Beatrice Borromeo, branded by Tatler as “the most stylish European royal” may have married into a glamorous royal family, but it is her documentary about a murder case involving another one that put her under the spotlight in recent months.
The 37-year-old is married to Pierre Casiraghi, the youngest child of Caroline, Princess of Hanover, who herself is the daughter of Grace Kelly, later the Princess of Monaco.
On her wedding day in 2015, she was dubbed by Vogue the “chicest of the summer” – she wore four couture gowns, two by Valentino for a civil service in Monaco and two by Armani Prive for a religious service at Lake Maggiore.
The former journalist and fashion model has now made a Netflix documentary about a sensational murder case involving Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, the heir to the Italian throne.
The three-episode series is titled The King Who Never Was and focuses on an event in August 1978 which remains a mystery to this day.
The case alleges that Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, the last heir to the Italian throne, was holidaying at his summer residence on the island of Cavallo, France, when, enraged by a group of Italians partying on nearby boats, he produced a rifle and shot a young German tourist, Dirk Hamer.
Victor Emmanuel was acquitted of murder charges in November 1991, following a lengthy court battle brought about by Dirk’s sister, Birgit Hamer – who was one of Beatrice’s mother Paola Marzotto’s oldest friends.
The Prince was convicted only of a firearms offence and given a suspended jail sentence of six months.
Beatrice said: “[The story] was a part of my family for as long as I can remember.”
In 2011, while working for an Italian newspaper, she leaked a secretly recorded video of Victor Emmanuel allegedly confessing to the killing.
Victor, or Vittorio, Emanuele is part of the House of Savoy, which ruled Italy from 1861 to 1946, when they were displaced by the Italian Republic.
For her next project, Beatrice is making a film about the origins of the family she has married into: the Grimaldis of Monaco, Europe’s longest-standing royal family.
She said: “My company Astrea Films is producing the film about the seizure of the fortress of Monaco by the Grimaldi family in the Middle Ages.”
The royal, who is the daughter of Italian aristocrat Don Carlo Ferdinando, was photographed last week at an event to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Prince Rainier III.
Grace Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco in 1956 when she retired from acting to marry the prince.
She died in 1982 in a car accident.
In an apparent tribute to her late grandmother-in-law, who was a lifelong fan of the French fashion house, Beatrice was dressed in a chic belted pink Dior shirt dress at the event.
Her family owns the Borromean Islands in Lake Maggiore near Milan, along with land in the Lombardy and Piedmont countryside. They also own the Roca Borromeo castle where her wedding reception took place.
She and Pierre have since become parents to two sons, Stefano, five, and Francesco, four.
The King Who Never Was is available to stream on Netflix now.
