Grace was a well-respected actress when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. The Hollywood starlet had an Oscar to her name and starred as a leading lady in classic films including, To Catch a Thief, Rear Window and High Society.
Meghan similarly had her own acting career, most notably as Rachel Zane on legal drama Suits, and gave up her acting career when she joined the British royal family.
Besides living the fantasy of many young women, both actresses have faced difficulties in their royal lives, however, a critical difference between them proves Meghan is fairing a far better fate than the late Princess of Monaco.
“[Meghan and Prince Harry] have the opportunity, which [Grace] didn’t to be able to earn their own income, completely independently,” Gemma Godfrey, who investigated Grace’s fortune for the new documentary Grace Kelly: The Missing Millions, told 9Honey.
“Grace Kelly was asked about how this will impact her career and her answer was ‘the prince will decide.”
This is starkly different from Meghan and Harry, who have made decisions together to support their mutual goals and ambitions.
Meghan and Harry were able to do what Grace would never have dreamed possible and broke away from royal life to seek the freedom they needed to sign deals with streaming services Spotify and Netflix.
“When [Grace] was interviewed, she said she felt like where she got to in her career she was just starting to get a glimpse of what it could be, so she very, very much wanted to carry on … her true love was acting and what was quite clear in her situation was that wasn’t even a discussion, that wasn’t a negotiation on the table — and she negotiated her MGM contract, so she was clearly somebody who liked to blaze her own path,” added Gemma.
“And what you’re seeing nowadays with Meghan and Harry, they wanted to have a say and obviously if you’re serving the royal family, you are more restricted in what you can do, and that isn’t what they wanted to do so they’ve broken free and now they have opportunity, which [Grace] didn’t, to be able to earn their own income, completely independently.”
It is also worth noting that because the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a lower ranking than Grace and Prince Rainier had, they were able to seek a life away from royal duties.
Grace was a much-loved princess, and the world mourned her death in 1982 after a horrific car crash.
Unfortunately, the documentary reveals that at the time of her death, she only had US$10,000 and a cottage in Ireland in her name.