La Prima Prado

Why Princess Grace died a pauper Grace Kelly with her fiancé Prince Rainier in 1956. The most shocking and least known fact about Kelly’s so-called fairytale romance was the greed involved on the Prince’s side. Kelly was required to pay a $2 million “dowry” to the House of Grimaldi before she could marry him. The medieval tradition of dowries had been abandoned by every other ruling house in Europe. In the UK, the last dowry paid was in 1858, when Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter married Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, and amounted to approximately $50,000. In 1956, when Rainer and Grace became engaged, the practice was unheard of. Nor was Monaco a poor country. Due to the investments made by Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the revenues from Monte Carlo’s casinos, the Monegasques and their royal family were hardly in queer street. Rainier, however, liked to live high on the hog, owning two yachts, luxury properties in France and spending huge sums at shops like Cartier. He had, moreover, a number of mercenary relatives constantly asking for handouts. Still, $2 million was an egregious sum, and after Grace had given him all the money she possessed, there was a significant shortfall and she was forced to turn to her father for help. John B. Kelly, a hard working, self-made millionaire, was furious and shouted that his daughter “didn't need to pay any man” to marry her, expressing further outrage that a beautiful and accomplished Oscar-winner was being treated like property in a Medieval-style arranged match. Despite his anger, he agreed to help Grace with the remainder of the sum because she was so obviously desperate to wed her prince. The bitter irony of her sacrifice became clear at the time of her death in 1982. It was discovered that after twenty-six years as Princess Grace of Monaco, with all its public glamour, she had only $10,000 and a small cottage in Ireland to her name. Grace Kelly had literally paid everything she had to become a princess, not only giving up a career she adored, but her financial independence and security. The woman who had once been one of America's highest-paid actresses died a virtual pauper in order to keep the affection of a selfish and unfaithful man. Her story reminds us that the most romantic-seeming fairytales can be shams that demand everything, leaving us wondering whether love that requires such a sacrifice is either real or worth it.