• November 13, 2000
• Vol. 54
• No. 20

Crow Jewels

Gorgeous, Down-to-Earth and Growing Up Fast, the Next Generation of Grimaldis Do Grandmother Princess Grace Proud

Attention, Hollywood! The royal grandkids of a certain '50s , film legend are growing up—and boy, have they got Grandma's glorious genes. Any of Princess Caroline's three oldest—Andrea Albert Pierre, 16, Charlotte Marie Pomeline, 14, and Pierre Rainier Stefano, 13—would illuminate the silver screen. (Because dad Stefano Casiraghi was a commoner, they don't have titles.) Not that they have expressed a desire to follow in grandmother Grace Kelly's footsteps. (She died in 1982, two years before Andrea was born.) For now, there are too many other things to keep them busy: soccer, horseback riding, listening to pop music and hitting the books.

The three attend school near their new manor house outside Paris, a 90-minute plane trip from Monaco, the principality ruled by "Papy," Prince Rainier, 77. For breaks, they go home to a house in Saint-Rémy, France, their primary residence until last June; to the Austrian estate of stepdad Prince Ernst August, 46; or to their Monaco villa near Rainier's palace and the homes of uncle Albert, 42, aunt Stephanie, 35, and cousins Louis, 7, Pauline, 6, and Camille, 2. It's a privileged life, but the teens are by all accounts charmingly unspoiled. "They don't act like royalty," says one pal. "They're just ordinary."

Credit goes to Caroline, 43, who shielded her brood from the limelight by settling in Saint-Rémy after Casiraghi's 1990 death in a speedboat accident. Since January 1999 she has given the children a stepfather who may be volatile but with whom they get on well, plus a half sister, 16-month-old Alexandra. Oh yeah—Mom can also throw a mean party. Last June Caroline invited her kids' friends to a school's-out bash at an abandoned factory in Provence. Afterward Andrea, Charlotte and Pierre spent the night sleeping on the floor with 50 guests. Slumming? Not quite. "They'd covered the broken windows with curtains and sparkling lights," says a guest. "It looked like a castle."

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Pierre He "likes to Joke around," says one of his friends, "to make others laugh." That includes granddad Prince Rainier, who was photographed playfully cuffing his grandson after the boy pretended to smoke a cigarette at a Monte Carlo tennis match last May. But Caroline's sporty younger boy takes soccer seriously—so seriously, says a friend, that when he invited pals over for a game two years ago "he'd gotten a hold of Monaco [soccer] team gear for all of us to wear while we played. [Then] we all spent the night. It was pretty cool."

Charlotte

Not so long ago she was a live'ly toddler known for wreaking havoc in Monaco's ultrachic boutiques. Now Princess Caroline's lookalike daughter likes shopping in them—although for special occasions, family pal Karl Lagerfeld might whip up a dress. "A kind girl" who's "very open to other kids," says one of her former teachers, Charlotte also enjoys playing the piano and hanging out with baby half sister Alexandra, whom she is said to adore. Horseback riding is another passion. Since starting riding lessons five years ago, Charlotte has progressed enough to enter jump competitions in Saint-Remy and Monaco. "She knows how to hold herself, how to sit properly," says a friend. "She has class—like her grandmother."

Andrea

He made his first official public appearance at age 3, clad in a royal guard's uniform and waving his white-gloved hand from the balcony of Monaco's pink palace. Nowadays Princess Caroline's firstborn favors skateboarder duds and puka beads, but he's no tough teen. "He's gentle and sweet," says a friend. "A lovely guy." And a guy who likes pool, African drum music—and, one hopes, ruling small countries. As long as his uncle Prince Albert has no children, Andrea follows his mom as third in line of succession.