Monegasque princely family: The legend of the monstrous Grimaldi curse

The long absence of Princess Charlene, 45, moved nobility experts almost every day in 2020. A two-week trip to South Africa on behalf of her foundation turned into a month-long stay, and Charlène even had to undergo several operations because of a severe ear, nose and throat infection. In November 2021, she was allowed to travel back to Monaco, only to say goodbye to her family again and continue to recover in a clinic away from the principality. “She was clearly exhausted, physically and mentally” and realized that she needed help, Albert revealed to “People”, but did not reveal the exact reason.

During this time, rumors of a crisis surrounding the couple’s marriage also made headlines, which Prince Albert always denied, but which persisted. The princess has been with her family again since March of this year, but concerns about the 45-year-old have still not completely disappeared.

Will she be the next chapter in the legendary Grimaldi curse?

Princess Charlène: Your illness odyssey – the next chapter in the Grimaldi curse?

But what is the legend about? According to legend, Grimaldi’s ancestor Rainier I allegedly forced a Flemish woman to have sex during a robbery in 1297. She is said to have bewitched him and put the following curse on the descendants of the princely family: “A Grimaldi should never find happiness in marriage.”

That was 700 years ago: an eternal time in which the princely family had to suffer many strokes of fate and failed marriages. Also in the recent past, a member of the Grimaldis – Princess Charlène – dominated the negative headlines with her illness odyssey and abstinence. So people kept remembering the legendary curse and wondered if it had struck again.

The Grimaldi family surrounded by death and separation? 5 tragic examples

Here are five examples from the past that keep the legend alive to this day.

1. Charlotte of Monaco, †79, daughter of Louis II of Monaco, married Pierre de Polignac (also Pierre Grimaldi), †69 in 1920. The couple had two children: Princess Antoinette, †90, and the later Prince Rainier III., †81. The marriage lasted just over a decade and they divorced in 1933. But their children also had a lot of bad luck in love…

2. Antoinette Grimaldi was married three times and had three children, all of whom divorced at least once. Antoinette’s first marriage to John Gilpin, † 53, ended tragically after just 40 days. The ballet dancer died of a heart attack.

From 1961 to 1974 she was married to Jean-Charles Rey, † 79. Antoinette married tennis player Alexandre-Athenase Noghès, †82, for the third time, but she also divorced after only three years.

3. Also Prince Rainier III. met a terrible fate. His beloved wife, Hollywood legend Gracia Kelly, whom he married in 1956, died in a car accident in 1982 at the age of 52. The former royal glamor couple have three children together: Prince Albert, Caroline from Hanover, 66, and Stéphanie from Monaco, 58. But the accident also struck the last two.

4. Prince Albert’s sister Caroline’s first marriage to investment banker Philippe Junot, 82, lasted only two years and ended in divorce in 1980. Her second marriage to entrepreneur Stefano Casiraghi, father of her three children, also ended tragically. He died in a racing boat accident in 1990, was only 30 years old.

In 1999, Caroline entered her third marriage with Prince Ernst August von Hanover, 69. This connection is also characterized by a number of negative headlines.

5. Stéphanie of Monaco was also unlucky in love. She was only married to bodyguard Daniel Ducruet, 58, father of two of her three children, from 1995 to 1996.

And her second marriage, to acrobat Adans Lopez Peres, 47, broke up after just one year in 2004.

Charlène and the Grimaldi curse: a connection that doesn’t quite fit

In addition to these numerous examples of tragedy, there are also positive aspects to be highlighted at Grimaldi. A number of marriages ended in divorce, but the royal couple Charlène and Albert stuck together against all odds.

The regent repeatedly emphasizes that their “marriage is absolutely not in danger”. A close confidant of Albert’s goes even further, telling the French gala in late December that he needs his wife “by his side”. The twins Gabriella and Jacques also missed their mother very much, as a picture on Monaco’s national day painfully proved.

And so it happens that Charlène and the Grimaldi curse don’t really want to go together. Perhaps she will break the legend and her marriage will continue to withstand the adversities of life. It would definitely be desirable for the royal couple. To mention one more thing: Destinies, separations and sadness are just as much a part of life as the peak phases.

Sources used: people.com, parismatch.com, gala.fr, own research

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