BBC News Online: World: Europe

Monaco's secret wedding

The wedding took place in the Room of Mirrors at the Royal Palace in Monte Carlo. It was attended by the bride and groom's children from former marriages.

Rumours of an imminent wedding surfaced after the two appeared last week with the children and the Monaco royal family during the annual International Circus Festival.

The princess had been romantically linked with her new husband, the head of one of Germany's oldest aristocratic families, since he divorced in 1997.

The couple have been making public appearances together for more than a year.

The BBC's reporter in the South of France, Wayne Bodkin, says a second, religious wedding has not been ruled out, but dispensation from the Vatican would be required before the Catholic princess could marry in church.

Closer to Windsors

The princess's third marriage directly links Monaco's Grimaldi family to Queen Elizabeth II, because Prince Ernst August is a close cousin of the British royal family.

Princess Caroline is divorced from her first husband, a Parisian banker, Philippe Junot.

Her second husband and father of her three children, Italian industrialist Stefano Casiraghi, was killed in a power-boat accident during a race at sea in 1990.

Princess Caroline is the eldest daughter of Monaco ruler Prince Rainer and former Hollywood star Grace Kelly, who died in a car crash in 1982.

Internet Links

Grimaldi 700th Anniversary
Monaco Online

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

In this section

Violence greets Clinton visit
Russian forces pound Grozny
EU fraud: a billion dollar bill
Next steps for peace
Cardinal may face loan-shark charges
Vodafone takeover battle heats up (From Business)
Trans-Turkish pipeline deal signed
French party seeks new leader
Jube tube debut
Athens riots for Clinton visit
UN envoy discusses Chechnya in Moscow
Solana new Western European Union chief
Moldova's PM-designate withdraws
Chechen government welcomes summit
In pictures: Clinton's violent welcome
Georgia protests over Russian 'attack'
UN chief: No Chechen 'catastrophe'
New arms control treaty for Europe
Mannesmann fights back (From Business)
EU fraud -- a billion-dollar bill
New moves in Spain's terror scandal
EU allows labelling of British beef
UN seeks more security in Chechnya
Athens riots for Clinton visit
Russia's media war over Chechnya
Homeless suffer as quake toll rises
Analysis: East-West relations must shift