Princess Stéphanie Marie Elisabeth of Monaco (February 1, 1965) is the youngest child of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and American actress Grace Kelly. She is the younger sister of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and Caroline, Princess of Hanover.
Known as ‘’the rebel princess’’, she had to face the terrible car accident that ended with her mother Grace life in 1982, while both were returning home from their farm in Rocagel, France. Stéphanie herself refused to speak publicly about her mother's death until 1989, when she gave an interview to the author Jeffrey Robinson, insisting that the story was untrue. She said, "There was a lot of pressure on me because everyone was saying that I had been driving the car, that it was all my fault, that I'd killed my mother... It's not easy when you're 17 to live with that. Not only did I go through the horrible trauma of losing my mother at a very young age, but I was beside her at the moment of the accident. Nobody can imagine how much I've suffered, and still suffer."
In 1983, after her physical recovery from the accident, Stéphanie started an apprentice programme at Christian Dior under the direction of head designer Marc Bohan. The following year, she debuted as a model on the biannual haute couture special published by Spanish magazine ¡Hola!, a venture that she repeated in 1990.
In February 1986, she self-produced and released her first single with the French label Carrere, under the production of Yves Roze. The song "Ouragan" and its English version "Irresistible" were both international hits, reportedly selling more than 2 million copies.
She is the president of several associations, including Monaco Youth Centre and Princess Stéphanie Activity Centre, and is an honorary board member of the Princess Grace Foundation - United States. Since 1985, she has been the president of the Monte-Carlo Magic Grand Prix and the International Festival of Amateur Theatre. She is also the president of the Théâtre Princesse Grace.
In 2003, Stéphanie created her own Women Face the AIDS Association, which became Fight AIDS Monaco in 2004, in order to support people living with HIV and to combat the social stigma attached to the disease.
Stéphanie began a relationship with her bodyguard Daniel Ducruet in 1992. The couple had two children: Louis and Pauline Ducruet, born in 1992 and 1994 respectively. The Princess and Ducret married in 1995, but they divorced in 1996.
She gave birth to her third child, Camille Gottlieb, in 1998. Although she did not identify the father's name on the birth certificate, many suspected from the start, that Camille's father is her Head of Security Jean Raymond Gottlieb and, indeed, Camille herself has acknowledged Gottlieb as her father.
Currently 14th in the line of succession to the Monegasque throne, she has been a singer, swimwear designer and fashion model.