The grand 1950s romance of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco has a fitting sense of drama.
But so is the story of her jewelry — and how she came to wear it in particular That A 10-carat diamond sparkler on her fourth finger, a ring copied by stars over the years.
It may come as no surprise that Hollywood played a huge part in introducing Grace to the Prince of Monaco. After all, she was one of the most glamorous leading ladies of her time – perhaps of any era.
Grace Kelly already had an association with Cote d’Azur, thanks to her starring role in Hitchcock’s 1954 To Catch a Thief, a caper set on the French Riviera.
Grace Kelly in High Society, her last movie before becoming Princess Grace. The huge engagement ring is real – and hers!
Prince Rainie and Grace, pictured at her parents’ Philadelphia home after announcing their engagement in January 1956
Grace pictured at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival where she first met Rainier. Here she talks to a peddler by the sea
The following year, she was an Oscar winner for her role in Country Girl. Then, in the spring of 1955, she was again invited to the Riviera for the Cannes Film Festival.
While traveling there on the luxury sleeper ship ‘Le Train Bleu’, Grace happened to meet Olivia de Havilland – Melanie from Gone with the Wind and a film beauty from an earlier generation – and husband Pierre Galante.
And it was there on Le Train Blue that Galante, editor of the magazine Paris Match, had an inspiration: he suggested an article and a photo shoot with Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco – another figure of great glamour, albeit in a an other way.
Grace Kelly agreed, perhaps because she had been enraptured by the gardens of the Palais de Monaco that she had seen from the port of the principality the previous year. At least that is the story that her son Prince Albert gave to Paris Match in 2022
Rainer also agreed. But on the afternoon of May 6, at the appointed time, the Monegasque prince kept the Hollywood princess waiting for over an hour and so she was more than a little icy when they first met.
She had to be back in Cannes for a festival cocktail party.
But once they stepped outside into the beautiful gardens she had previously admired, both parties relaxed.
She wrote him a thank-you card after the visit, and they continued to correspond by transatlantic phone calls and by mail.
And so it happened that seven months later, during the Christmas holidays of 1955, Prince Rainier crossed the Atlantic to meet Mr. and Mrs. Kelly and propose to their daughter.
Still, the ring he chose to bring along wasn’t the one you might recognize: a huge and repeatedly replicated (by Amal Clooney and Beyonce, for example) 10-plus carat emerald-cut diamond ring that we’ve seen in countless photos.
Photos of the engagement announcement on January 5, 1956 show her wearing something completely different: a Cartier eternity ring set with alternating diamonds and rubies, purposely representing the colors of the principality’s proud flag.
And that, if you’ll excuse the pun, was when Hollywood lent a hand.
Grace Kelly on the set of To Catch a Thief, the 1954 Hitchcock film that first brought her to the Cote d’Azur
The movie poster for To Catch a Thief, a Riviera caper starring Grace Kelly opposite Cary Grant
Grace wears a white strapless dress in a publicity photo for To Catch a Thief
Just a few weeks later, Grace began filming her last pre-wedding movie, High Society, the story of Tracy Lord, a wealthy socialite who was engaged but conflicted with two other suitors: a photographer and an ex (Bring Crossby).
On the third day of filming, the costume department provided the world’s most famous fiancee with a huge ‘diamond’ ring. Grace took one look at the pasta and asked if she could carry her own pasta!
“Well,” said director Charles Walters, “I’ll have to see it first to make sure it’s good enough.” His tongue was firmly in his cheek.
He would have seen photos of Grace’s ring a few weeks earlier and would have known that, while very pretty, it was neither accurate nor appropriate for a spoiled “high society” Philadelphia girl.
Prince Rainier had a more decisive answer.
Learning of the “fake” and Grace’s request, he bought her another ring, this time more flashy, set with a 10.48-carat emerald-cut diamond flanked by two baguette cuts.
“Who, especially a princess-to-be, would ever dream of wearing pasta, when a natural diamond will always outshine any imposter?” agrees Sam Broekema of the Natural Diamond Council.
Still synonymous with glamour, Princess Grace arrives to attend a 1970 charity concert at the Royal Festival Hall
Princess Grace’s giant diamond ring has had many admirers — and quite a few have followed the style, including Amal Clooney, pictured here with fiancé George in 2014
According to Robert Lacey in his biography Grace: Her Lives, Her Loves, Celeste Holm, who played Liz Imbrie, the journalist in the film, said, “She came in with this diamond the size of an ice rink. It was beautiful, just beautiful! So full of life and sparkle.’
Other cast and crew members exclaimed with oohs and ahhs at the huge diamond ring. (Like her first ring, this one was made by Cartier.)
Grace’s response was a little rouge and replies, “Yeah, it’s sweet, isn’t it?”
“We never let her forget it, we teased her about it until the last day of filming: Grace’s ‘sweet’ diamond ring.” Holm remembered.
I doubt she cared.
- Josie Goodbody, is a jewelry historian and author of mystery novels