CONTROVERSIES AND TRAGEDIES
Persistent Rumors About the Tragic Death of Grace Kelly. Who Killed her? The Mafia or Her Daughter?
Photo:
Actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier
III of Monaco
In 2002, the BBC news agency
reported that Princess Stephanie of Monaco has broken her silence over the car
crash which killed her mother Princess Grace 20 years ago. In an interview with
the French magazine Paris Match, she said that despite persistent rumors to the
contrary, it was her mother who was at the wheel of the car when the accident
happened, not herself. Princess Stephanie and her mother, the former
Oscar-winning actress Grace Kelly, were traveling together in the countryside
near Monaco on 13 September 1982 when their car plunged down a steep slope.
Princess Grace died the next day, while 17-year-old Stephanie sustained multiple
injuries. Despite doctors' reports that Grace suffered a huge brain hemorrhage
which caused her to momentarily lose control of the car, Stephanie has been
plagued by rumors that she was in some way to blame for the crash. Persistent
allegations that she was the driver, or that the two were arguing heatedly over
Stephanie's plans to marry her then-boyfriend, Paul Belmondo, son of French film
star Jean-Paul Belmondo, have led her to speak out.
Photo:
Princess Stephanie, Grace Kelly daughter, still traumatized.
I was not driving, that's clear," she told the magazine, adding that she slammed the automatic gearbox into park from the passenger seat and pulled on the handbrake in a vain attempt to stop the car. "Did my mother mix up the accelerator with the brake pedal? I don't know," she said. "But I wasn't driving". Stephanie refused to say what she and her mother were talking about at the time of the accident, saying the conversation was strictly between the two of them. Princess Stephanie, whose turbulent private life has often provided column inches in gossip magazines, said she still suffered from emotional trauma caused by her mother's death. She said she was speaking out about the accident now, 20 years later, because she "couldn't take it anymore". "When I read in the newspapers that I killed my mother, it is simply horrible," she said. "Let my mother rest in peace - let me live." She said she could not feel guilty as she had nothing to reproach herself for, "except that I am still here and have survived." That is the official version of Princess Stephanie. The Mafia story? I am not sure! However, the possibility is there but I have no proof.
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