Hollywood royalty became real royalty when screen siren Grace Kelly gave up her career and married Monaco's Prince Rainier April 18, 1956. Thousands of onlookers watched the pair ride through the streets of Monte Carlo after their second ceremony April 19 in an open-top Rolls Royce.
AFP/Getty ImagesWith Disney star Selena Gomez, Melrose Place’s Katie Cassidy, and Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester starring in their new film, Monte Carlo, and a recent royal marriage there, a new interest in the small Monaco principality and its most well-known and tragic princess has been stoked.
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Grace Kelly’s fairy tale royal marriage made women feel like anything was possible and she was frequently compared to America’s own “royal,” first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
So, here’s five things you didn’t know about Princess Grace.
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1. Wedding bells for her only son. Kelly’s sole son, Prince Albert II, 53, just married Charlene Wittstock on Friday. The wedding took place in the throne room of the palace in Monte Carlo. And according to the New York Times, it’s the first marriage for a ruling prince since Kelly married his father, Prince Rainier III, in 1956.
2. She would’ve been 81 today. Kelly’s fairy tale came to a tragic end when she died in a car crash in September of 1982. She was 52 years old at the time. Aside from Prince Albert, she also had two daughters, Princess Caroline, 54, and Princess Stephanie, 46.
3. Her family is rich with legacy. Kelly’s father was Jack Brendan Kelly, an Olympic gold medal-winning rower, according to IrishCentral.com. He was a prominent democrat and once narrowly lost a race to become mayor of Philadelphia. Her Uncle George Kelly, who was estranged from the family for being gay, won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for his play, Craig’s Wife.
4. She acted for only about six years before winning an Oscar. Kelly started acting on Broadway at age 19 around 1948. She did her first film in 1951 and after about three years and a dozen film appearances, she earned an Academy Award for 1954’s The Country Girl.
5. She never lost her ties to America. Kelly did her last television interview on ABC’s 20/20 in June of 1982 — just a few months before her tragic death — with Pierre Salinger and while she had been Princess of Monaco for more than two decades, she says, “In many ways I feel European, but certainly my education is American and I’m still very much American.”
Watch a portion of her final TV interview below.
Email: Jethro.Nededog@thr.com; Twitter: @TheRealJethro
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