Princess Stéphanie Marie Elizabeth Grimaldi of Monaco
Born on
February 1, 1965, Stéphanie is the younger of the two princesses of
Monaco who became the
paparazzi's darlings several years before a certain
ingenuous Sloane nanny had ever been heard of. Even more than her sister
Princess Caroline, Stéphanie has consistently displayed a seriously questionable taste in men and a talent for
royal hellraising that makes the
House of Windsor look like candidates for
True Love Waits.
By the age of 15, Stéphanie had already caused her mother, the actress turned princess
Grace Kelly, unseemly headaches by running away from the exclusive
Institut St. Dominique in
Paris for a weekend with the Spanish singer
Miguel Bosé. Perhaps Caroline's well-publicised liaison with the French singer
Philippe Lavelle had been something of an inspiration.
Stéphanie herself had failed to attend the
grand gala being held on the eve of Caroline's wedding to
Philippe Junot in
1978 after throwing a
tantrum and promising only to show up if she were allowed to wear
blue jeans. The thirteen-year-old was in better company than she might have expected: none of the
British,
Dutch,
Danish or
Swedish royals made the journey either, although probably for reasons unconnected with the
dress code.
Of more concern to Grace was Stéphanie's relationship with the actor
Jean-Paul Belmondo's son
Paul, which led her to skip the annual family cruise to
Norway in favour of a trip to
Antigua with her boyfriend. Mother and daughter engaged in several heated arguments after Stéphanie announced she wanted to enrol with him as a trainee
racing driver, until Grace decided to take her in person to Paris'
Institute of Fashion Design.
Driving back to Monaco on
September 13, 1982 from the Grimaldis' villa over the French border in
Roc Agel, Grace and Stéphanie's car shot off a hairpin bend in circumstances which have never been satisfactorily explained, although the relationship between the two
at the time strongly suggests the conversation might just have touched on Belmondo
fils.
Rumours have circulated ever since that Stéphanie was at the wheel during the accident, in which Princess Grace was killed; after two decades of silence, she finally refuted the allegations in
2002, although still refused to be drawn on circumstances inside the car.
Now taking over from Caroline as the Monégasque
wild child, Stéphanie began to work for the fashion house of
Christian Dior, until getting herself sacked by missing appointment after appointment and dyeing her hair
red and green. They've surely sent far worse down the
catwalk before now, and Stéphanie may have thought so too: after her father
Prince Rainier cut off her allowance at the end of
1984, she took up modelling in her own right.
During her Paris years she had scandalised her family by taking up with
Anthony Delon, who satisfied both of Stéphanie's apparent criteria for the perfect man: the son of an actor (
Alain Delon), he ran with a dangerous crowd, having been convicted of car theft and carrying an unlicensed
pistol. In October
1984, Stéphanie claimed a couple had tried to kidnap her at
gunpoint in the car park underneath her Paris apartment, leading to speculation that Delon's friends might have mixed her up in some or other
dodgy deal.
Prince Rainier and Caroline, easing herself into the position of replacement
matriarch, eventually snapped and forced Stéphanie on to the family cruise, taking the opportunity for a
drugs bust at Stéphanie's favoured nightspot back home,
Jimmy'z. During the holiday, Caroline had to have Stéphanie
dragged away from a cocaine-fuelled nightclub in
Sardinia.
When Rainier threatened to take away her passport unless she gave up modelling, Stéphanie went into
swimsuit design with an old friend from Dior and began an embryonic singing career with the release of
Irresistible in
1986. The single topped the charts in
France, where readers of
Paris-Match routinely lap up Grimaldi gossip to this day.
Prince later attempted to resurrect her career, after performing the seemingly impossible with
Sheena Easton. Highlights, if that's the right word, of Stéphanie's musical interlude included a duet with
Michael Jackson entitled
In The Closet.
They said it,
not me.
After a brief flirtation with
Rob Lowe, Stéphanie turned her attentions to the nightclub owner
Mario Oliver, a convicted sex offender. To Rainier's horror, they went as far as buying a house together in
St. Tropez, before Oliver asked her to choose him or her music and she moved in with her producer
Rob Bloom.
In
1992 Stéphanie announced her pregnancy by
Daniel Ducruet, her former
bodyguard: the couple went public in
Hello! magazine and showed off matching
tattoos, prompting Rainier to change his will so that the spouses of his children could never inherit his wealth.
Stéphanie and Ducruet finally married in
1995, only to divorce the next year when compromising photographs emerged of the bodyguard with
Fifi Houteman, a former
Miss Bare Breasts of Belgium. Confronted by Fifi on a German talk show in
1999, Ducruet lost his temper and attacked the set.
Her relationships since have included the goalkeeper
Fabien Barthez,
Jean-Claude Van Damme, another bodyguard
Raymond Gottlieb and the Tunisian
Eskander Laribi. Laribi, a suspected cocaine dealer, was shot dead near
Nice in
2000; if not for
diplomatic immunity, Stéphanie was likely to have faced questioning as a potential witness. Another revision of Rainier's will quickly ensued.
Her latest beau is
Franco Knie, a Swiss
elephant trainer whom she met at the
International Circus Festival, one of many such annual Monte Carlo
shindigs. Knie left his wife for the princess, although they split in early
2002 when the attractions of mucking out
Jumbo understandably paled.
Want more dirt-dishing? John Glatt, The Royal House of Monaco, is always a good bet.