Princess Stephanie attends the 40th International Circus Festival (Image: Getty Images)
She was the royal rebel princess who was falsely accused of killing her own mother. She ran away to the circus, married her own bodyguard and had a child with a mystery man.
She has been a swimwear model, cover girl and pop singer. She scandalised European royal society when in 1995 she married Daniel Ducret, her former bodyguard, a divorcee and already a father to a son.
But now as she turns 60 on Saturday, Princess Stephanie of Monaco is best known for her work as an AIDS ambassador.
Now a respectable and loving grandmother, who works tirelessly for various good causes, she was once labelled the “enfant terrible” of the Grimaldi family, the royal family of Monaco, by her own mother Princess Grace.
The third and youngest child of Prince Ranier of Monaco and actress Grace Kelly, her brother Albert II is now the reigning monarch of Monaco and her sister Caroline is the Princess of Hanover.
The marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956 (Image: Mirrorpix)
Princess Grace of Monaco and her two young daughters Stephanie (left) and Caroline (Image: Mirrorpix)
Prince Rainier of Monaco and family arriving at Heathrow Airport (Image: Mirrorpix)
Her mother Grace Kelly was a famous American actress who became the Princess of Monaco after marrying Prince Rainier III in 1956. Grace fondly referred to young Stephanie as her “enfant terrible” because she was such a spirited girl.
But tragedy struck when Stephanie and her mother were driving back to Monte Carlo from their country home in France in 1982.Grace suffered a stroke and lost control of the car on a winding mountain road.
Driving back to Monaco from her country home in Roc Agel Grace lost control of her 1972 Rover P6 3500 and drove off the steep, winding road and down the 120-foot (37m) mountainside.
The car crash claimed her life but Stephanie survived although she was left with serious injuries, including a hairline fracture of a neck vertebra. It took her nearly a year to recover, and she wasn’t able to attend her mother’s funeral, as she was still in hospital.
The accident that killed her mother continued to haunt Stéphanie in the years that followed when rumours swirled about exactly who was behind the wheel.
“It’s only in the last few years that I’ve been starting to cope with it,” she told author Jeffrey Robinson, who wrote the biography Rainier and Grace: An Intimate Portrait in 1989.
“I still can’t go down that road, even if someone else is driving. I always ask them to take the other road” Stephanie said.
“There was a lot of pressure on me because everyone was saying that I had been driving the car, that it was all my fault, that I’d killed my mother. It’s not easy when you’re 17 to live with that.”
Stephanie has repeatedly denied she was driving the car on that fateful day.
“You cannot imagine the suffering I have endured, and that I endure still,” she later told the magazine Paris Match.
After her physical recovery from the accident, Stephanie became an apprentice at Christian Dior.
Prince Rainier of Monaco and his daughter Princess Stephanie (Image: Mirrorpix)
She later appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair as well as French and German Vogue.
She went on to launch a range of swimwear and a fragrance as well as releasing a single, in English and French, and then an album.
The royal rebel recorded another album in Los Angeles but later gave up her career in music in order to focus on charity work and a foundation named after Grace Kelly.
Meanwhile her turbulent love life has often made the headlines.
She has been linked to celebrities like Paul Belmondo, Anthony Delon and Rob Lowe.
Stephanie went on to marry her bodyguard Daniel Ducruet and had two children with him before their divorce in 1996.Two years later, she had another daughter but has never revealed the identity of the father.
In 2001, she started seeing Franco Knie, a married elephant trainer whom she met at Monte Carlo’s annual International Circus Festival.
Shortly after, Stéphanie and her three children ran away with the circus, with daughter Pauline even participating in some of the acts.
Though that relationship only lasted a year, it wasn’t the end of Stéphanie’s love affair with the circus. She went on to marry Adans Lopez Peres, a Portuguese acrobat who worked in Knie’s troupe, in 2003.
She and Peres divorced after a year in 2004.
In more recent years though Stephanie has concentrated on her charity work.
Since 2006, Stéphanie has been a Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) ambassador.
Speaking of her charity work she said in an interview with Gala magazine last year: “It’s in my DNA. I can’t stand to see human beings suffer. I want to help them, give them my support, do everything I can to for their well-being.”
But after such an incredible life the role that makes her happiest is being a grandmother.
She said recently: “I now have a granddaughter, Victoire, and another grandchild soon. Marie and Louis are going to be parents again. So I think I’m going to look after Victoire with the arrival of the new baby and even afterwards. I’m delighted to.
“It’s magical. Life goes on. I love big family occasions where we all get together. I’ve managed that with my children. We are very close. We’ve created our own little cocoon and now it is growing. And you know what? It’s even better!”
And is the former model concerned about turning 60?
“Age is in the heart, in the head. And definitely not a number written on a passport,” she said.
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