Princess Stéphanie Celebrates Milestone Birthday

Monaco’s Princess Stéphanie today celebrates her fiftieth birthday.

The Princess was born in 1965 as the third and youngest child of the reigning Prince of Monaco, Rainier, and his Hollywood actress wife Grace. She has two siblings, Princess Caroline and Prince Albert, and was educated at the Dames de Saint-Maur and Dupanloup.

At the age of 17, Stéphanie was travelling with her mother from Roc Angel along the Monaco coast when their car drove off the road and rolled down the mountainside after Princess Grace suffered a stroke. Grace’s life-support was turned off the following day, September 14, while Stéphanie had a hairline fracture of a neck vertebrae that caused her to miss her mother’s funeral. Rumours that she was driving the car plagued the Princess for years, despite official denials. She has also spoken of the trauma she suffered as a result of the accident and her mother’s death.

Long-known as the ‘wild child’ of Monaco, Stéphanie has dabbled in many careers since completing her education: fashion designer, singer, model and circus performer.

She has also spent many years a proponent of HIV/AIDS, creating her own foundation Fight AIDS Monaco to support HIV sufferers and reduce the stigma associated with the disease. In 2006, she was appointed a Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

The Princess has three children from her relationships with Daniel Ducret and Jean Raymond Gottlieb: Louis and Pauline Ducret, and Camille Gottlieb. She has been married twice, both ended in divorce a little more than a year after the wedding.

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Tagged Birthday, Princess Stéphanie of Monaco.

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