Prince Albert of Monaco’s daughter Jazmin Grimaldi says she feels a ‘special connection’ to her grandmother Grace Kelly after visiting Oscars Museum and holding an Academy Award

Jazmin Grimaldi has said she feels a ‘special connection’ to her grandmother Grace Kelly after visiting the Oscar museum in Los Angeles.

The actress daughter of Prince Albert of Monaco, 32, paid tribute to the relative she never met in a sweet Instagram post on Sunday, before heading to Elton John’s AIDS Foundation Oscars party.

Grace died in a car crash ten years before Jazmin was born, meaning the pair never got to meet.

Taking to Instagram,  Grace shared a video of herself posing with an Oscar statue next to a clip of Grace picking up her Best Actress Oscar in 1954.

‘I recently visited the Academy Museum this Oscar season in Los Angeles,’ she wrote.

‘I couldn’t help but feel a special connection with my Grandmother Grace Kelly while walking through the museum and being able to hold an Oscar for this special yet comedic photo opportunity. 

‘Grace was an official Academy Award winning actress in 1955 for her role in Country Girl at the 27th Oscars! Here we are 69 years later. 

‘Happy Oscar season and congratulations to all the hardworking artists! You are all winners in my eyes,’ she added.

Jazmin then shared a series of snaps from Elton John’s Oscars party where she stunned in a black and lace dress and posed with her longterm partner Ian Mellencamp.

Jazmin is the love child of Albert of Monaco and Tamara Jean Rotolo, she is not in the line of succession to the Monegasque throne due to being born our of wedlock. Her mother, Tamara Jean Rotolo, was waitress at the time she met Prince Albert.

She grew up in Palm Desert, California, and when she was younger her mother would reportedly show her pictures of her paternal grandmother – Grace Kelly – an American film actress and Princess of Monaco, and Albert’s mother.

‘One of my first and fondest memories involving my grandmother was watching’ she told Harpers Bazar in 2015, speaking of the 1956 musical, in which Kelly starred alongside Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

‘It was the first time I realized we had a connection. I’m passionate about acting, singing, and dancing,’ adds Jazmin. ‘I saw that in her in this movie. It was a real goose-bumps moment for me.’

While she is not in line to the throne, her father has said that his children will be taken care of financially, and stand to inherit part of his personal fortune through be more than $1 billion.

Despite her mother being open about her lineage, she did not connect with her father until she was 11 – visiting Monaco for the first time, saying she has enjoyed a great relationship with him ever since, and says she has developed a bond with Albert and his wife – Princess Charlene.

According to Article 10 of Monaco’s constitution, out-of-wedlock children are not in the line of succession to the principality’s throne. It specifies that only ‘direct descendants’ of Monaco’s monarch or siblings may inherit it.

Extramarital children are common among the ruling family of Monaco, with ever Grimaldi generation for 100 years acknowledging a child that did not have legitimacy of birth.

Some of those children have gained succession right through legitimization or adoption – including Princess Charlotte – but Jazmin could not have been legitimized because her mother’s divorce proceedings were not finalized by the time of her birth – and therefore even the subsequent marriage of her biological parents would not have been enough.

Furthermore, in 2002 Albert’s father Prince Rainer III (and Grace Kelly’s husband) made obtaining succession rights through adoption impossible with a modification to the constitution.

Her first on-screen performance was a role as a cashier in the TV series ‘Jay & Pluto’ in 2016, and in December 2019, she released her first single titled ‘Fearless’.

In January, French publication Le Monde alleged that the royal spends millions every year from a secret French bank account to pay his former mistresses and love children – with Jazmin Grace and her half-brother Alexandre Coste-Grimaldi receiving allowances of $344,000 (around £270,132.88) a year each.

In November, the socialite also put up pictures from a lush holiday to Italy’s Lake Como – beloved by the world’s rich and famous – posing up a storm by an outdoor pool overlooking stunning scenery.

Earlier that month she’d also enjoyed a flashy trip to Vegas as well as a fun weekend  in Memphis. 

She also appeared to spend much of the summer in Europe, the South of France and Monaco, sharing scenic views and photos of herself enjoying fine food and wine, sporting beautiful dresses and enjoying the sun and sea.

In other posts, Jazmin has also publicised her support for the SAG-AFTRA strike last year, although her acting career is still very much in its infancy. 

Her roles include an uncredited part as a casino girl in one episode of  The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in 2019, although she does appear as Angie Bowie in the upcoming Idris Elba production The Chelsea Cowboy. 

She also has two singles out – one called Fearless and another titled Thankful. It is also understood that Jazmin is involved with charity work.

In 2006 she set up The Jazmin Fund which helps people across villages in Fiji. In 2016, the organisation helped Naidi village with funds after a Cyclone devastated the region.

In 2022, it was reported that Jazmin had snagged a $3.3 million home in the Hollywood Hills.

According to Tatler, the three-bedroom, three-bathroom property featured stunning views of the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood sign. Her famous neighbours were said to include Winona Ryder and Felicity Huffman.

Albert, 65, who is worth around $1billion, also brought his daughter a $3million flat in New York when she was 25. It is not clear if she still resides there.

Jazmin’s mother Tamara, she met Albert while holidaying on the Cote D’Azur in 1991. They enjoyed a two-week fling which resulted in the birth of Jazmin in 1992, but the baby was kept secret from the public until 2006. 

A friend of her mother Tamara’s said in 2005: ‘Tamara was from a very ordinary, working-class background and had decided to go on one big holiday to Monaco. Albert was quite infatuated with her.

‘They were together pretty much every day and night and, after her two weeks were up, he asked her to stay on.

‘She told him, “I have to get back to my job”. This was reality-check time.

‘To her surprise, Albert did not forget her. He kept in touch by phone and she could contact him in a heart- beat, wherever he was in the world. The wall came down after Prince Rainier found out.

‘All contact was cut off. First she was hurt, then she got mad and decided to go to court.’

In 1993, a judge ordered Albert to provide a blood sample to settle the paternity case. But Albert’s high-powered attorneys went back to court to argue that California law had no power to order the sample. A judge agreed and ruled that the case could not go to trial.

Albert neither confirmed nor denied that he was Jazmin’s father. He acknowledged in court papers: ‘I was briefly acquainted with the plaintiff when she was on vacation in Monaco in July 1991.’

But the death of Prince Rainier more than ten years later, coupled with Nicole’s revelation, proved to be the catalyst for fresh negotiations for lawyers and, in the summer of 2006, a year after the first love child bombshell, Prince Albert formally recognised Jazmin as his daughter.

A royal spokesman said at the time: ‘We can assure everyone that there are no more hidden children. This is the last one.’

Both children now carry the Grimaldi name, and while they can never accede to the throne they will be able to make a financial claim when he dies.

Talking about meeting her father for the first time when she was 11, Jazmin said in 2015: ‘I wanted that moment to connect with my father, to get to know him, and to have him get to know me.

‘Not having had that figure around, I missed that. It’s wonderful that it happened when it did, and we’ve been enjoying a great relationship ever since.’

Jazmin revealed her close relationship with her half-brother Alexandre as she marked his 18th birthday in a sweet Instagram post.

She shared a series of Instagram posts from his birthday party in 2021, writing: ‘It’s a celebration. Happy birthday my little brother Alexandre!’

And last year, Prince Albert posed with his two children by former lovers for the first time.

The extraordinary picture, taken in New York, was shared online by his ex, Nicole. Wearing an open-necked shirt, the Prince has his arm around Jazmin who had her arm around Alexandre. 

It comes as Jazmin Grimaldi sparked speculation she may have married her partner of eight year Ian Mellencamp after her shared a video of her in what appeared to be a wedding dress.

A video, posted to Instagram, showed the couple on their travels around the world, including putting a love lock on a bridge, celebrating Valentine’s Day and various hikes across the US.

And in one shot, the actress holds on to her dog Frankie Bleu by a poolside and appears to be wearing a white wedding gown.

Her hair is styled in a classic updo, while she dons sparkling jewellery to pose amid a stunning vista, not unlike many wedding venues.

In another shot, she appears to be wearing a ring on her engagement finger.