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Princess Stephanie of Monaco Biography

Royalty

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Princess Stephanie of Monaco is the daughter of Prince Rainier of Monaco and his late wife Princess Grace (the former movie star Grace Kelly). Stephanie is the couple's third and last child, after Caroline (b. 1957) and Albert (b. 1958). Stephanie was a passenger in the 1982 auto crash which killed Princess Grace. (Rumors that Stephanie was actually behind the wheel seem to have been untrue.) After the crash, Stephanie developed a reputation as the headstrong enfant terrible of the Grimaldi family, partying across Europe and dating a succession of men. She dabbled in fashion design (creating a line of swimwear called "Pool Position" in 1985) and tried her hand at pop music, releasing the album Besoin in 1986 (including the hit "Ouragan") and Stephanie in 1991. Her romance with a bodyguard, Daniel Ducret, resulted in two children (Louis, b. 1992, and Pauline Grace, b. 1994) before their marriage in 1995. The marriage ended a year later after Ducret was spotted cavorting with a Belgian stripper. Stephanie had a third child, Camille, in 1998 but refused to name the father. Among her other colorful boyfriends was Franco Knie, an elephant trainer and the head of the Circus Knie, a Swiss troupe with whom Stephanie and her children travelled. In 2003 she married Adans Lopez Peres, an acrobat with the same Circus Knie; they were divorced in 2004.

Other famous princesses: Caroline's daughter Charlotte Casiraghi, the late Princess Diana and the also-headstrong (but fictional) Princess Jasmine.