Princely Family of Monaco

[JackieP]

I bought a copy about 2 years ago and enjoyed reading it. I wonder how Albert felt about Stefanie "Stevie" Parker who spilled the beans on their romps in the sack (if it was true)

 

[suturegeisha]

I read that book too....it was excellent. Another good one is "Once Upon a Time", about Prince Rainier and Princess Grace's marriage.
-Kara-

 

[sebastian]

Caroline about her childhood:

When i was 12 it was a big deal to go and sleep over at a girlfriends house. Everybody else did it but mommy wouldn't let me do it, except for a couple of times when she really knew who the people were. And we couldn't jsut ask friends over to the house. First we had to ask mommy. I'd come home from school to ask if so and maybe she wouldn't be there or she'd be in her office so we'd ave to wait and the day would go by...When you're eight years old and you want to play with your girlfriends and your Barbie dolls, it's not always easy to accept being tols, maybe tomorrow. Mommy always used to say 'Maybe'. She said it so often that I used to imitate her telling me: ' I said maybe and that's final.' I guess, what I'm saying is that we were a little too protected.

About Stephanie's childhood:

At least in that area, Stephanie appears to have had it easiest of all.
' I didn't have that much of a problem because I went to school in Paris and lived there with my mother. The rules weren't as tight at the appertement as they were for the Palace of Monaco. I could almost always bring girlfriends home or have a girlfriend stay over. Everything was more relaxed in Paris.'

...

However, she (Stephanie) admits, at the time she thought her parents were particularly strict with her.
' I remember when I was 15 or 16 thinking to myself that my father was the only father in the world who was so strict. I kept saying to myself, why are my parents giving me such a hard time? I always thought they were after me. Of course every teenager goes through that. I didn't realize until lately how lucky I really was. Looking back, I see now that it wasn't me being able to wrap them around my little fingers as much as it was them being very understanding parents who helped me grow up. Every kid, at one point or another, thinks their parents give them a hard time. But when I look back I can see that they did everything possible for me.'

More about the princely children growing up:

...Stephanie is somewhere between the two.
' I did ballet when I was very young but stopped and went into swimming and gymnastics. I liked that. For a while I was even in training to be on the french national gymnastics team. I didn't make it though because I was too tall.
I still read a lot but I can't say I read very intellectual books like Caroline does. She reads philosophy and history. I like a good love story. We both love music but there again our tastes are hardly the same. I can't stand Opera. On the other hand I'm not sure she's enjoy sitting through a 'Guns n' Roses' rock concert'

... Where the three are very similar is that they were each raised to be multi-lingual.
They spoke English with their mother and their nanny but French with their father and the household staff. While they were were still very young Rainier and Grace also encouraged them to learn other languages. Today Caroline, Albert and Stephanie speak absolutely perfect French and equally perfect Engllish with slightly east cost american accents. They each also speak German, Italian and some Spanish.
Rainier and Grace mostly spoke English together.
Grace however perfected her French, as she used to say, ' Because the children demanded that I do. Whenever I made mistakes they'd make fun of me so I had to learn to speak it well.'

About Stephanie's first boarding school:

Even today the very mention of the place makes Stephanie wince.
' I throughly hated it. I only spent one term there, September to December, but it was more than enough. I'd broken my foot so I was in my room a lot. Can you believe that they had bars on the windows and two German shepard dogs that they'd let loose at night to keep the girls from running away? We weren't allowed to put anything up on the walls or even to have a radio. It was an experience! Frankly, I still don't understand why I was sent to that place. I wasn't that bad, to be stuck there like that. Of course, looking back, I guess it was at the time of my sister's divorce and my parents probably wanted to keep me away from that whole situation. But I left as soon as I could. A week before Christmas break I escaped. I just took my things and got out of there.
...Rainier sympathizes. ' The school did have some pretty silly rules.......there was a limit on the number of showers they could take each week.
Two!'
Only Stephanie's distaste of desserts saved her from that.
' Mom didn't raise us to eat a lot of sweets. Non of us in the family likes desserts. Albert might have some sweets sometimes but when we were growing up my mom would put fruit or yoghurt on the table for dessert. We didn't get to see a lot of cakes or cream pies.
Well, it didn't take me long to find out that some of the other girls were more interested in my desserts than they were in their own showers. So I negotiated away my desserts and wound up with a shower every day. I'd rather be clean and starving than fat and dirty.'

 

[budge9]

Thanks Sebastian! I would really love to hear any more quotes from the family, especially ones from Caroline and Stephanie. Thanks again!

PS I have found a couple more clips of Stephanie talking about the accident for you so I will post them tomorrow!

 

[sebastian]

Thanks Sebastian! I would really love to hear any more quotes from the family, especially ones from Caroline and Stephanie. Thanks again!

PS I have found a couple more clips of Stephanie talking about the accident for you so I will post them tomorrow!

Thanx budge9

I'll post more tomorrow as well.

 

[monica17]

Thank you, thank you, Sebastian! You are as wonderful as your sister Michelle! I have 3 books on the Grimaldis and I haven't read this one yet. I believe this is the only book "authorized" by the family.

Can't believe Stephanie's old school limited their showers! Whatever for!? Steph was so good at finding a way to have showers daily.

 

[Regina]

Thank you Sebastian, posting all that was really very kind of you. We all appreciate a lot!

 

[sebastian]

You're welcome

Stephanie about her company Pool Position and friendship:

...But the partnership ( with Alix de la Comble) wasn't to be. Personalities clashed. And only two years into the venture the friend she'd started the company with walked out.
'I felt betrayed and hurt when she left because I always considered her to be my friend. Friendship for me is so important and so hard to find. I guess maybe it's that way for everybody. I have one true, true friend in Paris whom I've known for 12 years. He's the kind of person I know I can call any time of the day or of the night and if I need him, he'll be there. I just think it hurts more to be betrayed in friendship than it does in business or even in love.'

1989

November,1984 - Stephanie almost got kidnapped:

In November 1984 a couple tried to force their way into her car and drive off with her.
' That was very strange. And there was a police station just across the street. I was pulling into the garage at my father's appartment ( in Paris) when a guy put a gun to my head. I froze. My body was like jelly but my mind was functioning. I kept trying to squirm around in the car. I kept thinking, if he's going to shoot it's better to get it in the arm or the leg an not in the head. So I kept trying to push the guy away.'
Suddeny his girl accomplice appeared at the other side of the car and began yelling, ' Shoot her, shoot her.'
' Out of the blue I said to the guy, ' Look, my father is upstairs. If you want to speak to him, let's all go up there and talk it out.' I said,' That's the best thing. Let's go upstairs and talk because nobody is goint to pay for a dead body.' That's when the guy freaked out and left. He and the girl turned and ran away. That's when I freaked out too. I crawled into the concierge's appartment and I was a mess. It was all very wierd.'

 

[budge9]

Thanks Sebastian. About Stephanie's attempted kidnap, I can remember reading in a book that according to the author Stephanie was on drugs at the time and needed money to pay for them but she had already spent all of her allowance and couldn't get Albert to lend her any more, so her dealer and a women approached her in the garage for money but were suddenly aware of bodyguards being nearby so ran away and that Stephanie had then made up the story to cover with her father. I will try to find the book as I'm fascinated as to how anybody could think they know what really happened?!

 

[sebastian]

Thanks Sebastian. About Stephanie's attempted kidnap, I can remember reading in a book that according to the author Stephanie was on drugs at the time and needed money to pay for them but she had already spent all of her allowance and couldn't get Albert to lend her any more, so her dealer and a women approached her in the garage for money but were suddenly aware of bodyguards being nearby so ran away and that Stephanie had then made up the story to cover with her father. I will try to find the book as I'm fascinated as to how anybody could think they know what really happened?!

I've heard about that version too...anyhow I believe in Stephanie's more cause I'm quite sure she wasn't on drugs.

Stephanie about her fav tv-soap and 'being star-struck:

...Coincidencely that's when her favourite soap opera, Days of our lives, ends ( 2 p.m. Stephanie's day started , in 1988/89)
' I must confess that I watch that soap every day.' For a very brief moment Stephanie even comes close to blushing, ' It's been running for I don't know how many years but I watch it faithfully. I love it. So, no, my day doesn't usually start until that's over.'
Here she laughs.
' The other afternoon I was with a girlfriend in LA and we stopped at a red light and in the car next to us was the guy who plays Roman Brady in Days of our lives. I don't even know his real name ( Josh Tayler, Steph ) but he was right there and we both screemed like teenage girls.'
Does this mean that Princess Stephanie of Monaco can get star-struck?
' Oh God! ' her face lights up, ' The first time I met Peter Gabriel I nearly fainted. I was at the CBS Grammy Awards Party. I was talking to Rod Stewart and someone tapped me on the shoulder and there was Peter Gabriel and my legs turned to jelly. I acted like a jerk.'

 

[budge9]

Thanks Sebastian! Have you got any interesting stories from the book about Caroline? Thanks again!

 

[sebastian]

Caroline about Andrea ( as a little boy)

Andrea is so funny. He was asking about his italian grandma. I said that she's daddys 's mommy ant that and that his Italian grandpa is daddy's father and then I explained how they looked after daddy when he was a little boy. Then he asked about pappy ( Rainier) and I said he is my daddy and he looked after me when I was a little girl. then he asked about my mommy. I said , she isn't here any more, she's up in heaven. I pointed to the sky and said, you know, in space, because outer space is a big thing with Andrea. Anything about going to the moon in rockets, that he understands. If you say something is magic, he also understands. So I said my mommy is in space and that she is magic because she can see us and hear us and she looks after us and protects us and if you concentrate very hard you might be able to see her too. I thought that should work. But then he asked me, ' You mean she died?' My mouth fell open. then he looked at me and said, ' But you wont die, will you? Because you are my only mother.'

 

[lashinka2002]

Thank you for all of these wonderful posts.

 

[iceflower]

Thank you Sebastian. It's so interesting to read that!

 

[michelle]

Yeah, the posts are so great. I didn't know mom had that book ....

 

[moby]

thanks for posting those! i have read that book before and i loved that part where rainier said something like he won't ever share those letters he and princess grace wrote to each other because they were one of the few things in their lives together that was really private, that the world didn't know about.

unlike a lot of biographies about them, this book paints a very glowing picture of the family...although i did get the impression that grace seemed very strict and almost dictatorial (mostly de to her upbringing).

 

[RADKER18]

A Picture of their parents

 

[tbhrc]

Caroline about her mother's fame:

'Maybe I was about 10. I'd seen some movies when I was seven or eight but when I was 10 we went to California and visited some of the studios. They had some of her films in the archives that they showed us. There was so much fuss and commotion made over us that I started to understand who she'd been. But I don't think it affected any of us too much. Albert and I used to tease her a lot, especially about Mogambo. There's one scene where she turns to Clark Gable and says, "I didn't know monkeys climbed trees." It was the silliest thing I'd ever heard. We'd repeat that to her and then break up. Being children, it was difficult for us to understand that she was acting I thought it was just mommy being filmed saying, "I didn't know monkeys climbed trees." '

 

[tbhrc]

Caroline about her general outlook on life

'Mommy was always busy doing something. She got that from her mother who couldn't stand people sitting around doing nothing. So she was always keeping busy. She couldn't just sit back and relax, which of course is miles away from me. I can perfectly well sit back in a chair and not do a thing for two solid hours. But maybe some of my mother has come through to me because when I do sit around like that I feel a little guilty about it. Not that it stops me from doing it, mind you.'

 

[tbhrc]

Caroline and Stefano's life

In 1983 Caroline married Stefano Casiraghi, a tall, blond, quiet Italian from outside Milan who is some thre and a half years her junior.
She joked at the time that he was the perfect husband for her because he had an interest in an Italian shoe company and there were few things in the world she liked better than shoes. He, in turn, had special labels made to put in her shoes saying they'd been created exclusively for her.
At the same time she turned up in a sweatshirt that proudly boasted, 'I married an Italian'.

.....

The five of them live mostly in Caroline's house on Le Rocher, diving the rest of their time between Roc Agel, Paris and trips to Italy. Caroline and Stefano speak Italian at home together although she speaks French to the children.

 

[tbhrc]

Caroline about her marriage with Phillipe Junot

'It was very paradoxical. It all had to do with the way were brought up. Mommy said, "Of course he's the wrong man and you shouldn't marry him but now you've been compromised. You've been dating him for too long, so now either get engaged officially or stop seeing him and go off to the States and finish university there." She wanted me to go to Princeton. So, of course I said, "Okay, let's get engaged." I was 20 or 21 and didn't really want to get married. If I'd lived with him for six months, or even just three months, I'd found out right away what he was like. But I wasn't allowed to go off on vacations with him or even spend weekends with him, except at his parent's house, which was all very proper. I really didn't know him very well. Getting married was simply the correct way out.'
Caroline says that when she announced to her mother that she wanted to marry Junot, she added the proviso, 'But if you're really against it, I won't.'
'I told her, "I'm not going to run away and get married against your will. Maybe I'll be miserable if I can't see him any more but don't worry, I won't do it." She said, "Go ahead and get married. After all, what are people going to think after you've been dating this guy for two years?" How times have changed since then. It's amazing. I married Phillippe because I was in love with him. That's a good enough reason for marrying anybody. But then one day you wake up and wonder what you've done. I guess I started to wake up and wonder what I'd done while we were still on our honeymoon. He'd arranged with a photographer friend of his to meet us there to have the exclusive rights to our honeymoon pictures. That's when it all started to click. That was terrible. The end started right there. But it took me a year and a half to finish it. A long time.'

 

[tbhrc]

Caroline about her divorce

When she finally gave up on Junot and wanted to come home, her parents were very suppotive.
'Mommy was very helpful. I didn't dare divorce or even mention divorce because Catholics don't divorce. You're supposed to just make the best of it. But mommy said, "You have to get divorced." I said, " How can you talk like that? We're a religious family." I told her I was trying to find a way to work something out. But mommy said, " Religion is there to help people, not to make your life miserable."

 

[monaco70s]

Thanks a lot tbhrc, very interesting fragments you've posted.

 

[LadyMacAlpine]

I agree with Monaco70s

 

[Suonymona]

That certainly explains why she is more lenient about her children. But then if Andrea is to be a direct heir, would she let him live with a girl without marrying her to be sure they were right together?

Ann

 

[monica17]

Thanks a lot for the latest installments, tbhrc! I haven't read this book yet (so hard to find good titles on where I live) and I always wanted to, since this is the only book authorized by the family.

 

[iceflower]

Thank you tbhrc, these were very interesting choices you made..

 

[CasiraghiTrio]

These Caroline quotes certainly are consistent with the Caroline who is very easygoing towards her Casiraghi trio... letting them a free rein with their relationships (felix and tatiana). I think Caroline is giving her kids the freedom she wished she had had herself.

 

[nayralorenzo]

Thank for the information to all!

 

[RADKER18]

Albert on Caroline when they were younger

Albert feels that being e middle child was not always difficult, especially as Stephanie was so much younger.
But he says that Caroline was pretty bossy and pretty independent.
‘I went along with it for a while. Sure she annoyed me a few times when we were kids. Sure we used to fight. All brothers and sisters do. But when I was about 11 or 12, I was taking judo lessons. Once when she was harassing me I did a hip movement and threw her on to the floor. Ever since then we’ve had a good rapport.’ Caroline remembers the event well. ‘I certainly do

Caroline on Albert and Stephanie

We’ve always been a very close family and I was especially close to Albert because we’re only a year apart. The thing was that he and I used to fight like cats and dogs while we were growing up. I mean we’d fight with the determined intention of causing vast amounts of pain. Well that day, just because he’d been taking judo lessons, he threw me on the floor so hard I knew that was the end of that. There could be no more picking on baby brother.’
As for Stephanie, ‘ There’s eight years difference between us so I guess I always felt responsible for her. I guess I was always playing the older sister. I baby sat for her and watched out for her.’

Caroline on realizing they were not like other Children

I was maybe 14. It wasn’t a complete shock finding out that we were different from other kids because we’d sort of gotten used to certain things, like people taking our picture all the time. But that’s when I when I started to see there were a lot of things my friends could do that we weren’t allowed to do. Our parents were very strict with us. We weren’t allowed to go to the beach everyday. They wanted us to stay home and read and take our school work seriously. We had to dress properly all the time. My mother didn’t want me to were a two-piece bathing suit when I was a teenager. She thought it would be more proper if I wore a one piece even thought other girls my age were wearing bikinis. Like I said, mommy and daddy were very strict with us. We had to have somebody walk us to school and back. We couldn’t just hang out with the kids. We didn’t understand it then and I’m not sure I understand al of it now. I’m not sure all of it was necessary.

Caroline and Albert on Stephanie

Caroline and Albert both contend that, of the tree Grimaldi children, the one who got away with the most was Stephanie .
Being seven years younger than her brother and eight years younger than her sister, they claim that Stephanie was always the baby in the family and that generally meant she was the one who could do what the other two couldn’t. Being freer than they were to bring friends home with her is just one example. Says Albert, ‘Stephanie learned very quickly how to wrap my mom around her little finger. And probably my father even more so than my mother. But don’t tell him that.’
‘ I played with Stephanie a lot when we were kids,’ Albert begins. ‘ probably because I love younger kids and even at that age I was kind of fascinated by this little baby in the family. So we always got along great. We’ve always had a good relationship.