Grace Kelly won Hollywood’s top honor, an Academy Award, at just 25 years old. Only a year later, she entered another high-status strata: real-life royalty. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Kelly eventually made her way to the West Coast, where she became one of Tinseltown’s most iconic stars. With memorable roles in High Noon, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief, she captured the hearts of film audiences and accomplished directors alike. Her acting career came to a halt when she stepped into her role as a royal. Kelly met Prince Rainier III of Monaco at France’s Cannes Film Festival. Shortly thereafter, she starred in her final film, High Society, before leaving Hollywood behind in 1956 for her official duties as Princess Grace of Monaco.
The transition from her modest West Hollywood apartment to the grandeur of the Prince’s Palace in Monte Carlo was an interesting one. “I had always lived in big cities,” Kelly recounts in a quote from the biography, High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly by Donald Spoto. “I had also spent nearly 10 years acting—so it was quite a change from an actor’s life to civilian life, so to speak. My real difficulty was to become a normal person after being an actress for so long. For me, at that time, a normal person was someone who made films!”
In Monaco, Kelly embraced a new life of elegance, tradition, and a regally refined design aesthetic. She worked hard to craft a home that offered tranquility and balance for herself and her family. As the former actor wrote in her 1980 tome, My Book of Flowers, “there is more than enough to disturb our equilibrium in the outside world, so it is of great importance to find serenity and calm in one’s own milieu.” In addition to Monaco and California, Kelly also lived in New York, New Jersey, France, and Switzerland. Below, we’ve gathered 15 images that offer a glimpse into the domestic world of the actor turned princess.
