Luxurious Minded Creatures

Stefano Casiraghi
(8 September 1960-3 October 1990)

written by Schmichaelira

He was born in Como, Italy on the 8th of September, 1960, the fourth and last child of the successful coal merchants Giancarlo and Fernanda Casiraghi. He grew up at the family’s estate, which overlooked the Lake Como, in Fino Mornasco, which is about 35 km north of Milan. Stefano attended the Como-based College Gallio (unlike his siblings, who went to Milan for school) and then he followed in his eldest sibling Marco’s footsteps by attending the private University of Luigi Bocconi. After two years, he left the university to learn the family business. In the summer of 1983, Stefano and Princess Caroline met through mutual friends in Corsica and immediately were infatuated. A whirlwind of romantic rendezvous followed. This was about a year after Princess Grace died. Their first and beautiful son Andrea must have been conceived around September 1983, and in December they married in a civil ceremony at Monaco’s Palace (because the Pope still refused to grant the annulment of Caroline’s 1979 marriage to Philippe Junot.) Stefano was regarded unfairly by the media as kind of a wimp. The media claimed that his own father-in-law, Prince Rainier, saw him this way too, and disliked him for it. Maybe Prince Rainier was wary of Stefano first (after all, his daughter was vulnerable then, having not long before lost her mother and had such a disastrous marriage already). But I think that Rainier grew to respect Stefano. Stefano was probably something like an “acquired taste,” like a fine old wine. He was shy and reserved, so probably very difficult to get to know! Unfortunately, even the media of his home country was cruel. They called him “Carolino,” and wrote about him as if he was a lapdog husband of the supposedly domineering princess. Another sneering nickname was “Duke of Brianza,” referring to the part of Lombardy to which Fino Mornasco belongs.

3 October 2010: The 20th anniversary of his death was marked by many tributes published on the Internet. The Casiraghi family gathered in Fino Mornasco to pay homage to his memory. There was a ceremony to lay flowers at the memorial site. Then there was a charity soccer match between the “Friends of Stefano” and the National Italian Artists. The event raised money for the charity  Croce Verde di Fino  (literal translation: Green Cross of Fino). Finally, a photographic tribute to Stefano’s life as a champion was inaugurated.