Grace and Favour

Sunday Mirror, Apr 24, 2005 by EXCLUSIVE By JULIAN BROUWER

BEAUTIFUL blonde Grace Kelly cheated on her charming Prince, it was revealed last night.

Long before the Irish-American actress perished in a tragic car crash, her husband, Prince Rainier of Monaco, had found out about dalliances with a string of young Hollywood stars.

According to new reports, jealous Rainier - who died earlier this month, aged 81 - suspected Grace had rekindled her romance with William Holden, one of the movie legends she had flings with before marrying the Prince in 1956.

Aides claim Rainier died never having forgiven his wife for her infidelities.

As she approached middle-age Grace, whose father was an Irish self-made millionaire, allegedly took up with toyboy telly director Robert Dornhelm, a man 17 years her junior.

That was just two years before she died, aged just 52, in the crash in Southern France.

Dornhelm said of their relationship: "I was the exact opposite of all the people she normally frequented. I believe she really appreciated having a friend who told her what he thought."

The former husband of Rainer's daughter Princess Caroline was also suspicious of Grace's relationship with the handsome director.

Philippe Junot revealed: "Dornhelm was often present when I went to get Caroline. I don't know if they were lovers, but let's just say I'd be very surprised if they weren't.

"When I was going out with Caroline there was never any sign of Rainier. Sometimes we would go out together as two couples, Caroline with me and Grace with Dornhelm."

But Dornhelm was just the tip of the iceberg. Kelly continued a string of relationships with younger men in her later years, sources reveal.

An insider said: "Rainier and Grace led separate lives in Monaco in the late 1970s.

"But he was prepared to write off all the indiscretions and was just waiting to pick the right moment to tell her he forgave her when it all ended in tragedy after the car crash.

"Now, Rainier has followed her to the grave with a broken heart and a tortured soul that may finally find peace when he is reunited with his beloved Grace in heaven."

Grace's close friend Gwen Robyns said: "What she wanted was eternal glamour and these young men supplied it."

A recent biography titled Grace: A Disenchanted Princess claims the actress came to consider herself "a prisoner in a golden cage" in the 235- room royal palace and longed to divorce her husband.

According to the book, the princess secretly consulted an American divorce lawyer but gave up on the idea when she learned that a contract she had signed a few hours before her marriage would mean her losing custody of their three children, Caroline, Albert and Stephanie.

Kelly is said to have told her friend Micheline Swift, wife of the director David Swift: "If I had the choice I would divorce, but I don't have the choice.

"He would keep my children."