sea. When he succeeded his grandfather as Prince of Monaco in May 1949, his first act was to set aside the will by which Prince Louis left half his fortune to Princess Ghislaine, his consort since 1946. He also invited his father back to Monaco, and set him up in the Hôtel de Paris. Meanwhile, Gisèle Pascal was relegated to the role of weekend companion in a villa on Cap Ferrat. But she missed the theatrical world, and in 1953 married the actor Raymond Pellegrin. Thenceforward Rainier was obliged to look elsewhere in order to secure the succession.

The era of Grace Kelly ended with brutal suddenness on September 13 1982 when her car burst through the barriers on the Corniche road near La Turbie - in the same hills where she had once driven with Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief. Her funeral, unlike her wedding, was attended by an impressive number of dignitaries, including the King and Queen of Belgium, the Queen of Spain, the Princess of Wales and Nancy Reagan. Rainier was devastated by his loss, and for some time afterwards seemed unable to maintain his normal control. In New York in 1983 he earned the sobriquet "Rocky" Rainier on account of his penchant for throwing punches at photographers who snapped him with various escorts. There were rumours that he would marry Princess Ira von Furstenberg, reputedly described by Princess Margaret as too big a woman for so small a principality. Rainier himself might have reflected that his children provided more than enough family life. Princess Caroline, his eldest child, reacted against her parents to the extent of marrying the French playboy Philippe Junot in 1978; they divorced in 1980, and the Catholic Church obliged with an annulment.

Her second marriage, to Stefano Casiraghi in 1983, ended when he was killed in a speedboat accident in 1990. She married Prince Ernst August of Hanover in 1999. Princess Stephanie, Rainier's youngest child, capped various amatory adventures by marrying Daniel Ducruet, her former bodyguard, in 1995; their union ended four years later when he was filmed making love to a stripper who had won the "Miss Bare Breasts Belgium" title; Princess Stephanie later took up with an elephant trainer, a butler and a gardener before deciding to marry a trapeze artist. During the 1980s there was speculation that Rainier would abdicate in favour of his son, Prince Albert, born in 1958. But Albert's reluctance to marry, and an apparent lack of iron in his character, did nothing to forward his early succession. He now succeeds his father; in 2002 the constitution was changed so that the title can pass through the female line if he remains childless.

Even though the remarkable economic growth which Rainier had brought to Monaco tailed off in the later 1990s, he had certainly been one of the more successful princes of Monaco. First published April 7 2005 Grace Kelly marriage claims anger Monaco royal family | Daily Mail Online comments 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. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share 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. Grace Kelly, 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.

Grace Kelly Wedding Sign up today to be notified of new postings Home » Wedding to Prince Rainier III Wedding to Prince Rainier III At the age of 26, the Oscar winning actress Grace Kelly became Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III. It was the wedding of the century, watched by 30 million people around the world, at a time when there weren’t televisions in every home. Over 1500 reporters descended on the tiny Principality, whose population was only 23,000 at the time. There were more reporters covering the wedding than had covered the entirety of WWII. The reporters got so out of hand that Prince Rainier finally had to call in the French riot police. Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier in May 1955 when, attending the Cannes Film Festival; she had agreed to be photographed with the Prince for French magazine “Paris Match”. After a year-long courtship, they married in a civil ceremony in the Palace throne room on April 18, 1956 in the presence of their closest family and friends.

The next day, the lavish religious wedding took place at the Cathedral in Monaco in front of 600 guests, including royalty, heads of state and movie stars. All week long, Monaco was caught up in a media frenzy of the Grace Kelly wedding. Thousands of guests and visitors jammed the streets of the tiny Principality while Rainier and Grace were swept through garden parties, formal receptions, gala ballet performances, balls and fireworks. Grace Kelly influenced fashion to new heights, spreading from the United States to Europe. Before leaving for Monaco in April, she spent two weeks in New York to complete her wedding trousseau, with a Who’s Who of America’s top designers. (Trousseau is an old French word for the articles assembled in preparation for a wedding, honeymoon and the initial months as a newlywed – things like clothing, lingerie, accessories, jewelry, beauty products, bed-linen and so on.) Her accessories, a major part of her ladylike look, included silk chiffon scarves, shoes, hats and gloves. Grace’s accessories became famous in themselves, from the stylish hat that hid her beautiful face as she arrived in Monaco on the SS CONSTITUTION, to the iconic Hermes bag that still bears her name, the “Kelly Bag”.

Grace Kelly’s wedding trousseau was certainly fit for a Princess, consisting of around forty day and evening outfits, including two Helen Rose-designed wedding gowns, and a dozen costumes from her final film, High Society, donated by MGM. Princes Grace Wedding Dress On April 19, 1956, she married Prince Rainier in a legendary wedding dress offered by MGM, created by the studio’s wardrobe department and designed by its costume designer Helen Rose, featuring 125-year-old Brussels lace, yards of silk taffeta and thousands of tiny hand-sewn pearls. It took 6 weeks for 36 seamstresses to make the wedding gown. Even today, the high-necked, long-sleeved dress with a fitted bodice and billowing skirt made of rose point lace, yards of silk faille and taffeta and seed pearls, is one of the most elegant and best-remembered wedding gowns of all time.

Prince Rainier III Born on May 31st, 1923 in Monaco, Prince Rainier III made His first studies in England, at Summer Fields and at Stowe, then in Switzerland at the college of the castle of Le Rosey in Rolle (the entire school moved to Gstaad every winter). He continued His studies in Montpellier, where he obtained the diploma of graduate-ès-letters. He followed, finally, in Paris, the courses of the School of Political Sciences. In 1949, Prince Rainier III ascended the Throne to become Sovereign Prince of Monaco. His reign is one of those which transformed the Principality the most regarding policy, diplomatic, international, economic and social fields, and in those of education, sport, health, science, culture and communication. Known as “The Builder Prince”, he changed the face of Monaco, expanding the land by 20%. Prince Rainier passed away on April 06, 2005 at age 81. He had never remarried after the death of his beloved Grace on September 14, 1982. After her funeral, he delayed her burial by one day to have his grave dug next to hers.

Princess Grace and Prince Rainier are both laid to rest side by side for eternity at the Monaco Cathedral. Grace and Rainier Together with his Princess, they transformed the small Mediterranean nation from a seaside holiday hotspot into an international financial, cultural and business center. Princess Grace warmly welcomed visitors from all walks of life to her new home on the Mediterranean coast; from Heads of State to Hollywood luminaries, international dignitaries to business travelers, vacationers to top sports stars and entertainers. Flashback: Prince Rainier III marries Grace Kelly - Photos Photos Flashback: Prince Rainier III marries Grace Kelly By Photos Email Lionel Cironneau / AP Prince Albert II of Monaco and bride-to-be Charlene Wittstock attend to the St Jean Religious Parade , Thursday, June 23, 2011, in Monaco. Prince Albert II of Monaco and his fiancee Charlene Wittstock of South Africa, will wed on July 1 and 2.

According to Reuters: His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, the 53-year-old ruler of the tiny city-state of Monaco and head of the centuries-old House of Grimaldi, will wed Charlene Wittstock, 33, on July 2 at the Prince's Palace. The wedding festivities will begin two days before when the couple hosts a special Eagles concert for 15,000 people at a stadium in western Monaco. A civil ceremony will take place the following day and it will be broadcast live on giant screens outside for the Monegasque people to watch. On July 2, Albert and Wittstock, a South African Olympic Swimmer, will tie the knot for the second time during a religious ceremony at the palace's main courtyard, followed by a procession, an evening reception catered by chef Alain Ducasse, and a gala ball. Saturday's wedding will be the first of a ruling prince in Monaco since Albert's father, Prince Rainier III, married Hollywood actress Grace Kelly in 1956, and locals hope Wittstock could bring back some of the glamour which died alongside Kelly in a 1982 car crash.

Below are some photos from the 1956 wedding of Prince Rainier III to Grace Kelly. AFP - Getty Images Prince Rainier III of Monaco and U.S. actress and princess of Monaco Grace Kelly salute the crowd as they leave Saint Nicholas Cathedral after their wedding ceremony in Monaco on April 19, 1956 in a convertible cream and black Rolls Royce offered by the people of Monaco as a wedding gift. In Monaco, commentators are convinced that the marriage of Prince Albert will be an even bigger event than his parents' 1956 wedding, which saw prince Rainier tie the knot with U.S. film star Grace Kelly. AFP - Getty Images A photo taken on April 19, 1956 shows U.S. actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco during their wedding ceremony in Monaco. AFP - Getty Images Official picture of U.S. actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco during their wedding ceremony in Monaco on April 19, 1956.

NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports on the upcoming royal wedding between Prince Albert of Monaco and South African Charlene Wittstock, which is rife with rumors of lovechildren for the prince and cold feet for the princess-to-be.

Question: Who was the film star who married Prince Rainier III of Monaco?
Answer: Grace Kelly