Princess Grace`s Fatal Crash: Her Daughter`s Account - tribunedigital-chicagotribune Princess Grace`s Fatal Crash: Her Daughter`s Account October 23, 1989|By From ``Rainier and Grace: An Intimate Portrait`` ($18.95); (copyright) 1989 by Jeffrey Robinson. On Sept. 13, 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco was killed when the car she was driving somersaulted over a cliff. Her daughter, Princess Stephanie, who was with her, had not spoken on the record about the crash until an interview with author Jeffrey Robinson for his book, ``Rainier and Grace: An Intimate Portrait.`` She recounts the accident in this excerpt from the book. At about 9 a.m., on Monday, Sept. 13, 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco woke her daughter, Stephanie. They had tickets for a train to Paris, where Stephanie, 17, would start school on Wednesday.

While Grace was getting ready to leave for the palace, her chauffeur brought the 11-year-old metallic green Rover 3500 out of the garage and parked it in front of the house at Roc Agel, the royal family`s farm, in the hills above Monaco. When Grace came out of the house, her arms were full of dresses which she spread flat across the rear seat of the car. A maid followed with other dresses and large hat boxes, and together they filled the rear seat. Then she called for Stephanie. Grace`s chauffeur was standing by the car, ready to drive the two of them to the palace. Grace didn`t much like driving and didn`t do a lot of it, although she liked the Rover. There wasn`t a lot of mileage on it because she didn`t use it much. Still, she always insisted it be well maintained. It hardly, if ever, went any farther from the palace garage than Roc Agel. And even then it usually was driven by a chauffeur. Now, however, with the back seat covered, there wasn`t room enough for Grace and Stephanie and a chauffeur. Grace told her chauffeur that it would be easier if she drove. He said that there was no need for that.

If she left the dresses there, he would drive her down and then come back for the clothes. She said, no, please don`t bother, she would drive. He kept trying to persuade her, but Grace insisted. So Grace got behind the wheel, and Stephanie climbed into the passenger seat. At about 10 a.m. they pulled away from Roc Agel. The road from the farm winds down the hill and into La Turbie. The road from there down to the Moyenne Corniche, which takes you into Monaco, is called the D37. Approximately 2 miles from La Turbie, there is an especially steep bend where you have to brake very hard and steer carefully to follow the road 150 degrees to the right. Grace missed that turn. The Rover slammed into the small retaining wall and went through it. The car somersaulted as it crashed 120 feet through branches of trees, careening off the slope, tossing Grace and Stephanie around inside. The accident that claimed the life of the former Grace Kelly captured the attention of the world. Nearly 100 million people watched the funeral of the former American movie star on Saturday, Sept.

18: Her husband, Prince Rainier, in his uniform, shattered with grief, his oldest child, Caroline, veiled in black, reaching out to touch him. His son, Albert, walked at his side, holding his father`s arm. Stephanie, the youngest of Grace and Rainier`s three children, was not present at the funeral. Still hospitalized for minor injuries from the accident, she wasn`t told of her mother`s death until two days after the crash. Caroline is the only member of the family to have discussed with Stephanie what happened in the car that morning. ``Stephanie told me, `Mommy kept saying, I can`t stop. The brakes don`t work. I can`t stop.` She said that Mommy was in a complete panic. Stephanie grabbed the hand brake. She told me right after the accident, `I pulled on the hand brake but it wouldn`t stop. I tried but I just couldn`t stop the car.` `` Stephanie, now 24, says she has never discussed the accident with her father or brother. Some people close to the family say they think that Stephanie has since blocked the accident out of her mind, that she remembers nothing of what happened.

This is not the case, she said in a taped interview. ``I remember every minute of it,`` she says, trying to retain her composure. `It`s only in the last few years that I`ve been starting to cope with it. I had some professional help and especially in the last eight months I`ve been learning to deal with it. I still can`t go down that road, even if someone else is driving. I always ask them to take the other road. But at least I can talk about it without crying. Although it`s hard for me to get it out in front of my dad. As far as I`m concerned, I can live with it. But I still can`t talk to my dad about it because I know it hurts him and I don`t want to do that because I love him.`` Black out at the wheel Family members recall that Grace was tired at the end of that busy summer. They remember her being irritable, suffering from high blood pressure (later published reports quote her doctors as saying that she did not have high blood pressure) and going through menopause.

Death of a Princess - The Story of Grace Kelly's Fatal Car Crash Death of a Princess - The Story of Grace Kelly's Fatal Car Crash by Frank Wilkins Few princesses live happily ever after. And few fairy tales ever end up quite as imagined. This was surely the case with film actress Grace Kelly who would marry into European royalty before eventually meeting her untimely demise on a hilly Monaco roadside. Behind Grace’s regal façade was an imperfect (but never dull) reality that would eventually shatter the fairy tale-like existence the world thought they knew. In fact, film director Alfred Hitchcock had seen glimpses of the beautiful Hollywood leading lady’s dark side, and once described her as a “snow-capped volcano – full of fire under the ice.“ Never Enough Born November 12, 1929 to Jack Kelly, a wealthy Philadelphia construction contractor (and former Olympic champion) and his wife Margaret, Grace Patricia Kelly was constantly forced to vie for her father’s attention amongst her three other siblings. Her father, a self-made man, exuded extreme confidence and never failed to dominate anyone around him… including his children. Even an eventual Oscar win, didn’t seem to garner her father’s attention.

When asked the morning after his daughter’s Oscar win for her role in 1954’s THE COUNTRY GIRL, Jack Kelly reportedly replied, “I though it would be Peggy. Anything Grace could do, Peggy could always do better. I simply can’t believe Grace won. Of my four children, she’s the last one I’d expect to support me in my old age.” Her Education As a teenager, Grace would attend a nearby convent school run by the Sisters of Assumption. At the age of 14, the shy, young girl would then move on to Stevens Academy in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania where one of her instructors would recall, “she really wasn’t interested in scholastic achievement – she gave priority to drama and boys.” Apparently that was a very astute observation! To Europe and Then New York Foregoing college, young Grace would instead choose a trip to Europe and then enrollment in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Her skeptical parents (who had to pull some strings for the prestigious school that counts Gene Tierney, Kate Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Kirk Douglas amongst its alumni) agreed to only pay for one year’s tuition.

To pay her own way, the industrious Grace found work fashion modeling and was even selected as cover girl for several publications. She lived at the Barbizon Hotel for Women on 63rd Street. Oh, and by the way, she began to have an affair with a 27-year-old Academy instructor (which was disapproved of by her parents not because of the age difference, or because he was married… but rather because he was Jewish.) Grace Hits the Big Time Grace’s acting abilities began to gain notice as she performed in many TV and live performances, including her Broadway debut as Raymond Massey’s daughter in THE FATHER (1949). She would get a pretty big break in the early ‘50s when she took on the role of the Quaker wife to ex-marshal Gary Cooper in HIGH NOON in 1952. The movie (and Grace Kelly) became a hit. But so did Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper as an item. Not only was the Hollywood leading man 28 years her senior, he was also married. Though the flame only lasted a short while, a bold pattern of liaisons would begin to emerge. After returning to Broadway, Grace would continue her romance with actor Gene Lyons.

She then moved on briefly to Clark Gable whom she met while filming MOGAMBO in 1953. During the shooting of DIAL M FOR MURDER she dabbled in Ray Milland, and later, fashion designer Oleg Cassini, French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, Bing Crosby and William Holden. See a pattern emerging? But for her on-camera skills in THE COUNTRY GIRL, Grace would win an Academy Award in 1955. Cannes and The Prince Grace Kelly attended the Cannes Film Festival in May 1955. Actress Olivia de Havilland’s fashion mag editor husband, Pierre Galante would eventually cobble together the meeting between Grace Kelly and the 31-year-old Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Facing middle age and a slight weight problem, the pudgy prince decided he needed a wife and heirs to his throne. Consequently, Grace Kelly had become tired of the Hollywood grind and of her MGM contract (poor thing!). After accepting a $2 million dowry from the Kelly’s, on January 5, 1956, the Prince would ask the beautiful actress to marry him.

The couple was married four months later on April 18, 1956. The wedding was watched on television by an estimated 30 million people. Grace Kelly was now Princess Grace of Monaco. The End of a Career Not only did her wedding mark the beginning of a life of luxuriant royalty, more importantly it was the end of her film and acting career. Grace would eventually give birth to three children: Caroline, Albert (future heir to the throne of Monaco), and Stephanie. Grace Kelly played the role of princess well for 25 years… at least on the outside. That flaming monster of love for some “strange” would rear its ugly head many times throughout the years however, and resulted in numerous extra-marital affairs, including a “thing” with such luminaries as David Niven and even Frank Sinatra. Not to be left out though, ‘ol Princy himself was rumored to have swung the club from time to time as well. Grace eventually began to miss her acting career and would try to revive it. She accepted the lead in Hitchcock’s MARNIE, but was eventually replaced by Tippi Hedron. In 1976 she joined the board of directors of Twentieth Century-Fox.

She wanted back in the movie game but the Rainier’s always said “Uh, no.” That Day in September On the morning of September 13, 1982, Princess Grace and her daughter Stephanie were to head back to Monaco from their vacation residence, Roc Agel. They loaded the Rover SD-1 (corrected as Rover P6 3500V8 *) with luggage and prepared for the 35-minute drive back to town. The car was so packed full of belongings, Princess Grace suggested to the chauffeur that she would drive them by herself… bad decision! At 9:30 in the morning, with Stephanie in the passenger seat and Princess Grace behind the wheel, the car would set out down a narrow, treacherous and windy road, CD37 ( Route de La Tourbie ). Contrary to popular belief, this was not the same road on which she drove in her 1955 movie, TO CATCH A THIEF. How ironic would that have been? Anyway, ten minutes into the drive things would go horribly awry. A motorist driving behind the Princess’s vehicle would report seeing the Rover swerving erratically back and forth.

The concerned observer would honk several times to get the attention of what he assumed to be a drunk or sleepy driver. As Princess Grace’s car approached a hairpin curve in the road known as "Devil’s Curse,” it suddenly accelerated to well over 50 m.p.h. The car crashed through the stone barrier before careening down the 120-foot hillside, clipping the tops of the trees as it lurched its way down the slope. A local gardener heard the accident and upon reaching the scene, noticed the wrecked vehicle had struck a tree near the bottom of the hill and rested near a pile of rocks. The good Samaritan observed that Stephanie had extricated herself from the car and was yelling to help get her mother out of the vehicle. “Help, my mother! My mother is in there! Get her out!” The unconscious Grace was removed by smashing the vehicle’s rear window. Princess Grace and Stephanie were taken to a local hospital in Monaco for treatment for their injuries. Reports say that Monaco Hospital (later renamed Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace - Princess Grace Hospital Center), where the injured survivors were taken, was not well equipped for these types of injuries.

Surgery was performed on Grace’s lungs to stop the internal bleeding. Her other injuries included multiple fractures of the collar bone, thigh, and ribs. A CAT scan revealed that shortly before the accident, Grace had suffered a stroke which rendered her unable to control the vehicle. Fearing that the princess may survive as a helpless invalid, the royal palace attempted a cover up of the extent of her injuries. But at 10:30 p.m. on September 14, 1982, Princess Grace was taken off her life-support equipment and she passed on to the next plane. She was 52-years-old. In State The body of Princess Grace would lay in state in her open coffin until September 18, when a funeral was conducted in the same cathedral where she was married 26 years earlier. On September 21, Princess Grace of Monaco was laid to rest in the Grimaldi family vault in St. Nicholas Cathedral.

Her marble slab is inscribed with the words, “Grace Patricia, wife of Prince Rainier III, died the year of our Lord, 1982.” The car was crushed into a small cube, taken out to sea and allowed to sink to the bottom of the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. UPDATE: *Thanks to Morbidly Hollywood© friend Davie B., we've updated the story to reflect that Princess Grace was indeed driving a Rover P6, not an SD-1 as was originally reported. UPDATE: Morbidly Hollywood friend Bill S. gave us the following information - I just somehow linked to your site, and read the Princess Grace death story Having been involved in various tasks watching over national events, I wanted to add something. She deserves to have the main part of the history presented. What is left out is the main political scandal in Europe at that time. Two weeks prior to her death, a membership list of the infamous oligarchic P2 Lodge became public. The Italian government collapsed when many of the leaders names were discovered to be on it. It was known by intelligence groups to be a secret collection of nation destroying oligarchs, which spanned numerous countries.

The chairman of the P2 Lodge was her husband Prince Ranier, of Monaco. Princess Grace was a moral woman I think. Perhaps things she had ignored in the past suddenly seemed to have more weight. Perhaps she intended to do the moral thing. To get away from him for a start, not trusting the chauffeur of the prince, since he would naturally spy on her for the prince. More Grace Kelly Stuff: The hairpin curve, "Devil's Curse" where Grace Kelly plowed her car through the barrier and down the embankment. Aerial view of "Devil's Curse." Contrary to popular belief and counter to what would have made a much more juicy urban legend, Grace Kelly did not crash on the same bit of roadway as where she drove in the 1955 film To Catch a Thief. In fact, the two are actually several miles from each other. *Click map to enlarge The steep embankment below "Devil's Curse." Kelly's car would come to a halt at the bottom of the hill. Boulevard Princesse Grace De Monaco.

A Rover P6 3500 V8, probably very similar to the one Princess Grace was driving when she suffered a stroke and drove it off the hillside. Grace Kelly and Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1955). In the film, Grace was driving a stretch of road very close to the actual location of her eventual fatal accident. Princess Grace's coffin being carried into St. Nicholas Cathedral. Where Grace Kelly is buried. The Rainier Palace in Monaco. Sweet digs, huh? St. Nicholas Cathedral, where Grace Kelly was married and where she is buried. Wedding ceremony of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III, of Monaco. The Rainier Royal Family. (l-r Caroline, Prince Rainier, Grace, Albert, and Stephanie. Imagine the thoughts rambling behind those pregnant smiles! Grace Kelly with James Stewart and Bob Hope. The Manhattan House at 200 East 66th Street. Grace Kelly Once Lived Here.

Car Crash of Grace Kelly: Death & Funeral of Princess Grace Car Crash of Grace Kelly: Death & Funeral of Princess Grace Grace of Monaco – The Movie Translate this site Movie Synopsis Grace of Monaco Film The story of former Hollywood star Grace Kelly’s crisis of marriage and identity, during a political dispute between Monaco’s Prince Rainier III and France’s Charles De Gaulle, and a looming French invasion of Monaco in the early 1960s. Derek Jacobi “Fairytales tell imaginary stories. Me, I’m a living person. I exist. If the story of my life as a real women were to be told one day, people would at last discover the real being that I am.” Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco Discover the Real Princess Grace : and the truth behind the Grace of Monaco movie as recounted by one of her closest friends Death The Death of Princess Grace Princess Grace (Kelly) died on Sep 14, 1982 after a tragic car crash on the windy roads as she was driving from her country home to the Palace of Monaco. Even in an age before Twitter, social media and even the Internet, news of Princess Grace’s death spread around the word as people everywhere felt shock and disbelief.

Unlike the portrayal in the 2014 Nicole Kidman movie “Grace of Monaco”, Princess Grace was not a reckless driver … even in the early years. Cary Grant recalls her driving very tamely – only making him nervous because she was not wearing her glasses when they filmed Grace Kelly driving in the hills above Monaco during Alfred Hitchock’s “To Catch a Thief”. Ultimately it was determined that Princess Grace died of a brain hemorrhage – a stroke that impeded her ability to maneuver the car. To Catch a Thief – Grace Kelly – Grace of Monaco Car Crash of Grace Kelly: Death & Funeral The Car Accident It was shortly after 10 am Monday morning of September 13 when the car Princess Grace was driving missed a curve and catapulted down a cliff. It is a road that Princess Grace often travelled yet not often drove herself, but that morning she dismissed her chauffeur as there were dresses and boxes in the back seat. With her daughter Princess Stephanie as her passenger (as witnessed by a police officer as they drove by), Princess Grace set out on what should have been a relatively short drive in her beloved 11-year-old metallic green Rover 3500.

The Car Crash Photos of the car crash show the severe state of the accident after dropping more than 100 feet over the retaining wall. These car crash pictures make one wonder how anyone could have survived this horrific accident. In all the confusion, initial rumors spread that Princess Stephanie was at the wheel despite numerous eyewitness accounts that did not see her driving. These rumors were fueled by the fact that Princess Stephanie had to escape from the car through the driver side window because the passenger door was impassable. Princess Stephanie miraculously survived the accident with a fractured vertebra in her neck. Although there were initial reports Princess Grace was out of danger, suffering a broken thigh bone, collar bone and rib injuries, her head injuries were quite severe and ultimately she died from a second brain hemorrhage. This is a map image of the Princess Grace crash car site from above showing the road itself. (and this was not the same road that was filmed during To Catch a Thief). Princess Grace Funeral On Saturday Sep. 18, 1982 heads of state, celebrities, royals and close to 100 million television viewers said good-bye to Grace Kelly the Hollywood icon, and the legendary Princess Grace.

The final resting place of Her Serene Highness is the same cathedral in which she had her fairy-tale wedding to Prince Rainier in 1956. Honoring Princess Grace In her last interview two months before Princess Grace died, she was asked how she would like to be remembered. She answered, “I would like to be remembered as a decent human being, and a caring one”. Those that want to get to know the real Grace, can now read the personal account shared in “My Days with Princess Grace of Monaco” through candid photos, letters and diaries that reveal her true character. You will experience what her life, family and relationship with Prince Rainier were really like, at home at the Palace of Monaco, at their private retreat at Rocagel, and on family vacations. The last chapter is a rare glimpse into what her final days were like, on the last family vacation just one month before she died. ABC Special Report on Princess Grace Funeral This archival report brings you back to one of the saddest days in the Principality of Monaco – and around the world. September 18, 1982 brought to Monaco representatives of many governments and royal families, including Princess Diana, U.S.

First Lady Nancy Reagan, and Danielle Mitterrand (wife of the French President) – all sitting side-by-side. Photos and Images Funeral & Death of Grace Kelly Words may be foreign but photos and images are universal: More on Grace Kelly : Biography & Documentary On This Day: Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco dies in car crash On This Day: Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco dies in car crash Julian Gavaghan Grace Kelly - Later Princess Grace Of Monaco More September 14: The former Hollywood star who became Princess Grace of Monaco died on this day in 1982 following a car crash that reignited fears of a Curse of Grimaldi. The 52-year-old American, who had been plain Grace Kelly until she married Prince Rainier III in 1956, drove off a mountain pass after suffering a minor stroke. She and Stephanie, the youngest of their three children, were pulled alive from the wreckage but Princess Grace died a day later after suffering a brain haemorrhage. Her then 17-year-old daughter, who went on to become an equally glamorous fashion model, survived after suffering a serious cervical fracture. Initially investigators from just over the border in France, where the crash occurred, thought the brakes might have failed.

Others feared she was the victim of a curse that is said to have haunted Monaco’s royal family since a 13th century cutthroat ancestor gained the tiny principality. In the end, it was established that there was nothing wrong with the car and that the crash was probably caused by the princess suffering a minor stroke. The Dial M For Murder star was buried in the Grimaldi family vault after a funeral at Monaco’s St Nicholas Cathedral in front of European royals and Hollywood A-listers. The princess’s friend James Stewart, who starred in Rear Window with her, gave a eulogy in which he said Grace brought a “soft, warm light” into everyone’s lives. However, the actress who was widely acclaimed as the most beautiful woman in the world is often said to have been unhappy during her marriage to Rainier, whom she met at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. She suffered two miscarriages, which were said to have been brought on by stress over her husband’s instance that she give up on her Hollywood career. In 1962, she was forced to turn down an offer of $1million –worth $7.6million in today’s money - from director Alfred Hitchcock.

Yet their 26-year marriage was highly successful to the fortunes of Monaco, with the glamorous superstar helping to put the home to just 30,000 people on the map. A British Pathé newsreel filmed their fairy tail wedding that lit up the world’s imagination with her elegant gown, splendid pageantry and a glittering reception. Fascination in the glamorous couple helped Rainier secure the viability of Monaco by expanding its economy away from relying on the casinos and Grand Prix. In 1962, he ended a tax haven row with France by ruling that French citizens could not avoid paying income tax by becoming residents of the principality. But as no similar agreement has been made with any other country, the micro-sized state in the heart of the Riviera has become home to thousands of other tax exiles. An impressive mesh of concrete and glass towers now crowd the hilly principality, which also opened itself up to banks, manufacturing and regular tourism. The prince and princess had three children: Caroline, Stephanie and Albert II, the current ruler of Monaco. Rainier, who was Europe’s longest serving monarch until his death in 2005, never married again and is buried beside Grace.

Reblog BBC ON THIS DAY | 14 | 1982: Hollywood princess dead About This Site | Text Only 1982: Hollywood princess dead Princess Grace of Monaco has died of the injuries she sustained in a car crash near Monte Carlo yesterday. The Hollywood actress Grace Kelly - who starred in the Alfred Hitchcock hits Dial M for Murder and Rear Window - suffered a brain haemorrhage. A statement issued by the royal palace said she died at 2130 GMT after her conditioned worsened throughout the morning and become irreversible by the afternoon. It also said the former film star's husband, Monaco's head of state Prince Rainier, and her three children were at her bedside when she died. The US-born princess' youngest daughter Stephanie was in the car at the time of the accident, but suffered only light bruising. Brake failure The news of her death was unexpected as previous reports from the palace had indicated that despite broken ribs, leg and collarbone she was in a stable condition. The Monaco royal family also released an account of yesterday's accident and said the princess had lost control of the car when the brakes failed.

After leaving the road her 10-year-old Rover tumbled 100 ft (30.5 m) down a ravine, turning over several times before coming to rest in a garden. But a witness who was driving behind the two princesses said the car began zigzagging erratically some time before the crash happened. Two engineers from British Leyland are on their way to Monte Carlo to examine the wreckage. Grace Kelly Dies in Monaco - HISTORY.com Audio Grace Kelly Dies in Monaco (2) On September 14, 1982, CBS News reports the death of Princess Grace of Monaco, who died in Monte Carlo of injuries suffered in a car crash the day before. Grace Kelly Dies in Monaco (2 min) tv-14 On September 14, 1982, CBS News reports the death of Princess Grace of Monaco, who died in Monte Carlo of injuries suffered in a car crash the day before. Related Speeches & Audio Grace Kelly: 30 years after princess' death, actress-turned-royalty remains an icon | Daily Mail Online Share this article Share 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 Icon

ic: 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. Read more: PRINCESS GRACE IS DEAD AFTER RIVIERA CAR CRASH - NYTimes.com PRINCESS GRACE IS DEAD AFTER RIVIERA CAR CRASH By CLYDE HABERMAN Published: September 15, 1982 Princess Grace of Monaco, whose stately beauty and reserve gave her enduring Hollywood stardom even long after she ended her film career, died yesterday in Monte Carlo of injuries suffered when her car plunged off a mountain road Monday. She was 52 years old.

The Princess, the former Grace Kelly, died of a cerebral hemorrhage, a palace spokesman said in Monaco. Princess Grace wa driving her British Rover 3500 on a snaking road at Cap-d'Ail in the Cote d'Azur region when she lost control and plunged down a 45-foot embankment. The car burst into flames, and the Princess suffered multiple fractures, including a broken thighbone, collarbone and ribs. Initial reports gave no sense that her life was in jeopardy. But a Monaco Government announcement yesterday said that her health had ''deteriorated during the night.'' ''At the end of the day all therapeutic possibilities had been exceeded,'' the announcement said. With her in the car was Stephanie, 17, her youngest child by Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Stephanie was under observation at a hospital where she had been treated for shock and bruises. Reagan Praises 'Gentle Lady' Princess Grace's death brought expressions of grief from former Hollywood colleagues and from residents of her hometown, Philadelphia.

President Reagan called her ''a compassionate and gentle lady.'' In Philadelphia, a spokesman for John Cardinal Krol said the Cardinal, who was a close friend, would offer a memorial mass for her at noon Friday. Alfred Hitchcock, who directed Grace Kelly in three films and was certainly in a position to judge, once said she had ''sexual elegance.'' And it was that very elegance that probably made its most lasting impression on movie audiences of the 1950's. Whether playing the heiress in ''To Catch a Thief'' or the Quaker pacifist in ''High Noon'' or the amusedly detached career girl - a term still in vogue when ''Rear Window'' was made - Grace Kelly carried herself with straight back and clipped-voice self-assurance. Yet just beneath the frosty exterior lay a sensuality and warmth that cracked the formidable reserve. It was this delicate balance of contrasts that helped give her legendary status - a remarkable achievement for an actress whose career encompassed only 11 films. She made more of that small portfolio than actors who lasted in Hollywood many more decades.

Twice she was nominated for an Academy Award, and once she won it, for her 1954 performance in ''The Country Girl.'' There was a certain irony in the fact that the Oscar came, not for her portrayal of yet another detached beauty but of a frumpy harridan, desperate in her unhappy marriage. By then the range of her talent was obvious, and Miss Kelly was constantly in demand for a variety of screen roles. But just as swiftly as her film career blossomed, it came to an abrupt end in 1956 when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco, the tiny principality on the French Riviera. The year before she was in Cannes filming ''To Catch a Thief'' with Cary Grant and it was at the film festival there that she met the Prince, a member of the Grimaldis, Europe's oldest royal family. At first, their friendship seemed little more than a good story for the gossip columns - Hollywood star meets royalty and both drive off into a gold and purple Mediterranean sunset. But before long it became clear that there was more than that to this relationship. He went to Philadelphia to spend a Christmas holiday with her family.

She went to Monte Carlo to visit him in his 200-room pink palazzo. Couple Marry in Cathedral On April 18, 1956, shortly after she completed the movie ''High Society,'' they were married in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Monaco. It was a media event of such staggering proportion that Miss Kelly, now Princess Grace, later suggested that she and the Prince should have been awarded battle ribbons for all the fighting that was required for them to push through the crowds. pick up first add With marriage, she abandoned acting. The effect, as time passed, was to burnish her film career in public memory. Early on in her marriage she received many offers of movie roles but she kept turning them down. Some of her former colleagues in Hollywood could not understand why, but Gary Cooper, her co-star in ''High Noon,'' shrugged off the idea of a Kelly comeback. ''Why should she?'' he said. ''She's moved from an artificial stage to a real one.'' Her Duties Predominate Periodically, there would be reports that she was indeed about to resume her career but nothing ever came of them. ''Here I have my obligations and duties as a princess and mother,'' she said.

''One cannot do everything.'' Her life as Princess of Monaco was obviously enhanced by privilege but also circumscribed by duty. She became a supporter of charities and cultural events. Much of her time was devoted to her three children, the oldest of whom, Princess Caroline, was born in 1957. In recent years, Princess Caroline outranked her mother as a source of fascination for curiosity-seekers, mostly as a result of her marriage to and then divorce from Phillipe Junot, a French businessman whom some people liked to describe as ''the playboy next door.'' 1 Princess Grace`s Fatal Crash: Her Daughter`s Account - Page 2 - tribunedigital-chicagotribune (Page 2 of 3) Princess Grace`s Fatal Crash: Her Daughter`s Account October 23, 1989|By From ``Rainier and Grace: An Intimate Portrait`` ($18.95); (copyright) 1989 by Jeffrey Robinson. ``She wasn`t feeling too well,`` Caroline confirmed. ``She was incredibly tired. The summer had been very busy. She hadn`t stopped going places and doing things all summer long. She`d done too much.

She never mentioned it or complained about it though. But she wasn`t in great form.`` Somewhere along the road Grace complained of a headache, Stephanie said. It continued to bother her as they headed down the hill. Then suddenly a pain shot up through her skull. For a fraction of a second she seemed to black out, Stephanie recalls. The car started to swerve. When she opened her eyes she appeared to be disoriented. In a panic, she jammed her foot on the brake. It appears now that she probably missed the brake and hit the accelerator instead. A witness to the accident said that he was 50 yards behind the Rover, nearing that very steep, sharp curve, when he saw the Rover swerve violently, zigzagging across both lanes. Then the car straightened out and shot ahead very fast. He knew the road and knew that the bend was coming up and, in those two or three seconds when he didn`t see any brake lights on, he realized what was going to happen. Stephanie says she`ll never know for sure if her mother mixed up the accelerator and the brake pedal or just didn`t have the use of her legs.

But when the police investigated the accident and checked the road, there were no skid marks. Neither Grace nor Stephanie was wearing seat belts. `Call my father at the palace` The gardener who heard the car crash onto the property where he was working said in numerous press interviews that he pulled Stephanie out of the driver`s window, giving the impression that Stephanie had been driving. However, Stephanie recalls it differently. ``I found myself huddled under the space below the glove compartment. I lost consciousness as we fell down. I remember hitting the tree and the next thing I remember is waking up and seeing smoke coming out of the car. I thought the car was going to blow up. ``I knew I had to get out of there and get my mom out of there and so I bashed down the door with my legs. It wasn`t hard because the door was half gone, anyway. I ran out and saw a lady standing there and started yelling, ``Please get help, call the palace, I`m Princess Stephanie, call my father and get help.`` It was several minutes before anyone understood her and several minutes more before they believed her. ``I kept pleading with the woman, `Call my father at the palace. Please get help.

My mother is in there.` Everything else is blurred in my mind until the police came.`` Grace had been tossed into the rear of the car, shoved into the back seat and pinned there by the steering column, which opened a severe gash in her head. She appeared to be conscious but was covered in blood. ``The firemen got Mom out of the car and put her in an ambulance,`` Stephanie said. ``I waited there for another ambulance.`` French doctors who treated Grace said that a CAT scan revealed that the princess had suffered a mild cerebral hemorrhage, which caused the accident. But they said that her death, a day and a half after the crash, was caused by a second hemorrhage, apparently triggered by the accident. She never regained consciousness. Rumor `hurts all of us` Early reports indicated that the accident was caused by brake failure. However, Rover engineers flown in to check for mechanical failure or possible sabotage found no mechanical failure. French investigators concluded that the accident occurred when Grace blacked out and lost control of the car. But years later, some doubts about Grace`s death remain, fueled by tabloid press speculation about various plots and conspiracy theories.

``They did their best to keep the story running and didn`t show much human compassion for the pain that we were suffering,`` Prince Rainier said in a recent inteview. ``It was dreadful.`` He stopped for a moment, shook his head, then continued. ``When the press makes up a story about the Mafia wanting to kill Grace, though I can`t for a moment see why the Mafia would want to kill her, if there was some interpretation that seemed even only minutely possible, I`d say, all right. But when they keep rehashing the story that Stephanie was driving and they know it`s not true, when they know it`s been proven that she wasn`t driving, it hurts all of us. ``It`s done a lot of damage and that isn`t fair. Maybe if there had been some sort of mechanical error, I don`t know, but if there had been, Stephanie might have been able to master it better than her mother. But that`s not the point. The point is people don`t know to what extent Stephanie has suffered.`` A No.

1 song Stephanie reacted to the accident by ``dropping out,`` spending most of her time with her boyfriend at the time, Paul Belmondo, son of French actor Jean Paul Belmondo. She told her family that she didn`t want to go on to university. BBC NEWS | Europe | Monaco princess denies crash rumours Friday, 11 October, 2002, 10:40 GMT 11:40 UK Monaco princess denies crash rumours Actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco Princess Stephanie of Monaco has broken her silence over the car crash which killed her mother Princess Grace 20 years ago. In an interview with the French magazine Paris Match, she said that despite persistent rumours to the contrary, it was her mother who was at the wheel of the car when the accident happened, not herself. When I read in the newspapers that I killed my mother, it is simply horrible Princess Stephanie Princess Stephanie and her mother, the former Oscar-winning actress Grace Kelly, were travelling together in the countryside near Monaco on 13 September 1982 when their car plunged down a steep slope. Princess Grace died the next day, while 17-year-old Stephanie sustained multiple injuries.

Persistent rumours Despite doctors' reports that Grace suffered a huge brain haemorrhage which caused her to momentarily lose control of the car, Stephanie has been plagued by rumours that she was in some way to blame for the crash. Persistent allegations that she was the driver, or that the two were arguing heatedly over Stephanie's plans to marry her then-boyfriend, Paul Belmondo, son of French film star Jean-Paul Belmondo, have led her to speak out. Princess Stephanie, now 37, is still traumatised "I was not driving, that's clear," she told the magazine, adding that she slammed the automatic gearbox into park from the passenger seat and pulled on the handbrake in a vain attempt to stop the car. "Did my mother mix up the accelerator with the brake pedal? I don't know," she said. "But I wasn't driving". Stephanie refused to say what she and her mother were talking about at the time of the accident, saying the conversation was strictly between the two of them. 'Let me live' Princess Stephanie, whose turbulent private life has often provided column inches in gossip magazines, said she still suffered from emotional trauma caused by her mother's death.

She said she was speaking out about the accident now, 20 years later, because she "couldn't take it anymore". "When I read in the newspapers that I killed my mother, it is simply horrible," she said. "Let my mother rest in peace - let me live." She said she could not feel guilty as she had nothing to reproach herself for, "except that I am still here and have survived." Grace Kelly, who won an Oscar in 1954 for her performance in The Country Girl, was one of Hollywood's most famous actresses in the 1940s and 1950s. She gave up her career to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. See also:

Question: Who was the Princess of Monaco that died in a car crash?
Answer: Grace Kelly