On September 13, 1982, tragedy rocked Monaco's royal family. Princess Grace and Princess Stéphanie were driving along Monaco's infamously rocky coast, the Hollywood star lost control of her vehicle and plummeted off of a cliff. Stéphanie survived the wreck with little more damage than a fractured vertebra and a concussion, but her mother was not so lucky. After developing a brain hemorrhage the following day, Grace died, leaving her three children behind.
Naturally, the months following the accident were particularly difficult for Stéphanie, who suffered greatly as she recalled the final moments that she had spent with her mother. During this time, the young princess relied heavily on her boyfriend, the French race car driver Paul Belmondo. As royal expert Jeffrey Robinson relayed in the biography "Grace of Monaco: The True Story," Belmondo did everything in his power to support his lover: "He'd visited her in the hospital, comforted her there and, in time, brought her back to Paris with him."
However, even once the couple got settled in the City of Light, Stéphanie struggled to venture out and enjoy life. According to Robinson, Belmondo did not seem to lose his patience with the princess. The biographer explained, "They watched videos together all day long. She stayed there [in the apartment] with him, hiding in her shell." After all this TLC, Stéphanie healed enough to reclaim her normal, energetic self.
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