Screen icon Grace Kelly gave up Hollywood to be a Princess in glitzy Monaco... but held a secret yearning to live the quiet life in Ireland.
The star of films like High Noon and Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder had a small cottage near Cork. Grace – or Princess Grace of Monaco as she became – was of Irish descent. And one of her closest confidants, film director Robert Dornhelm, today reveals her wish to live in her ancestral home land.
Speaking after the 40th anniversary of her death, Robert says Grace’s dream was to fade into obscurity. He reveals she longed to walk through Paris unrecognised and was, at heart, an ordinary woman who dreamed of a simpler life.
Robert, who worked with Grace in the five years before her death in a car crash, tells the Sunday People : “She wanted to be invisible and be with normal people, go to restaurants and pubs.
“We did it occasionally when she was living in Paris, which was when I knew her, and she was always very proud that she was not recognised and she could be normal.
“She thought she would end up a mad lady on the Paris Metro, with nobody noticing her. That she could move freely with no one knowing her. It wasn’t her worry, it was her hope.
“She dreamed a lot about Ireland, where she had a cottage near Cork. It is where she wanted to end up. She was a total romantic and dreamer. I think Ireland would have suited her quite well.
“But at the same time, the way her life developed was like a fairytale. It couldn’t have ended in some grey way, with her disappearing, not being noticed. It wouldn’t have fitted her whole life story. She was born to be special and to not have a normal life.”
Austrian Robert, 74, was the last film director to work with Grace and was with her just two days before her fatal car crash. They worked together on Rearranged, a comedy of errors in which she played a flower arranger.
It was shown only once after her death – at a gala premiere in Monte Carlo. Her husband Prince Rainier III deemed it inappropriate to have the lighthearted film released.
Robert also worked with Grace on The Children of Theatre Street, a documentary about Russian ballerinas. They forged a close friendship in which they travelled Europe, eating and drinking in some of Paris’s finest establishments and working on projects close to both their hearts.
Robert, who met Grace in 1977 when he was 30 and she was 48, said: “Grace was wonderful and simple, very straightforward. The first thing she said was, ‘Don’t call me Your Highness, call me Grace’.
“She was very normal. Very easy going and uncomplicated. She was shining, you could not take your eyes off her. She filled the room. If she came to a place where nobody knew her, she was instantly noticed. They say with a star, they find the light and reflect it. She certainly did.
“I was a young revolutionary at the time and she was a Princess. We were very mismatched because I had no interest in royalty or society. Of course, I had great admiration for her working with Hitchcock as a filmmaker. The rest of the showbiz and society business was strange and foreign to me. Yet we were very good friends.
“She was fun, the opposite of the description that followed her – the icy blonde. She was anything but icy, she was life-loving and funny.
“She liked to drink, dance and be normal. There was nothing icy. She made me feel special and appreciated. I was at the beginning of my career and she enjoyed my work. We used the documentary film to promote grants for talented children. We went to many premieres around Europe. It was always good-natured fun. We had many laughs.”
Grace was raised in Philadelphia, the daughter of a brick magnate. She moved to New York in the 1940s and became a model and TV actress.
Her movie breakthrough came opposite Gary Cooper in the 1952 western High Noon. An Oscar-winning role in The Country Girl followed in 1954 – followed by Dial M for Murder, Rear Window – another Hitchcock hit, co-starring James Stewart – and High Society, alongside Frank Sinatra.
But her life changed for ever after being introduced to Prince Rainier at the 1955 Cannes film festival. They wed a year later, Grace moved to Monaco and they had three children – Stephanie, 57, Caroline, 65, and Albert II, 64, the current Prince of Monaco.
Robert recalls: “I met her children many times. She was the perfect mother, a lioness who protected her children. She wanted to cook for them and made sure they learned to cook and understand life, not take things for granted. Just because they had servants, she believed they should still learn to fend for themselves.
“She was the most humble person, very polite – especially with people serving her – attentive and very caring.”
Robert was due to meet with Grace the day after she died at the age of 52. He waited at their chosen meeting spot in Paris, unaware of what had happened.
He recalls: “I got a phone call saying she wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting. She had had an accident and broken her leg. Then I got a call an hour later from America. It was the middle of the night. They said, ‘Wake up, wake up. Princess Grace has died’.
“I didn’t want to believe it, I thought it was a misunderstanding. It seemed unreal... why her? I was devastated. I flew to Monte Carlo a day later and met with her family. It felt like a dream.”
Robert says Grace’s death had a lasting impact on him, adding: “The way she died is not what I would have imagined or dreamed, but in a strange way it was a dramatic end – just like her life. She left a strong impression. It fits, in a certain way, to her story.”
