Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Honoring Antoinette

The 90th birthday of HSH Princess Antoinette was marked again when the matriarch of the Grimaldi clan, along with Princess Caroline, Elisabeth-Anne de Massy and Melanie de Massy, at the Union of Monegasque Women annual meeting of which Princess Antoinette is the honorary president. Given her age and infirmity, Princess Antoinette does not get out much so it was a pleasant surprise to see her out and about again, even at 90 years old.

4 comments:

  1. Think how many other, younger members of the family she has outlived! It's unusual to have a figure of such an age, who represents such a living link with the past.

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  2. I agree, and I've always had a soft spot for the aged. It just struck me when first posting on her reaching 90 that we now have Prince Albert II and when Princess Antoinette was born Albert I was still Sovereign Prince. So, thus far she has lived through the reigns of four monarchs and that's rather unusual. Most of all though I'm glad that she and her brother were finally reconciled from their earlier troubles and that the two branches of the family are so close now. You saw it again last national day when Elisabeth-Anne and Melanie were with the Prince and Princesses greeting the crowds. It's nice to see everyone getting along -quite a change from the state of affairs with the prior generation.

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  3. I dread seeing a picture one day of Princess Caroline as old as her aunt in this series of pictures being honored by the Monegasques -- that means we're all old! May the years crawl!

    But anyway, hats off to Princess Antoinette for her long and colorful life. I hope she is at peace with her life and her legacy. I wonder though how her relationship is with her son Christian De Massy. He wrote this damaging book, "Palace" which depicted his mother as scheming and Prince Rainier as selfish.

    But through it all, Christian was very complimentary to Grace. I do not recall having read any phrase in that book which he criticized Grace or shared any personal anecdote that portrayed his aunt in a negative way. I suppose Grace really was perfect.

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  4. I would take Christian's book with a grain of salt. I'm sure Princess Antoinette never won 'mother of the year' but the whole thing had a tone to me of someone trying to sell books with controversy by making everyone look bad *except* for the much beloved Princess Grace because attacking her would have made him loathed around the world.

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