(LATE) ROYAL WATCH

Grace Kelly Had Prince Rainier Do the Dishes During Their Courtship

Nice to see a prince play Cinderella for once.


Rainier And Grace
FranK Hurley/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Even after her untimely, tragic death in 1982, Grace Kelly still lives up to her title as “America’s Sweetheart.” Just take into account a recent story about the actress turned Princess of Monaco, which hails from a new book on the Philadelphia native called Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl, written by Jay Jorgensen and Manoah Bowman. Before she married Prince Rainier, Kelly treated him as she would any other potential suitor during their courtship, which included having him help out around the house.

Kelly’s sister Lizanne Kelly LeVine recalls the period in the book, as obtained by People, saying, “Don and I were at our own little apartment, and we asked them over for dinner. He fit in very well—even helped with the dishes. Rainier, when we first met him, I think might have been a little shocked with us when we’d say ‘Come on, Rennie,’ you know. But he fit into the family beautifully.”

Apparently, this domestic moment occurred after the pair were initially engaged in 1955 — though they didn’t formally announce their impending nuptials until the following year with an engagement party in New York. “They were both these wonderfully attractive people that had all this romantic charm, intelligence and wit, and coziness,” Kelly’s bridesmaid and actress peer Judith Balaban Quine says in the book. “[They were] away from all public focus, walking in the woods, driving through the mountains and talking about life and values—and they fell in love.”

It’s hard to imagine the pair having the same level of privacy today at the accelerated news pace that exists, which is often reliant on celebrity news. As for how Kelly would process today’s cultural atmosphere, her son Prince Albert II of Monaco recently told USA Today, “I don’t know if she would agree with everything going on today in Hollywood or the world in general. Some things would irritate her, and she would be uncomfortable.”

One thing that likely would stay the same, however, is how beloved the actress and princess was. “It was her personality and the way she engaged with people, she touched the lives of so many around the world and not only through her acting,” Albert continued. “When she passed away we got calls from all over the world, from countries she hadn’t even visited. It was unbelievable and still is.”

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