Princess Stephanie survived the 1982 car accident that killed her mother Princess Grace as the two travelled on a winding mountain road in Monaco, but has declined to speak publicly about the painful topic for the last two decades. But now, the 37-year-old royal has shared her thoughts on the tragedy for the first time in an interview to be published in next week’s HELLO! magazine.
The middle child of Princess Grace explains that the healing of the emotional scars has been made more difficult by talk of her being at the wheel of the car during the crash.
“The only real witness to the accident saw that my mother was at the wheel, that I wasn’t driving,” say Stephanie, who reveals she watched Grace’s funeral on TV from her hospital bed. “I’ve had enough of people saying that I killed her.”
She says she's speaking out now because she can't bear it any longer. "Not only did I go through the horrible trauma of losing my mother at a very young age but I was beside her at the moment of the accident. Nobody can imagine how much I've suffered, and still suffer."
For the full, in-depth interview with Princess Stephanie of Monaco, see next week’s HELLO! magazine, issue number 736, which goes on sale October 15.