Are we sure she isn’t trolling us? Harper’s Bazaar interviewed Jazmin Grimaldi, the 23-year-old illegitimate daughter of Monaco’s Prince Albert II, who is now embarking on a career as a singer and actress. In the accompanying photo shoot, Jazmin is decked out in sumptuous gowns by Carolina Herrara and Vera Wang, and fairly dripping in jewels, but it’s that face that keeps drawing your eye back. It’s UNDENIABLY the face of a certain kookily-dressed pop star with the initials LG. Weird. Even in profile…
It’s Gaga, right? Yes? No? Am I crazy? Anywaaaaaaaay….
From Harper’s Bazaar:
The fact that she was the prince’s daughter was never a surprise to Jazmin; her mother, with whom she is close, was always honest about her lineage, and communicated occasional messages from her father over the years. “It’s just what it was,” she says. But having developed a tendency toward privacy, Jazmin didn’t delve into her “situation” with friends, and while rumors had been brewing in Europe, they were slow to cross the Atlantic. Only once the media pieced together Jazmin’s story, and the prince formally acknowledged her as his daughter in 2006, did the less appealing trappings of royalty enter her life. In Jazmin’s case, that meant the arrival of the paparazzi—just in time for puberty, she notes. “I was 14, getting ready to go to high school, when it hit the media that my father had a daughter, and it was me,” Jazmin remembers. “It’s a difficult time for any young adult, and it was an adjustment to have that attention. But I knew it was going to come someday.” She adds candidly, “This is my first interview, my first time going public. It’s delicate, but I think I’m ready to step out and share my story a little bit further.”
Jazmin has since been welcomed warmly by the prince and his wife of four years, Princess Charlene (formerly Wittstock), and has traveled to Monaco many times, sometimes accompanied by Rotolo. On this most recent trip, Jazmin has plans to attend one of the principality’s most extravagant annual events, the Grand Prix, but her main focus is on spending time with her new siblings, Gabriella, Countess of Carladès, and Jacques, Monaco’s heir apparent. “I can’t wait to be a sister to them and watch them grow up,” she says dotingly. “They have these beautiful, big blue eyes—and they are both already so well behaved!” Jazmin is also cultivating a relationship with her 11-year-old half-brother, Alexandre Coste, the prince’s son from another relationship. (As Monegasque law requires an heir’s parents to have married, neither is in line for the throne, though both are eligible for a portion of their father’s estate.) “We like to share family meals, have barbecues, go to the beach, everything a normal family does,” Jazmin says of a typical visit to Monaco. “Except with heavy scheduling.”
Jazmin has struck up a particularly close friendship with her cousin Pauline Ducruet, 21, who also lives in New York. In Monaco, they recently lodged together with Pauline’s mother, Princess Stéphanie, and Jazmin’s other cousins Louis and Camille. In New York, the girls attend film premieres together, brave sample sales, and—both foodies—dine out as often as possible. Jazmin spends much of her time immersed in the arts, whether at Cinema Society screenings or music venues like Le Poisson Rouge and the Village Vanguard.
She has also been finding her own voice, so to speak, which, it turns out, is operatically trained and pairs marvelously with an upright bass. After singing with a friend’s band in college, she launched her solo career with a cabaret-style showcase, Fall in Love With Jaz (“The pun is intended,” she says wryly), at Manhattan’s Duplex Theatre last February. Backed by her twangy four-piece band (and citing inspirations from Sia to Freddie Mercury), Jazmin performed soulful takes on musical standards and is planning a follow-up show this fall. At the same time, she has her eye on a graduate degree in international relations, and—having studied business at Fordham and worked for the U.N.’s World Food Programme—hopes, down the line, to marry humanitarianism with the arts professionally. At the ripe age of 14, she founded the Jazmin Fund, an ongoing philanthropic project currently focused on bringing basic classroom and medical supplies to Fijian villages. Jazmin’s long-term goal with the fund is to return to Fiji and build a community center where local children can engage with music and other arts.
That’s quite an elaborate backstory if it IS Gaga punking us. And if she is… well played, my dear, well played. *Slow clap*
And btw, Jazmin Grimaldi? Such a hot name. It’s like a stripper name generator came up with it. I imagine somewhere there are illegitimate daughters of royals named Cinnamon Windsor, Bambi Mountbatten, Krystal Hapsburg, Tuti Thurn und Taxis, Kitty of Kent…. (I could do this all day)
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