Princess Margaret’s Trip to America, 1979, Part Two: Lord Louis Mountbatten

First, please be sure you have read this post: “Princess Margaret’s Trip to America, 1979, Part One” It was August in 1979, a time when almost every Briton took a holiday to some faraway family home or destination. Queen Elizabeth II loved to go to Balmoral Castle in Scotland. This year, as in many years, […]

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Princess Margaret and Her Guttersnipe Life

It was a summer day in 1980 when biographer Christopher Warwick first visited Princess Margaret in her home: The first time I had lunch with her, we were just the two of us sitting in the dining room, having lunch at Kensington Palace, the house that William and Kate now live in.” It would be […]

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Princess Charlene Tried to Run Away Three Times

July 4, 2011 The Daily Mail: “The new Princess Charlene of Monaco tried to flee home to South Africa three times before her ‘arranged marriage’ to Prince Albert, it was alleged yesterday. The former Charlene Wittstock, 33, reportedly made her first escape attempt when she travelled to Paris in May to try on her wedding […]

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Princess Charlene’s Wedding Gown

  Readers: For more on Prince Albert and Princess Charlene here on Lisa’s History Room, click here. Readers: For stories about Princess Grace of Monaco on Lisa’s History Room, click here.

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Goodbye, Waity Katie! Hello, Princess-in-Waiting!

“Kate’s Obstacle Course” by Tina Brown: “The future princess not only fulfilled Prince William’s requirements, she persuaded the Queen her future granddaughter-in-law is nothing like Diana. Now all the royals have to do is make the wedding of the year look thrifty. “No one has put in harder training to become a royal bride than […]

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Grace Kelly and the Bust Inspector

  American movie actress Grace Kelly (1929-1982) had an encounter with a “Bust Inspector” during the production of the 1954 film Rear Window. However, this “BI” was not a censor dispatched by the Motion Pictures Production Code crew (See “Elizabeth Taylor and the Bust Inspector.”) The person attempting to meddle with Grace’s bust was none other than the film’s director: Alfred […]

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Princess Diana: The Shrine at Harrods

“The more I hear and read and think about Diana’s and Dodi’s deaths in the Pont d’Alma tunnel, in Paris, on August 31, 1997, in what is possibly the world’s most famous car crash, the more I doubt the truth of their great romance. If it was anything at all, it was a flirt, a fling…. […]

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Bling-Bling! Bang-Bang! Liz Taylor Attends Grace Kelly’s Scorpio Ball

Since they began their affair on the movie set of “Cleopatra” in January, 1962, Richard Burton delighted in giving bride Elizabeth Taylor extravagant jewels. One of the most famous pieces Burton gave Taylor is the pear-shaped, 69.42 carat Taylor-Burton Diamond. Fifth husband Richard Burton bought the diamond from Cartier in 1969 after a Sotheby’s auction, paying over […]

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Grace Kelly: Floating on Chiffon

I was so excited to read in Vanity Fair that London’s Victoria & Albert Museum was featuring an exhibition of Grace Kelly‘s clothes. What a treat! I thought. Imagine all those beautiful 1950s dresses designed for actress Grace Kelly (1929-1982) together in one place. Of course I couldn’t get to London, I knew; I was recovering from […]

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Prince Albert II of Monaco: Baby Shots

Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi, born March 14, 1958, at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco, is the second child born to Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace.On April 6, 2005, Prince Rainier III died and Hereditary Prince Albert became Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco.   READERS: For more on the Grimaldis of Monaco and […]

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Prince Albert of Monaco: A THIRD Love Child? Really?

Prince Albert of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock of South Africa are scheduled to wed today in Monte Carlo despite revelations in the French Press earlier in the week that the never-before-married Prince Albert, 53, may have fathered a third love child. Upon learning of the Le Monde article, Miss Wittstock, 20 years Albert’s junior, reportedly tried to flee the tiny Riviera […]

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Finally! Prince Albert of Monaco is Engaged!

Prince Albert of Monaco is engaged to Charlene Wittstock, a former Olympic swimmer from South Africa. He is 52, she, 32. Ms. Wittstock will become the first crown princess since the 1982 death of Prince Albert’s mother, Princess Grace of Monaco. Princess Grace was the former American film star, Grace Patricia Kelly. Perez Hilton calls the announcement a Pretty […]

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Edith Head: The Dress Doctor is In

It was summer vacation of 1924 and Edith Head, 27, wanted a new job. She was tired of making peanuts – $1500 a year – teaching French and art at the Hollywood School for Girls. She did have a husband but he was a heavy drinker. If Edith wanted to improve her quality of life, it was up to her […]

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The Royal Wedding: The Mad Hatter

In its coverage of the fashion displayed by guests at the British Royal Wedding of William and Catherine, The New York Times wrote that the outfits of the guests “were generally tasteful and royal-friendly. A few things stuck out. The exotic costumes of foreign dignitaries, seeming throwbacks to imperial times. The hats worn by the […]

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From Shy Di to Uptown Girl

It’s 1985. Prince Charles and Princess Diana have been married close to five years. He’s 37; she’s 24. They have two young and healthy sons. Charles and Di have everything. They are rich and famous and, by all rights, should be happy. They seem happy in most photos. But they are not. Their marriage is […]

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