Charlotte Casiraghi Says Her Grandmother Grace Kelly Lives On Through Her Films

Charlotte Casiraghi was born four years after her grandmother, Grace Kelly, died in 1982. She says that gap limits what she can say about Kelly from her own memory. In an interview with Town & Country, she described the films as her main way of knowing the woman.

The interview aired on Che Tempo Che Fa, an Italian television talk show hosted by Fabio Fazio. Casiraghi was promoting the Italian edition of her book La Fêlure, which translates to The Crack.

Her family is one of the best-known in Europe. Her mother is Princess Caroline of Monaco, and her uncle is Prince Albert, the current ruler of Monaco. Her grandmother was the American actress Grace Kelly, who married Prince Rainier III in 1956 and became known as Princess Grace. The hospital where Casiraghi gave birth in 2018, Princess Grace Hospital, carries that name.

Casiraghi has watched all of her grandmother's films. She said she considers them extraordinary. Kelly's only musical was High Society, released in 1956, the same year as her wedding. For American readers, that is the Hollywood side of a family story that later moved to the Mediterranean.

Casiraghi's own life has not been easy to separate from the family name. Her father, Stefano Casiraghi, died when she was four years old. Her cousins also carry Kelly's legacy, including Pierre Casiraghi and Louis Ducruet, both grandsons, and Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, a granddaughter. Each of them has grown up with a grandmother they know mainly through photographs, films and stories told by others.

Asked about a comparison her mother has made, Casiraghi answered with humor. Princess Caroline has said that she and Grace Kelly share personality traits. When that was put to Casiraghi, she replied, "If she says so, it must be true."

Casiraghi has discussed the link between her mother and Kelly in earlier interviews too. In a 2020 interview with Madame Figaro, the French fashion magazine, she talked about the similarities between Princess Caroline and Kelly. In 2018, she paid tribute to her grandmother at her wedding with a necklace.

The pattern across these interviews is steady. Casiraghi does not claim a memory of Kelly that she never had. She leans on the films, the family photographs and what her mother tells her. Her answers are short and direct, and she seems comfortable saying how little she can know firsthand.

For readers who are new to the family, the lesson is simple. Grace Kelly was a Hollywood star who became a princess, and her granddaughter is now trying to describe her in her own words. Casiraghi's book and her television appearances are part of that work.