October 3, 1990 marked a before and after in the life of Carolina de Monaco.
That day, which has already been 30 years, Stefano Casiraghi, her second husband, the father of three of her children - Andrea, Carlota and Pierre - died and also the man who came by surprise to calm an erratic Carolina of Monaco to to settle her in a quiet and publicly exemplary family life that would have had the approval of her mother, Princess Grace of Monaco.
Casiraghi died in the waters of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the peninsula located between Cannes, Monte Carlo and Nice, where he was defending his title of world
offshore
champion
class I, formula 1 of the sea.
At a certain point, the boat he was piloting began to bounce and spin on the water.
The copilot was thrown but he was tied in the seat.
His wife, oblivious to the tragedy, was 700 kilometers away, spending the day in Paris with her friend, the model Ines de la Fressange.
Casiraghi, who died almost instantly, was 30 years old and the couple had been married for just over seven years.
The chronicles of the time described Carolina of Monaco at her funeral as a "dejected and weak woman, on whose 33 years it seemed that the weight of three decades had suddenly fallen."
Eight years earlier, she had been the one who held her father, Prince Rainier, at his entrance to the Monegasque cathedral to fire Grace Kelly, who died in a traffic accident at age 52.
That day she overcame her infinite sadness as a daughter to support her father.
During Stefano's funeral it had to be Prince Rainier who almost carried her limp daughter away.
The tragedy had once again shaken the most beautiful princess in Europe and everyone wondered then what would become of her without the man who had brought stability to her life after those turbulent years of youth that had worried her parents so much and, especially his mother.
The long nights in Paris, the short marriage with Philippe Junot, a man older than her and with a reputation as a
playboy
, her divorce only two years later and the conflicts that it led to between the Principality and the Vatican that did not initially grant the ecclesiastical annulment , were left behind when the quiet, handsome and wealthy Catholic Stefano Casiraghi appeared.
Carolina and Stefano met in the summer of 1983, three years after Junot's divorce and only one after her mother's death.
The crush between them was as fast as their wedding, which came just six months after meeting and with Carolina already pregnant with their first child.
If there were doubts about the new marriage of the princess, the happiness of the couple and the arrival of their three children, they were quickly dispelled.
Stefano was three years younger than Carolina but he belonged to a well-off Italian family and the two formed a young, beautiful and seemingly perfect couple.
Stefano Casiraghi's marriage to the princess removed from anonymity an Italian surname that came from a wealthy family of coal entrepreneurs in northern Italy that until then was only known in financial circles.
Personally, those who knew him describe him as an elegant, generous, serious but funny man, cultured and who knew how to care for and love women.
A former girlfriend has recently described him as a person with “very high values and a deep sense of family.
Charms that made the rebellious and partying Carolina become a happy mother and wife with him.
Stefano also achieved something that seemed difficult at the time, gaining the trust of his father-in-law and brother-in-law, Prince Rainier and Albert of Monaco.
He was a benchmark for the family in the glamorous parties of the Principality and in all kinds of international events.
He also stood out as a seasoned businessman who founded several successful businesses and as a pilot in the sport that ended up ending his life.
His disappearance changed everything.
After his death, Caroline of Monaco was secluded with her children in Saint-Remy, a small town in French Provence. The magazines have not stopped portraying since then an always beautiful princess but without the sparkle in her eyes that accompanied her while she lived her love with Casiraghi. She went through a time when stress made her lose her hair, she had an affair with actor Vincent Lindon that did not come to fruition and she remarried Ernesto de Hannover, with whom she had her fourth daughter, Alexandra. She bet heavily on that relationship because she married who had been her friend for years, but she was also the husband of one of her close friends, Chantal Hochuli, daughter of a Swiss multimillionaire architect, with whom she had been the Prince of Hanover. married 16 years and had two children. That union was not going to be final either. The most regal title of the Monegasque princess, the one that still unites her to the Hannover house, one of the most prestigious in Europe, continues in her power because the couple has never formalized their separation. But the reality is that Ernesto de Hannover's excesses with drinking and his outspoken tone, even in front of the press, precipitated the end of a marriage that only remains on paper but which actually ended in 2009. But that is another story.