Grace Kelly by James Spada & James Spada

Author:James Spada & James Spada [Spada, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Grace Kelly, Grace - The Secret Lives of a Princes, Grace Kelly - The Secret Lives of a Princess, Grace, Princess Grace, Grace Patricia Kelly, An Intimate Biography of Princess Grace of Monaco, Hollywood - Grace Kelly, Princess Grace Foundation, The Playgirl Princess, George Kelly and Grace, P.H. Kelly Building Co., 1920 Olympics Gold Medal Rowing, Margaret Majer, John "Jack" B. Kelly, Elizabeth Anne "Lizanne" Kelly, East Falls Old Academy Players, Philco/Goodyear Playhouse, Kraft Playhouse, Fourteen Hours, Gary Cooper - Grace Kelly, Elitch Gardens stock company Denver, Mogambo and Grace, High Noon and Grace, William Holden and Grace, The Country Girl, and Grace, Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window and Grace, Edie Van Cleve, Prince Rainier, His Serene Highness Prince Rainier III, Grimaldi, High Society and Grace
Publisher: Author & Company
Published: 1987-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

CLICK FOR CHAPTER 12 ENDNOTES

12 Contrary to general belief, a Monegasque prince’s heir need not be male.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The eight-day voyage of the Constitution from New York to Monaco gave Grace a chance to party with her friends, pay her respects to relatives on both sides of her family and, occasionally, to reflect on what the future might hold for her. Sometimes, she was seen walking alone on deck; those who saw her instinctively left her alone. Frequently duty called in the form of prearranged interviews and photo sessions. Pictures of the crossing show us Grace playing shuffleboard, Grace running along the deck with the weimaraner puppy given to her by family friends in Philadelphia, Grace lounging on deck, her parents on either side of her, Grace sitting amid dozens of young nieces and nephews. She was surrounded by goodwill and best wishes, and this helped alleviate her nervousness and apprehension. She reacted with delight when the Constitution’s sister ship, the Independence, flashed the message “Good luck, Gracie!” as it sailed by.

While Grace enjoyed a degree of prenuptial insouciance, Prince Rainier grew irritable at the staggering amount of work needed to plan the wedding and its festivities. Sensing that the press could easily turn what he intended as a solemn occasion into a circus, he barred journalists from the ceremony. As his intended discovered after her own such dictum, members of the Fourth Estate do not react calmly to their exclusion from newsworthy events. Once again, a howl of protest led Rainier to change his mind—a decision he would come to regret.

Rainier’s ill-temper in the weeks before the wedding was explained as the result of a toothache, but observers noted little improvement in his disposition after the offending molar’s extraction. Rainier took a brief respite from his princely duties on April 8, when—as his bride-to-be’s ship steamed toward Monaco—he attended his bachelor party at an inn nestled in the nearby hillsides of southern France. The press made much of the fact that Father Tucker had not been invited, suggesting that Rainier was angry with the priest for speaking too freely about the details of his courtship. (Father Tucker, like Mrs. Kelly, had “written” a series of articles on the events leading up to the betrothal.) More likely, Father Tucker’s exclusion resulted from a desire to avoid the dampening presence of a priest at what is traditionally a freewheeling occasion.

Four days after the party, at six-thirty in the morning of April 12, Rainier boarded his yacht, the 340-ton Deo Juvante II (“with God’s help”), his wedding present to Grace, to await her arrival. By the time he sailed out to the Bay of Hercules to greet the Constitution and take Grace ashore, twenty thousand Monegasques, journalists, tourists, and other curiosity seekers had crowded the casino terraces, the harbor breakwater, and the streets along the shore, waiting in a light rain to see and cheer Monaco’s soon-to-be princess.

As Grace stood at the head of her ship’s gangway, the scene before her seemed like an elaborate location setup for an epic film.

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