Prince Rainer eyed Marilyn Monroe to be wife before Grace Kelly, doc claims

The monarchy of the tiny principality of Monaco would person looked very antithetic if Marilyn Monroe was connected the throne.

The caller Curiosity Stream docuseries “Royals: Keeping the Crown,” dives into however the Hollywood starlet was reportedly eyed by Prince Rainer to beryllium his woman and princess earlier Grace Kelly took her place.

Rainier was astir to suffer the Monégasque crown soon aft World War II owed to imaginable fiscal ruin and debased tourism, according to People. The prince had nary heirs and was unmarried astatine the time, truthful helium had to find a woman successful bid to unafraid the throne and the principality’s future, according to the docuseries.

University of St. Andrews historiographer Chandrika Kaul explained that the prince was 32-years-old and “the thought that helium mightiness suffer his principality if helium doesn’t wed good and nutrient a antheral heir is uppermost successful his mind.”

“The stakes couldn’t beryllium higher — Monaco is nether threat. It could collapse, and Rainier has to prevention it,” royal historiographer Kate Williams added.

Instead, the crown’s advisers came up with an astir devilish program to seal Monaco’s fate: Rainer should consolidate his House of Grimaldi nobility with America’s “new royalty” by courting a Hollywood celebrity.

Monroe was regarded arsenic Hollywood’s It miss and arsenic a enactment awesome during the Golden Age of movie successful the 1950s.FilmPublicityArchive/United Arch

“Prince Rainier was advised that helium would bash good to wed a Hollywood ‘princess,’ and [capitalize on] each the personage and fame that went with that marriage,” Kaul noted. “What Monaco needed was to revive its tourism trade. It made cleanable economical sense.”

Monroe was precocious up connected the database of A-listers astatine the clip that could marque for a bully spouse for the prince, the docuseries said. However, her presumption arsenic a enactment awesome arsenic good arsenic her overtly intersexual nationalist representation made her not the close contender, oregon truthful “Royals” claimed, and truthful the “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” star’s sanction was rapidly thrown out.

Enter Kelly.

The “Rear Window” histrion attended the 1955 Cannes Film Festival connected the French Riviera and she was aboriginal invited to sojourn Monaco for a photoshoot for “Paris Match” magazine astatine the royal palace.

“The enforcement at ‘Paris Match’ thinks that this volition beryllium a truly dramatic, sensational gathering betwixt the queen of Hollywood and their ain prince, who is an eligible, young, handsome bachelor — who besides conscionable happens, rumor has it, to beryllium looking for a wife,” said Kaul.

Rainer and Kelly joined successful 1956 aft lone a fewer months of courtship.NY Daily News via Getty Images

“During this photoshoot, you truly spot however Rainier is entranced by Grace, and really, I think, helium falls successful emotion with her connected a idiosyncratic level — but helium besides sees her arsenic the reply to truthful galore of his problems,” Williams added.

Kelly got her fairytale ending and the brace joined successful April 1956 and had 3 children — Princess Caroline, Prince Albert and Princess Stephanie.

But becoming royalty has a price. Kelly decided to springiness up her vocation erstwhile she was conscionable 26 to wed Rainier and she adjacent paid a $2 cardinal dowry to go a princess.