Stunning Princess Caroline unveils chic new grey hair do
New photos of one of the world’s most glamorous royals have emerged and the princess has decided to fully embrace her roots.
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Have you ever heard of the Monaco dog show before? No, I haven’t either.
The Monaco Red Cross Ball sure, which in normal times sees the tiny principality’s royal family turn out in force with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of couture and enough diamonds to start their own personal Cartier outpost. Likewise the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, a fixture on the social calendar combining revving engines and revving social climbers.
But the Monaco dog show?
Sorry.
However this week, said canine spectacular was the backdrop for a new royal outing which saw the Monegasque House of Grimaldi turn out in polite force. What made the event a jaw-dropper wasn’t just how normal three generations of Casiraghis looked as they admired some very pampered pooches, but the striking appearance of Princess Caroline.
Clad in a pared back white shirt and caramel pants, the 64-year-old looked distinctly different to only last year when she sat front row at the Chanel couture show with her youngest daughter Princess Alexandra of Hanover. This week, gone were her signature brunette locks and in their place, the royal has gone very chicly grey.
It was quite the family day out with Caroline posing with her daughter, Charlotte Casiraghi, Melanie-Antoinette Costello de Massy, the daughter of her recently deceased cousin Elizabeth-Ann Noghès, Baroness of Massy and her niece and nephew Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques.
Dating back to the ’70s when she was the reigning ‘It’ girl of Europe, zipping between the ski slopes of St Mortiz and the sparkling Med for a spot of water skiing, Caroline has always been the epitome of French style and her decision to embrace her grey is just the latest example of eternal chic-ness.
Her personal life, however, has never been anything near as glittering.
Her first marriage, to Parisian banker Phillipe Junot barely lasted two years. (Her mother Princess Grace is reported to have not supported the union.)
At 25, she lost her mum in a car accident.
The following year, she married Stefano Casiraghi who was tragically killed in 1990 after crashing his speed boat during a race. At only 33 she was left a widow and a single mother to three small children.
The family decamped to nearby Saint-Rémy in the South of France where she largely dodged the French tabloid press. (In the ’90s, Caroline was to Paris Match what Diana, Princess of Wales was to the Fleet Street red tops.)
The strain of her new life became apparent later in the ’90s when it was widely reported that she was suffering from alopecia.
Happening simultaneously around this time was that, by dint of her reigning brother Prince Albert’s refusal to walk down the aisle, Caroline was left as Monaco’s de facto first lady.
By the late ’90s, speculation began to circulate about her friendship with the married Prince Ernst-August of Hanover. In 1997, he left his wife and in 1999, he and Caroline wed in what looked like a match made in society heaven. (Her third marriage meant she could be addressed as Her Royal Highness, a step up from her previous styling as Her Serene Highness.)
Cementing her new-found joy was the arrival of their daughter Alexandra six months later. (No one tell the Pope!)
But fairytales don’t even exist for real-life princesses and by 2009 it looked like their union had hit the rocks, when it was reported that she had moved out of their Parisian home and back to her native Monte Carlo.
Ernst is quite the, shall we diplomatically say, colourful character. In 2004 he was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm in connection with an incident in a Kenyan disco while the following year, he fell into a coma after suffering from acute pancreatitis.
In 2009, it was reported he had been a guest at the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi in Tripoli. It is alleged that on multiple occasions he has been hospitalised in relation to alcohol-related issues.
While today, Caroline and Ernst are still legally married, they have long been estranged and he is a regular figure in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. He is currently suing his eldest son over a castle he gifted him while in March this year he was given a suspended sentence following a 2020 altercation with police.
Which brings us to today, when Caroline is stuck once again in the middle of another family crisis.
Her sister-in-law, Princess Charlene (and mother of Gabriella and Jacques) has been back in her native South African since around May. After jetting in to see family, she is reported to have suffered from a severe ear nose and throat infection, a bygone issue from her days in the pool as an Olympic swimmer, which has meant she has not been able to fly.
The allegedly reluctant royal’s absence from her adopted European homeland for so many has triggered an ongoing wave of reports that the marriage between Princess Charlene and Prince Albert has broken down.
In August, Albert and the couple’s twins visited her in South Africa, with Charlene posting what might be the most awkward series of royal photos which have ever made their way into the public sphere. Rather than tamping down split speculation they instead only added fuel to the separation fire.
(Gabriella’s curiously asymmetric fringe the tiny royal’s own handiwork. Princess Charlene posted in late August: “Gabriella decided to give herself a haircut! Sorry my Bella I tried my best to fix it.”)
Earlier this month Albert told People, “She didn’t leave Monaco in a huff!
“She didn’t leave because she was mad at me or at anybody else … She didn’t go into exile. It was absolutely just a medical problem which had to be treated.”
Given Charlene’s absence, Caroline, has again been left as the most senior female member of the house of Grimaldi left on home soil which might go some way to explain why she was spending her weekend at a dog show and not say, sipping rosé by an infinity pool. (Which is, of course, exactly what you and I would do if we were royal, insanely wealthy and lived in Monte Carlo.)
While Caroline’s newly unveiled salt and pepper locks might be quite the departure, let me be clear here: She has never looked more chic. If there was ever an image that perfectly embodied that insouciance intrinsic to French style, it is this Princess.
Ditto little Gabriella – that girl’s fierce fashion game is going to be such a joy to watch in the coming years. So, watch out Princess Charlotte and Lili Mountbatten-Windsor: This European Princess is going to be the one to beat.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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