The Rose Ball, Monaco’s National Day, the Red Cross Gala: these are the settings where the world is used to seeing Beatrice Borromeo Casiraghi, poised and on the side of the Grimaldis. This week, Princess Caroline’s daughter-in-law turned up somewhere different. On Monday, she was in Strasbourg, France, and was there as a journalist.
© Getty ImagesThe Italian aristocrat, 41, moderated the opening session of “Youth Facing Disinformation: Why Journalists Matter,” a two-day gathering organized by the Council of Europe as part of its Journalists Matter campaign for the safety of journalists. According to the official program, she shared the moderator’s chair with Daniel Voda, a foreign policy expert and former government spokesperson of the Republic of Moldova.
It’s a setting that sits much closer to who she was before she married into the Grimaldi family, and one that tells a fuller story than the society pages usually do.
A Monaco moment in Strasbourg
© Stephane Cardinale - CorbisBeatrice Borromeo's appearance carried extra meaning for the Principality. The conference is part of an initiative championed jointly by the Council of Europe and Monaco, which currently holds the presidency of the institution’s Committee of Ministers for the first time in its history, a six-month term that wraps up on November 10. Among the day’s participants was Isabelle Berro-Amadeï, Monaco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and chair of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.
Beatrice didn’t attend in any official capacity on behalf of the Grimaldi family. Still, lending her voice to a project so closely tied to Monaco gave her public return to journalism an unmistakably symbolic edge.
The career that came first
To most of the public, her name is inseparable from the House of Grimaldi. But Beatrice Borromeo Casiraghi built a career well before she became part of Monaco’s princely family. The event’s organizers describe her on their website as a journalist, documentary filmmaker, and producer. She graduated in law and economics from Bocconi University in Milan and earned a master’s degree in international politics from Columbia University in New York.
She got her start in television, most notably on Rai 2’s political program Annozero, while also building a career in radio and print. She was one of the co-founders of the Italian daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.
© Instagram/Beatrice BorromeoFrom there, she turned her attention to documentaries and production. Her credits include "Mamma Mafia," which was later adapted into the Prime Video series "Bang Bang Baby," and the Netflix documentary "The King Who Never Was." She’s a founder of the production company Astrea Films.
That side of her life doesn’t always make headlines, but it’s essential to understanding her. While her public appearances tend to revolve around family engagements, she has never stepped away from the world of media, investigation, and filmmaking.
From Milan classmates to Monaco’s golden couple
It was during her university years in Milan that she met her future husband, Pierre Casiraghi. Their romance unfolded quietly back in 2008, and seven years later, they got married in a civil ceremony at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco.
In the years since, they’ve become one of the most solid couples in the Grimaldis’ new generation. They’re parents to three kids, Stefano, 9, Francesco, 8, and Bianca, who turned one in October. The couple is a fixture at the family’s biggest celebrations, from Monaco’s Red Cross Gala to the many charitable and cultural events championed by the princely family.
© SC Pool - CorbisA Strasbourg connection to Charlotte
The choice of Strasbourg also comes with a link to another member of the family. Earlier this year, the French city welcomed Charlotte Casiraghi to its Le Temps des féminismes festival, where she presented "La Fêlure," her first book. Now it’s her sister-in-law’s turn in the Alsatian capital, with a very different agenda: as a journalist moderating a European debate on the value of quality information in an age of disinformation.
