This 2020 marks three decades of the death of Stefano Casiraghi, Carolina de Monaco’s great love and father of her three eldest children.The Italian playboy, businessman and athlete in love with the daughter of Rainier and Gracia died in the waters of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the privileged peninsula between Cannes, Monte Carlo and Nice. It was October 3, 1990. In the heart of the Maritime Alps, the father of Pierre, Andrea and Carlota defended his title as world champion in offshore class I, the Formula 1 of the waters,in a second round without much apparent difficulty, at the command of the Pinot de Pinot accelerators (12.8 meters, five tons, two 800-horsepower engines capable of making it plow through the air and water). As pilot was his friend Pierre Innocenti. 700 kilometers from there, in Paris, Carolina spent the day with her eternal friend Ines de la Fressange, at whose wedding she had enjoyed that June.
The day dawned cloudy and gradually turned greyish, and the sea, calm at first, also entered a tidal wave. Just enough for Casiraghi to feel confident and inject more power into his boat, which was going about 175 kilometers per hour. Suddenly, they hit a wave, the boat began to bounce and spin on the water. Innocenti was fired. Casiraghi was tied to the seat.Although at first there were doubts about whether he drowned, the official cause of death was the violence of the impact.Innocenti saved his life, and lived from the hospital the funeral and burial of his friend. The championship was suspended. There were no winners or trophies. Casiraghi’s death devastated Carolina.It was Rainier who had to explain his father’s fate to the three children of the marriage.
On October 6, Carolina broke down at the funeral, in the cathedral of San Nicolas, the same one where eight years before she had attended her mother’s funeral , with regal integrity. The eternal resistant, the one who took on the weight of the family and the representation of her mother in the public agenda of the Grimaldi, could not take it anymore.Casiraghi had appeared in her life shortly after her mother’s death.The rich Casiraghi, always on the edge, did not seem like a good successor to the disaster that had been Carolina’s relationship with Junot, broken in just two years. But it was he who gave the princess the stability and support that she passed on to her family.
Although the Vatican frowned at his early wedding, impure in the eyes of the Church. Junot’s annulment had not been granted when Carolina, three months pregnant, married Stefano.This illegitimate situation for the ecclesiastical prevented official mourning from being declared. There were only flags at half-staff for the father of three children who would not see their inheritance rights recognized by papal edict until 1993.
Casiraghi had always been addicted to speed and adrenaline.His Ferrari was not for decoration and had even suffered an accident with Carolina on board. At sea, where he had found his passion almost at the same time as Carolina, he had been competing offshore for seven years. And his was the world speed record of the time, set in 1984: 278.5 kilometers per hour. In 1989, he was crowned champion. He died at the age of 30, leaving Carolina a widow, with three children and 33 years of age. After that day, Carolina began a rural exile in French Provence, where she would spend two years recovering.
