Princess Stéphanie of Monaco was born on 1 February 1965 as the youngest daughter of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and Princess Grace (born Grace Kelly). She had two elder siblings, Caroline and Albert, and her mother had suffered two miscarriages. Shortly after her birth, Grace told a friend, “She’ll have everything she wants.” 1 The following month, Stéphanie was christened at the Cathedral of Monaco with the name Stéphanie Marie Elisabeth.
As the successor, Albert spent a lot of time with his father, while the two sisters were mostly paired off with their mother. The children also had a nanny each, but Stéphanie had trouble keeping them. She had once had six in a single year, and her mother complained, “I really can’t blame them for quitting. Stéphanie is so bossy. I hardly know what to do about her myself.” 2 In 1974, Grace, Caroline and Stéphanie moved into an apartment in Paris, mostly to curtail Caroline, who had enrolled in school there. They became daily targets of the paparazzi, and their relationship suffered during this time.
Stéphanie began her education in Monaco at the Les Dames de St.-Maur convent school while she also attended ballet lessons at Marika’s Academie. During her teenage years, she was quite the rebel, often leaving her parents frustrated. Nevertheless, her mother said in an interview, “Caroline is perhaps more literary, Stéphanie more mathematical. Both are warm, bright, amusing, intelligent and capable girls. They’re very much in tune with their era. Besides being good students, they are good athletes – excellent skiers and swimmers. Both can cook and sew, play the piano, and ride a horse. But, above all, my children are good at sports, conscious of their position, and considerate of others. They are sympathetic to the problems and concerns in the world today.” 3 Later, Stéphanie also attended the Institute St. Dominique in Paris.
At the age of 16, Stéphanie began to hit the tabloids with her relationships, much to her mother’s frustration. Her school results suffered, and she was about to be held back a year when her parents decided to transfer her to a different school. She graduated in the spring of 1982. Tragedy struck that September.
On 13 September, Stéphanie and Grace left the house at Roc Agel around 9.45 a.m. Grace drove down the narrow road with Stéphanie in the passenger seat. The car went down the extremely curvy Route D 37, with several sharp hairpin turns after each other. Grace suddenly suffered a cerebral haemorrhage while at the wheel of the car, and the car began to skid and skirt along the rock wall. Then, the car sped down the hill, heading towards the next hairpin turn without slowing down. The car plunged off the 130-foot cliff and came to rest between the trees and bushes of a private garden. Stéphanie managed to crawl out of the car and begged the people who ran toward them to call for help. Grace was sprawled across the inside of the car with her head towards the rear. One of her legs appeared to be twisted; she was unconscious and had a headwound. Emergency personnel managed to extract her from the car, and she was transported to her namesake hospital. Stéphanie was transported in the second ambulance. Prince Rainier and Prince Albert reached the site shortly before 10.30 a.m. and saw how Grace and Stéphanie were being loaded into the ambulances.
While Stéphanie remained unaware of what was happening, Prince Rainier, Prince Albert and Princess Caroline were living a nightmare. Doctors were finally able to give Prince Rainier a full update on his wife’s condition. Her brain damage was severe and permanent – there was no longer any brain function present. Princess Grace was now in a coma and being kept alive by machines. From the early hours of the morning of 14 September, she was clinically dead. Rumours began to circulate around the accident that Princess Stéphanie had been the one driving or that the brakes had failed. Stéphanie herself was injured in the accident, which would have made it impossible to switch places with her mother. In addition, she always denied the rumours. Friends of the family also said that Grace would never have allowed Princess Stéphanie to drive. Stéphanie could not attend the funeral as she was still hospitalised.
After her mother’s death, Stéphanie’s life generated even more controversy, with each new beau being labelled as the “new chosen one.” 4 Against her father’s wishes, she signed a modelling contract and became a swimwear designer. Then, she became a recording artist.
In May 1992, Stéphanie announced that she was pregnant by Daniel Ducuet, a former palace guard. She gave birth to a boy named Louis on 26 November 1992. Her family did not visit her in the hospital, but whatever was going on was soon fixed. On 4 May 1994, a daughter named Pauline was born. Stéphanie and Daniel were finally married on 1 July 1995, legitimising their two children. However, they were divorced in October 1996. Daniel later said in an interview, “I have betrayed my wife, I have betrayed her love, and I have betrayed my children.” 5 On 15 July 1998, Stéphanie gave birth to a third child – a daughter named Camille Gottlieb. She is not in the line of succession.
Stéphanie ran off with an Italian circus performer in 2001 but returned to Monaco in 2002. On 12 September 2003, Stéphanie married Portuguese acrobat Adans Lopez Peres, but this marriage ended in divorce the following year.
In 2003, she founded the Women Face the AIDS Association, which became Fight AIDS Monaco in 2004. In 2006, she became a Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) ambassador. She became a grandmother in 2023 when her son Louis became the father of a daughter named Victoire.
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