PRINCESS CAROLINE OF MONACO
When Princess Grace died in a 1982 Monaco car crash, her elder daughter Caroline
blossomed into the tiny principality's new first lady. At the request of her
father, Prince Rainier, she took on a number of high-profile roles, including
those she holds with the Princess Grace Foundation and the Red Cross. ''After
Grace's death a miracle happened,'' said Prince Rainier the following year. ''Princess
Caroline stepped into her mother's shoes. She has the same spirit as her mother.
The way she is handling the jobs I have given her is a source of great
satisfaction to me."
Caroline, who was born January 23, 1957, was very aware of her responsibilities
from early on in life. "I was raised with a sense of duty, obedience and guilt,"
she once said of her childhood. "What I had to do always came before what I
wanted to do."
It was an approach which the Sorbonne-educated princess presumably drew upon as
she hit her first major hurdle in life, the demise of her short-lived marriage
when she was just 21. Six hundred guests, including her mother's old friends
Gregory Peck and Frank Sinatra, had attended her lavish wedding to Philipe Junot
on June 28, 1978 fairy-tale nuptials for a couple that hoped to live happily
ever after. However, the two divorced in 1980. Calling herself "young and in
love" she reflected after the split: "Everything happened too quickly. Since I
had been little, everybody wanted me to get married." Sources, however, say
Grace had disapproved of the union.
Caroline was soon overcome by an even greater tragedy in the form of the death
of her beloved mother soon after the split. But on December 29, 1983, she once
again found contentment when she wed 23-year-old Italian Stefano Casiraghi, the
son of a wealthy businessman whom she'd met a year earlier at a Monte Carlo
disco. "Happiness has finally returned to a family which recently has had its
share of personal tragedies," said a palace spokesperson after the 15-minute
civil ceremony.
The low-key, last-minute nuptials the wedding was officially announced by the
palace ten days before it took place led to speculation that Caroline was
pregnant. And sure enough, Andrea Albert Pierre was brought into the world on
June 8, 1984. The young boy, named after a friend of his father who had died in
an accident, was followed in 1986 by a sister, Charlotte Marie Pomeline, named
for Rainier's mother, and, one year later, a brother, Pierre Rainier Stefano.
However, Caroline's delight in her growing family was cut short on October 3,
1990, when avid sportsman Stefano, aged 30, was killed in a speedboat racing
accident. The young widow decided to retreat with her children to Saint-Remy in
France, "to move away from the gossip and hoopla of Monaco" explained Prince
Albert. There the family lived quietly in a rented villa for years during
which time Caroline's first marriage was annulled until a controversial
romance put the princess back in the spotlight.
Prince Ernst-August of Hanover, a direct descendant of King George III, was a
married father of two when rumours sparked of a secret relationship between him
and old friend Caroline. The gossip was confirmed in 1997, when the multi-millionaire
divorced his wife of 16 years and became the princess' constant companion.
Ernst and Caroline wed in a quiet civil ceremony on her 42nd birthday in January
1999, making the Monegasque royal a Princess of Hanover, to be addressed as Her
Royal Highness, a title which outranked her former Her Serene Highness. Caroline's
fourth child, Alexandra, was born that June.
Unlike the subdued Caroline, the prince who was said to be one of Princess
Grace's choices as a match for her daughter years before has demonstrated a
volatile personality. In the past he has drawn his share of media attention with
a number of public outbursts, including breaking a TV cameraman's nose with his
umbrella in 1998 and admitting that he assaulted a disco owner in Kenya two
years later.
Despite the intensive media coverage of her life, from the death of her mother
through her husband's public antics, Caroline has focused elsewhere, primarily
on her continuing duties with the Red Cross and the Princess Grace Foundation.
She has rarely given interviews, preferring to let her philanthropic work speak
for itself. In 2003 Caroline was chosen as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador,
in recognition of her "personal commitment to the protection of children and the
family".
When Princess Grace died in a 1982 Monaco car crash, her elder daughter Caroline
blossomed into the tiny principality's new first lady. At the request of her
father, Prince Rainier, she took on a number of high-profile roles, including
those she holds with the Princess Grace Foundation and the Red Cross. ''After
Grace's death a miracle happened,'' said Prince Rainier the following year. ''Princess
Caroline stepped into her mother's shoes. She has the same spirit as her mother.
The way she is handling the jobs I have given her is a source of great
satisfaction to me."
Caroline, who was born January 23, 1957, was very aware of her responsibilities
from early on in life. "I was raised with a sense of duty, obedience and guilt,"
she once said of her childhood. "What I had to do always came before what I
wanted to do."
It was an approach which the Sorbonne-educated princess presumably drew upon as
she hit her first major hurdle in life, the demise of her short-lived marriage
when she was just 21. Six hundred guests, including her mother's old friends
Gregory Peck and Frank Sinatra, had attended her lavish wedding to Philipe Junot
on June 28, 1978 fairy-tale nuptials for a couple that hoped to live happily
ever after. However, the two divorced in 1980. Calling herself "young and in
love" she reflected after the split: "Everything happened too quickly. Since I
had been little, everybody wanted me to get married." Sources, however, say
Grace had disapproved of the union.
Caroline was soon overcome by an even greater tragedy in the form of the death
of her beloved mother soon after the split. But on December 29, 1983, she once
again found contentment when she wed 23-year-old Italian Stefano Casiraghi, the
son of a wealthy businessman whom she'd met a year earlier at a Monte Carlo
disco. "Happiness has finally returned to a family which recently has had its
share of personal tragedies," said a palace spokesperson after the 15-minute
civil ceremony.
The low-key, last-minute nuptials the wedding was officially announced by the
palace ten days before it took place led to speculation that Caroline was
pregnant. And sure enough, Andrea Albert Pierre was brought into the world on
June 8, 1984. The young boy, named after a friend of his father who had died in
an accident, was followed in 1986 by a sister, Charlotte Marie Pomeline, named
for Rainier's mother, and, one year later, a brother, Pierre Rainier Stefano.
However, Caroline's delight in her growing family was cut short on October 3,
1990, when avid sportsman Stefano, aged 30, was killed in a speedboat racing
accident. The young widow decided to retreat with her children to Saint-Remy in
France, "to move away from the gossip and hoopla of Monaco" explained Prince
Albert. There the family lived quietly in a rented villa for years during
which time Caroline's first marriage was annulled until a controversial
romance put the princess back in the spotlight.
Prince Ernst-August of Hanover, a direct descendant of King George III, was a
married father of two when rumours sparked of a secret relationship between him
and old friend Caroline. The gossip was confirmed in 1997, when the multi-millionaire
divorced his wife of 16 years and became the princess' constant companion.
Ernst and Caroline wed in a quiet civil ceremony on her 42nd birthday in January
1999, making the Monegasque royal a Princess of Hanover, to be addressed as Her
Royal Highness, a title which outranked her former Her Serene Highness. Caroline's
fourth child, Alexandra, was born that June.
Unlike the subdued Caroline, the prince who was said to be one of Princess
Grace's choices as a match for her daughter years before has demonstrated a
volatile personality. In the past he has drawn his share of media attention with
a number of public outbursts, including breaking a TV cameraman's nose with his
umbrella in 1998 and admitting that he assaulted a disco owner in Kenya two
years later.
Despite the intensive media coverage of her life, from the death of her mother
through her husband's public antics, Caroline has focused elsewhere, primarily
on her continuing duties with the Red Cross and the Princess Grace Foundation.
She has rarely given interviews, preferring to let her philanthropic work speak
for itself. In 2003 Caroline was chosen as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador,
in recognition of her "personal commitment to the protection of children and the
family".