How Did Prince Albert And His Sisters Acquire American Accents?

Did Grace Kelly always speak with that transatlantic accent, even in private? That would make her kids’ accent even more baffling.

The English they heard most was their mother’s and her family’s, or native speakers hired by the parents. Do you know how language acquisition works?

They grew up bilingual. Grace spoke to them only in her American-accented English.

Albert and Stephanie speak English with typical American accents. Caroline has a more affected accent but still sounds American.

Pierre Casiraghi speaking English.

Prince Albert's father, Prince Rainier, spoke English with a British accent. He was educated in England so the children didn't get it from him.

Princess Grace, boarding schools, college/university, tutors, nannies, films and tv of the 60's and 70's, all of them could have influenced the Grimaldis toward American accents.

Albert went to college in the US (Amherst) and Caroline was mostly educated in France. I’ve been most surprised at how American Stephanie sounds.

MOET...with the T

Spoke better than I ever did in those Moet commercials

Say the secret word and win a date with George Fenneman

You bet your life

We have the same accent!

Their mother was American. You try to explain this away somehow, OP, but you really don't. They had an American parent. They also had American grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. No, they didn't live with all of these people and see them every day, but they were the English speakers that they probably spent the most amount of time with, and therefore they had the greatest influence on how they learned to speak English.

There's also the fact that their mother was a former movie star and all of them were royalty; no, French or Monegasque television in the 60s and 70s wasn't showing American sitcoms 24/7, but they had special access to films that most others wouldn't just given their position and their mother's past.

Stephanie and Caroline with strong accentless American accents. They could be a couple of sisters straight out of Bayonne, New Jersey

Not really true R12.....you can have a lot of relatives from another country like the Kelly clan and minders, but if you grow up in a foreign country, you pick up the native accent. Liz Taylor was born in the UK to American parents but had a strong British accent seven years late when she came to America.

They trained with Sarah Snook.

Among non-Americans, she has the best American accent I think I've ever heard. It is completely convincing.

Prince Rainier spoke English fluently with at least some of a British accent (school there as a boy).

I saw a clip of Princess Grace commenting on Albert's diving skills at a pool and she sounded like white trash.

[quote] saw a clip of Princess Grace commenting on Albert's diving skills

Did she happen to comment on Stephanie’s driving skills?

Yeah, Albert went to college in the US. I read somewhere that they spent time with their mother's family in the US. How much time, I don't know.

R14, no doubt they had flawless Monégasque accents too, when speaking French.

Why would they speak English with Monégasque accents? They learned to speak English from Americans, not from Monégasques.

Some of you really have no idea how accents are acquired.

If we've seen videoclips of them speaking English perfectly, it could be that they were also tailoring that English to sound that way when talking with whomever they were speaking. Look at Gillian Anderson, wasn't she also British-born and speaks with a British accent when interviewed in the British media? Albert and his sisters probably pour on the London-ese accent when speaking in the British media, too.

Stephanie actually worked as a carny in Bayonne, New Jersey.

They're all trash.

Grace had a steady stream of friends and family visiting, so they would have mostly been exposed to American accents. It may have also been a conscious choice for Albert and Stephanie, as they grew older, to speak “American” like their mom. Stephanie also lived in LA for a few years in her 20s. Caroline speaks slightly differently from what I recall. Not so much a British accent but more of a French accent.

The Kelly Family had a summer home in Ocean City NJ, and Grace would take Albert, Caroline, and Stephanie the Whore there for years with all the Kelly cousins. They stayed a few weeks every summer for years.

Is it possible that they underwent some kind of dialect training with a coach? It could be similar to how many American journalists do or did dialect training to lose certain regional accents.

[quote]Look at Gillian Anderson, wasn't she also British-born and speaks with a British accent when interviewed in the British media?

Gillian Anderson was born in Illinois and moved to the UK as a child and returned for high school with a British accent which she quickly learned to disguise. So she faked an American accent as a teen to fit in and it just became so second nature that when she’s interviewed in the UK, she has a Brit accent, but interviewed in the US, has an American accent. And I don’t think she does it to try to deceive anyone and may not even be completely aware she does it. It’s just become second nature to her to switch back and forth depending on where she is.

John Barrowman has a the completely opposite issue. He was born in Scotland and moved to Illinois at 8 and adopted an American accent and even in the UK he speaks in an American accent, but when he’s in Scotland, total Scottish accent. Again, not sure he’s aware he’s doing it.

And lord. Anya Taylor Joy’s accent is all over the place. I’m not sure she even knows what her natural accent is. Born in the US, raised in Argentina learning Spanish, moved to the UK and tried to refuse to learn to speak English because she was so young and wanted her family to move back to Argentina so I’ve seen her interviewed with an American accent, a British accent and in Spanish! I think she moved around so much she has no idea where the hell she is and what she’s supposed to sound like!

Obviously because American English is the correct form of the language

Caroline and Stephanie both sound like they have slight European accents. They were obviously bilingual from childhood, but it’s obvious they didn’t grow up in the US.

Have you got Prince Albert in a can?

If you go to one of the many International (IB) or American Schools for expat and diplomatic kids, you end up with an American accent. If you go to the British School you end up with a British accent. Monaco and Nice have both; I’m guessing they did IB or had American tutors.

I’ve got a Prince Albert on my beer can….dick.

Grace’s kids also went to summer camp in the US with their cousins.

I know an American guy who spent half his early life in Scotland-moved there at about 4 and back to the US at16, so he uses (and I mean intentionally) an American accent that he had to basically learn at 16 and when he goes back to Scotland or even talks on the phone with someone there, it’s full on Scottish accent and a hard one. Impossible to understand.

I grew up in New Orleans and people tell me ALL THE TIME “you don’t have a New Orleans accent” and I want to say, yeah, because we had a tv and I have an American tv accent. I’ll usually just tell them, well my mom was from Philadelphia, but thats’s not really the reason. My dad is from New Orleans and HE doesn’t have a New Orleans accent either. Most of the folks in New Orleans don’t have that thick sorta Brooklyn-y accent.

So then they’ll ask if I can *do* a New Orleans accent and I’m not a naturally good mimic. I can’t fake a British or even a New Orleans accent. There are only two accents I can fake. A Colonel Sanders southern accent because of my grandfather, and a Cajun accent. I don’t know why I can fake a Cajun accent convincingly but not a 9th ward New Orleans one.

So as soon as they ask “Do a New Orleans accent!” I’ll give them my best Cajun accent and I swear 99% of the time they’ll go “Ahh! THERE IT IS!!” 🙄

I think one person in my entire life said “that sounds more Cajun…”