{"id":1465855,"date":"2023-02-09T21:32:23","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T18:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1465855"},"modified":"2023-02-09T21:32:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T18:32:23","slug":"the-remarkable-tale-of-grace-kellys-two-engagement-rings-70-years-after-their-createion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1465855","title":{"rendered":"The Remarkable Tale of Grace Kelly\u2019s Two Engagement Rings, 70 Years After Their Createion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Weddings<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

70 Years on From Their Creation, Read the Remarkable Tale of Grace Kelly\u2019s Two Engagement Rings<\/h1>\n
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By <\/span>Rachel Garrahan<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Grace Kelly in 1955.\u00a0<\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Cartier diamond engagement ring that Grace Kelly was presented with by Prince Rainier III of Monaco is legendary. It centers on a monumental 10.48-carat emerald-cut stone that, in the decades since, has inspired countless engagement rings\u2014including versions belonging to Elizabeth Taylor, Beyonc\u00e9, Amal Clooney, and Anne Hathaway. The part of the story that\u2019s less well known? The fact that the famous diamond was not the first engagement ring Kelly received from her husband-to-be.<\/p>\n

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\"Grace<\/span><\/div>\n
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Grace Kelly wearing her famous Cartier engagement ring in High Society<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The star\u2019s early life reads like a fairytale. By 22, she was already a Hollywood star, her chic and witty movie performances winning her millions of fans around the world. Fewer than five years later, in 1955, she met her very own Prince Charming, and in circumstances more akin to a rom-com than real life.<\/p>\n

Kelly was in Cannes for the film festival that April to promote The Country Girl<\/em>, for which she had recently won the Oscar for best actress. While in the South of France, she was invited to the Palace of Monaco for a photoshoot, and it was there that she met the prince. Months of long-distance correspondence followed, and that Christmas, he crossed the Atlantic to propose to Kelly at her family home in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

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\"Prince<\/span><\/div>\n
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Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Grace Kelly announce their engagement in Philadelphia on 5 January 1956.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prince Rainier presented Kelly with an eternity band-style ring made up of alternating rubies and diamonds, a nod to the colors of Monaco\u2019s flag. The piece is widely reported to have been made by Cartier.<\/p>\n

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\"Kelly<\/span><\/div>\n
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Kelly shows off her initial engagement ring, an eternity band of rubies and diamonds.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It was a mere placeholder for the real thing, however. That same month, the bride-to-be started filming High Society,<\/em> her final movie before she got married and had to give up her acting career. In the movie, a Cole Porter-penned musical comedy version of The Philadelphia Story<\/em>, Kelly plays wealthy socialite Tracy Lord, who must choose between three very different love interests.<\/p>\n

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\"Frank<\/span><\/div>\n
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Frank Sinatra and Kelly, who is seen wearing her second engagement ring, on the set of High Society.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Engaged to be married to the rich but dull George (played by John Lund), Lord wears a scene-stealing ring throughout the film, its central stone elegantly flanked by a pair of tapered baguettes. And this was no movie prop. It turned out to be the real deal, as presented to Kelly by Prince Rainier himself. \u201cWe have pictures of them peering in at the windows of the Cartier store on the Rue de la Paix [in Paris],\u201d says Pierre Rainero, Cartier\u2019s director of image, heritage, and style. \u201cI don\u2019t know if they were already married or engaged, but perhaps they were choosing this ring.\u201d He adds that the jeweler\u2019s archive records the ring\u2019s transfer from Paris to its store in Monaco.<\/p>\n

However it made its way onto Kelly\u2019s ring finger, the diamond ended up with a starring role on the big screen. In one scene, Bing Crosby, who plays Tracy\u2019s ex-husband in the movie, jokes about its size. In another, Kelly\u2019s character polishes the massive rock on a seat cushion, then lies back to admire it.<\/p>\n

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Kelly in her Helen Rose-designed wedding dress, gifted by MGM.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Straight after filming wrapped in Los Angeles, Kelly traveled to Monaco for her royal wedding. On April 18, 1956, she and Prince Rainier wed in a civil ceremony at the palace before an opulent religious ceremony the following day at Monaco\u2019s Saint Nicholas Cathedral. MGM, which had been Kelly\u2019s studio up until the point she was married, gifted her her wedding dress, designed by Oscar-winning costumer designer Helen Rose (she had also designed Elizabeth Taylor\u2019s first wedding dress in 1950). The studio also made a film of the Monaco wedding, which was attended by real as well as Hollywood royalty, and watched by more than 30 million people around the world.<\/p>\n

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Kelly arriving at the cathedral for her religious wedding ceremony in April 1956.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kelly\u2019s engagement ring turned out to be just one chapter in her lifelong relationship with Cartier. At a grand gala on the night of her civil ceremony, she wore one of her wedding gifts, a Cartier diamond festoon necklace featuring 64 brilliant and baguette-cut diamonds. \u201cThe length is very flattering. After all, the role of jewelry is to bring light to the face,\u201d says Rainero. No wonder then that Princess Grace wore it up until her death in 1982 at the age of just 52, when she suffered a stroke while driving her car. The necklace is still worn today by the Monegasque royal family, including Grace\u2019s granddaughter Charlotte Casiraghi, who wore the heirloom piece on her own wedding day in 2019.<\/p>\n

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Instagram content<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It is believed to have been jewelry aficionado Alfred Hitchcock who introduced Grace Kelly to Cartier in the first place. The director, who nicknamed her the \u201csnow princess,\u201d made three movies with Kelly, and in their final movie together, To Catch A Thief<\/em>\u2014which incidentally was filmed on the French Riviera\u2014she wore pieces from the brand\u2019s Grain de Caf\u00e9 collection.<\/p>\n

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Kelly wearing her Grain de Caf\u00e9 set in To Catch A Thief<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Princess<\/span><\/div>\n
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Princess Grace\u2019s daughter, Princess Caroline, wearing her mother\u2019s Grain de Caf\u00e9 set on Monaco National Day on November 16, 2016.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Originally created in 1938 by Cartier creative director Jeanne Toussaint, who was inspired by the humble coffee bean and the booming caf\u00e9 culture of the time, the collection was worn by the biggest stars of the 1950s, from Kelly to Audrey Hepburn, and has recently been relaunched for the 21st century. Princess Grace wore the necklace on the official stamp of Monaco following the birth of her daughter, Princess Caroline, and Caroline herself continues to wear the set today. After all, good jewelry is forever.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: http:\/\/vogue.com\/article\/grace-kelly-engagement-rings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weddings 70 Years on From Their Creation, Read the Remarkable Tale of Grace Kelly\u2019s Two Engagement Rings By Rachel Garrahan January 22, 2026 Grace Kelly in 1955.\u00a0Photo: Getty Images The Cartier diamond engagement ring that Grace Kelly was presented with by Prince Rainier III of Monaco is legendary. It centers on a monumental 10.48-carat emerald-cut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-1465855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-vogue-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1465855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1465855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1465855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1465855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}