Princess Grace (aka Grace Kelly)

[Deleted]

indybear said:

From what I've heard, before Rainier married Grace, Monaco's royal family was considered to be not much better than Eurotrash by the "real" royals, and marrying a movie star didn't do much to change their opinion.

Well, at least with Grace's pretty genes, the Grimaldi offsprings are (or, at least, used to be) much more visually pleasing than the Windsor horse-faces (ugh!). Still trashy, though.

[Augustus]

yuna said:

indybear said:

From what I've heard, before Rainier married Grace, Monaco's royal family was considered to be not much better than Eurotrash by the "real" royals, and marrying a movie star didn't do much to change their opinion.

Well, at least with Grace's pretty genes, the Grimaldi offsprings are (or, at least, used to be) much more visually pleasing than the Windsor horse-faces (ugh!). Still trashy, though.

Funny thing is that Elizabeth and her sister Margaret weren't that off putting lookswise, especially Margaret in her younger years. But boy, their offspring sure got the wrong end of the deal.

[nuharoo]

From what I've heard, before Rainier married Grace, Monaco's royal family was considered to be not much better than Eurotrash by the "real" royals, and marrying a movie star didn't do much to change their opinion.

Well, it didn't. Besides, Rainier wanted to marry another actress named Gisele Pascal and couldn't because she was deemed infertile. Such are life's ironies, she (Gisele) married and had a daughter with someone else.

Ultimately if a princess from another royal house had taken a fancy to him, Grace would have been out of the picture. Few people realize this, but Friar Tucker (Prince Rainier's confidant) had a list of other eligible beauties if things hadn't worked out with Grace.

As for Grace's parents, they were quite domineering and wanted their children to marry into Philadelphia society. Although Grace loved Oleg Cassini, she ultimately refused to go against her family's desires and dumped him for Rainier. She was always trying to win the love and approval of her parents, especially her father.

With Caroline I think it was the fact that Grace spent a lot of time in Paris with Caroline, going over tabloid articles and newspaper articles describing Caroline's foibles and usually had shouting matches with Caroline over them. Grace was ultimately too controlling with Caroline and too lenient with Stephanie. Grace's biggest problem was her ultimately snobbery (more royal than the royals) and put pressure on Caroline to marry someone titled (Grace even paged through the Almanach de Gotha), but Caroline even pointed out that her father hadn't married someone with a title, so why should she?

[Deleted]

augustus said:

yuna said:

Well, at least with Grace's pretty genes, the Grimaldi offsprings are (or, at least, used to be) much more visually pleasing than the Windsor horse-faces (ugh!). Still trashy, though.

Funny thing is that Elizabeth and her sister Margaret weren't that off putting lookswise, especially Margaret in her younger years. But boy, their offspring sure got the wrong end of the deal.

Yep, but most of that they got through their mother.

Most of the English royals' looks have come from outside the family-Queen Alexandra, for one, was even more beautiful than Diana. Also, Fergie's absolutely stunning, Sophie's really cute, and Prince Phillip in his day was HOT.

[azaleaqueen]

Amazingly enough, Charles and Anne were very cute children. William was adorable. Something about the aging/maturing process does things to them. Of course, IMO the queen isn't bad looking for a woman of her age. She's just had the same hairstyle and manner of dress for the past 40 years. Margaret lost her looks because of too much hard living.

Yeah, I know this really doesn't belong here.

Not only was Grace beautiful, Rainier was very handsome. Theirs was an extremely attractive family when the kids were young. I read a quote from Andy Warhol once. He said that Caroline was pretty but looked 40. (This was when she was about 24 or so.)

[Sunnyhorse]

I always thought of Caroline (and now her daughter Charlotte) as attractive in a a European kind of way -- beautiful/handsome rather than conventionally pretty. I think it's partly the strong brows -- I feel the same way about Katarina Witt.

[piscessiren]

If I remember correctly, Princess Grace was very kind to Diana during her engagement and gave Diana some advice about being a commoner entering a Royal family. Can't say that for some of the others (hello Princess Michael of Kent).

I remember Princess Caroline on the cover of People magazine in it's early years and she was absolutely stunning. The whole family is genetically blessed.

Nuharoo is right about Grace wanting Caroline to marry a title, and Ernst was on the list from the very beginning. Funny how Caroline eventually married him.

[nitenurse]

a belated case of Mother Knew Best!

[Deleted]

Why did Grace cheat on Ranier? Was he a bad husband? Why was she unhappy with him? Inquiring minds would like to know.

I've read many accounts of her cheating but I've never been able to find an explanation for why. I haven't read of him cheating on her though.

[Ginger]

I read over on The Royal Forums that it was not a happy marriage and that Grace consulted a divorce lawyer in the early 70s and decided it would not be in her best interest to divorce (loss of lifestyle, limited access to her children, huge scandal). She decided it would be easier just to stay married officially but lead separate lives, which I believe they essentially did for the last 10 years or so. Is that when she supposedly cheated?