Some Hollywood romances start on set. Grace Kelly’s started with a car crash — and it wasn’t even her car.
In May 1955, Kelly was in Cannes promoting The Country Girl when a Paris Match editor arranged an introduction to Monaco’s bachelor prince, Rainier III, hoping a photo of the two together might make for a good magazine spread.
The day itself was a small disaster: A power outage back at her hotel left Kelly unable to finish styling her hair, and on the drive to the palace, the trailing car full of photographers rear-ended the one carrying Kelly. Once she and Rainier were finally face to face, both of them turned out to be too shy to say much of anything — until the photographer suggested they step outside into the palace gardens for better light.
Rainier walked her past his private zoo and showed her the view over his principality, and the ice, finally, broke.
Confidence: Well-documented — corroborated by contemporaneous photographer accounts and multiple later interviews with participants.
Kelly went back to Cannes that evening thinking little more of it. Within a year, she’d be married to him — and retired from the movies for good.
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