A royal photographer, who spent years photographing the British Royal Family, has dubbed Princess Grace of Monaco (the former Grace Kelly) as the “most difficult royal” with whom he ever worked.
Reginald Davis has taken images of The Queen, Prince Charles and the Shah and Empress Farah of Iran. His photos are due to be featured in a new book called My Life Photographing Royalty and the Famous.
The former American actress was said to be “haughty, arrogant and distant beyond belief.”
Davis added, “She certainly wasn’t the sort of person you’d dare remind that her grandad was an Irish bricklayer, not for all the chips in the Monte Carlo casino.”
He asked Her Serene Highness for permission about taking her picture, she responded, “You can have a private audience with me only if you have had a private photographic audience with the Queen of England.”
The photo session did go ahead, but he explained that her attitude stayed the same. When requesting to photograph the Princess playing the piano, she claimed she could not play the instrument and sulked about; however, she relented and went on to play the piano “like a concert pianist.”
He added that you would never know about her arrogance and awkwardness from her pictures, “Of course, you’d never know that from looking at her face” he said. “[In the photo] she seems every inch the relaxed, happy mother.”
Grace Patricia Kelly was born on 12 November 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was well-known as an Academy Award winning actress, starring in films like Dial M for Murder, To Catch a Thief and High Society. She became the Princess of Monaco 18 April 1956 when she wed Rainier III, Prince of Monaco in what was called “the wedding of the century.”
Together, they had three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert (now Prince of Monaco) and Princess Stéphanie.
Grace and her youngest daughter Stéphanie were on their way back to Monaco from their home in France on 13 September 1982, when Grace suffered a stroke. The stroke caused the car to go over a cliff. Both were taken to Monaco Hospital with severe injuries. Grace’s injuries were so severe that she was put on life support. She died on 14 September at 10:55 pm.
I have never heard that before !
Nice man, trash talking a dead person who can’t defend herself. Never read anything this nasty about her in the past…
Many years ago, as a purser for TWA, I had the pleasure of serving Princess on a flight from Paris to Nice. The flight had originated in JFK, and the inbound purser told me that on that leg of the flight, the princess had been on her hands and knees helping another passenger search for a diamond search for a diamond which had fallen out of a ring. Princess Grace was charming warmly thanked us (the cabin crew) for our service as she left the plane in Nice.
Maybe she just had a bad day.
Given this is a one-off view of Grace, I am sceptical about it to say the least. The people who worked for Grace after she became Princess of Monaco – when, if anything, she could have been even more haughty than when she was just a film star – spoke about how considerate and kind she was towards them – to the point of finding out and remembering the names of their children and their tastes so that she could later present them with small gifts. She asked her hairdresser Alexandre of Paris what his favourite colours were. He said “black, brown and white”. Grace personally made him a cushion featuring these three colours.