This is a continuing blog about royal families and scandals. Prince Harry is the latest royal in hot water, but the Monaco’s House of Grimaldi has certainly had its share of tragedies and scandals.
American actress Grace Kelly married Monaco’s Prince Rainer III in 1956 in a fairy tale wedding. The couple had a seemingly happy marriage which produced three children – Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and Princess Stephanie.
However, tragedy struck in 1982 when Princess Grace died after a car wreck. Her daughter Stephanie was with her and rumors were that Stephanie was driving when the car careened down the mountainside. The official version was that Grace had a stroke while driving. Grace lived through the crash, but died the following day in the hospital. Stephanie suffered a cervical fracture, but recovered. Prince Rainer remained single until he died in 2005.
The children suffered their own scandals. Oldest daughter Caroline married Phillippe Junot in 1978. Junot, a French playboy, reportedly cheated on Caroline and the marriage quickly ended in 1980. Caroline married second husband Stefano Casiraghi in 1983. She and Casiraghi had three children before he died in a speed-boat accident in 1990. Caroline married her third husband, Ernst August Prinz von Hanover in 1999. However, in 2010, photos surfaced of him kissing another woman and rumors that the couple would divorce surfaced.
Albert dated various women although rumors that he was homosexual abound. However, he had two children out of wedlock before married Charlene Lynette Wittstock in 2011. Rumors of an illegitimate child reportedly caused Charlene to leave the country three times right before the wedding.
Princess Stephanie had a relationship with her former bodyguard, Daniel Ducruet, which produced three children. She then had a brief relationship with elephant trainer Franco Keni. She and her three children with Ducruet traveled with the circus caravan. She ended the relationship a year later and married Adans Lopez Peres, a circus acrobat. The couple divorced in 2004.