WHY ARE THEY FAMOUS? NO 6: PRINCESS STEPHANIE OF MONACO
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Your support makes all the difference.Main Claim: Stephanie may look like 1980s Eurotrash, but she is a real live princess. Daughter of a prince and a film star, she was born for glossy Euro-style fame. The youngest of the glamorous yet tragic Grimaldi family - rulers of the merry principality of Monaco (casinos, supermodels, tennis tax exiles) - she has had fame thrust upon her from every conceivable direction.
Appearance: Princess Caroline on steroids. Male model before male models looked like girls. Gladiator.
Sex Lies & Video Tape Etc Etc: Latest scandal to hit the beleaguered clan is the infidelity of Stephanie's husband, her one-time body guard, Daniel Ducruet. Ducruet, 32, has been captured on camera cavorting naked and making love with a French stripper, the photos splashed over 26 pages of Italian magazine Eva Tremila. "That man does what he wants," comments the mother of his children. Some people have construed an intriguing subplot: that it was a Mafia-related honeytrap, the woman and handy camera equipment set up to bring down Rainier's son-in-law.
Past Imperfect: While sister Caroline married a playboy and brother Albert snogged girls on boats, Stephanie dated a string of scoundrels and glamour boys. The adolescent Steff fell for an Italian prince and the sons of Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Actor Rob Lowe made a brief appearance. Boyfriend Mario Jutard, alias Oliver, turned out to be twice divorced and unsuitable. Fiance Jean-Yves Lefur (flame of supermodel Karen Mulder) was dropped after the Hello! spread but before the marriage. Enter the bodyguard ...
Career Options: So far been a swimsuit designer, model, and pop ''star''. The thundering torso housed a squeaky voice. Remember ''Ouragan?'' Of course you don't.
Family Values: Now 30, Stephanie is a mother. She gave birth to son Louis, three, out of wedlock, shortly after Ducruet's ex-girlfriend gave birth to his first son. Steff had daughter Pauline, two, before marrying Ducruet 14 months ago.
Daddy's Girl: After the death of Princess Grace, Steff became the palace's resident wild child, guarded by an ageing father. Steff calls Prince Rainier, "the one who has never betrayed me". Rainier has always publicly disapproved of Ducruet, and only reluctantly gave his blessing to their union last year.
Fame Prospects: Stephanie, the Technicolor princess in a family of royals that make Our Di appear monochrome, is condemned to eternal fame. In a time honoured tradition, she both milks it and shuns it. Princess Caroline retreated to an obscure Provencal village. Steff may have to renounce the Monte Carlo high life or marry someone sensible if she is to have any peace.
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