HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY PRINCESS GRACE

With a movie coming out next month, much has been written about the privileged life of Grace Kelly

Picture: Pinterest

GRACE Patricia Kelly was the all-American girl who found fame in Hollywood and captured the eye of a prince.

With her marriange to Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, on April 19, 1956, she became princess consort of Monaco, more commonly referred to as Princess Grace. And today marks what would have been her 58th wedding anniversary.

To fulfil the requirements of French law and Roman Catholic rules on marriage, Kelly and Rainier had both civil and religious weddings. The 40-minute civil ceremony took place in the palace on April 18 and was broadcast across Europe. The following day the church ceremony took place in Monaco’s Saint Nicholas Cathedral and was watched by an estimated 30 million people on television.

Kelly’s wedding dress, designed by MGM’s academy award-winning Helen Rose, was worked on for six weeks by three dozen seamstresses. That same year, MGM released Kelly’s last film, the musical comedy High Society. She wore her own engagement ring in the film.

The epitome of elegance, class and style, she was a constant on the International Best Dressed List from 1960. But on September 13, 1982, while driving with youngest daughter Stephanie, Princess Grace suffered a stroke, which caused her to drive off the road down a cliff. She was pulled alive from the wreckage but died the following day at the Monaco Hospital having never regained consciousness. She was just 52 year old.

Despite her privileged and glamorous life living in her pink palace, there has been much speculation about the career she gave up in Hollywood and her alleged unhappy life.

A new film, in which Nicole Kidman – who bears an uncanny resemblance to Grace – portrays the princess as a lonely and desperate victim, will open Cannes Film Festival next month. Grace Of Monaco, which also stars Tim Roth as Rainier, has been denounced by her children, Prince Albert, and princesses Caroline and Stephanie, as “needlessly glamourised” and riddled with “major historical inaccuracies and a series of purely fictional scenes”.

Whether it is based on fact or is a work of fiction, I have always been a fan and look forward to seeing the movie.