Grace Patricia Kelly was born on the 12th November 1929 in Philadelphia, USA. She was the third of four children. Her parents were John and Margaret Kelly. Her father was an enthusiastic athlete and won gold at the Olympic-Games in 1920. Grace Kelly was enthusiastic about acting. After highschool she went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. In 1951 she acted in her first film, „14 hours“. A year later her second film was „High noon“. The reactions were overwhelming. Over night, Grace became a star. After that, she performed in three films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She was awarded an Oscar.
At the film festival in Cannes she met the man of her dreams in the person of Rainier Grimaldi III, the ruler of Monaco. When she first met Duke Rainier (he had already been ruling seven years), he fell in love with her at the first sight. At Christmas in 1955, while Rainier visited the Kelly family in Philadelphia, he got engaged to Grace. The people in the whole world were enthusiastic about this engagement .The wedding took place on 19th April in 1956, 600 people accompanied the couple in the cathedral of St.Nicolas in Monaco. More than 2000 journalists and photographers wanted to get a picture of them. Millions of people watched this event on TV. The new Duchess of Monaco took her new job very seriously.
She engagend herself for good purposes. Because of this, she was awarded a prize from the UNO in 1977. The luck of Gracia and Rainier was perfect, as on the 23rd of January 1957 their first daughter, Princess Caroline, was born. The people of Monaco were enthusiastic about this. The successor to the throne, Prince Albert, was born on the 14th of March 1958. Seven years later their third child, Princess Stéphanie, was born. The children were most important for Gracia. She tried to let them live as normally as possible. But on the 14th of September 1982 the popular Duchess Gracia died in a car accident. Stéphanie, who was in the same car, survived (at this time she was 17 years old). Rainier, the children and the people of Monaco were inconsolable.
Today, 20 years after der death, she still is famous and unforgotten as the actress, who became duchess.
I decided to write about Gracia of Monaco, because her life was a modern fairytale. She had everything: family, position, money and appreciation, but her life ended early and tragically.