Stephanie eventually convinced her father to allow her to marry Ducruet, but before the ceremony on 1 July 1995 in Monaco, he was made to sign a prenuptual agreement that stripped him of custody rights to any of his children. A very wise move as just a couple of month’s after the couple’s first anniversary, Ducruet was caught on camera cavorting around a pool with Muriel Houteman, the reigning ‘Miss Topless Belgium’. The short-lived marriage was over. Ducruet was immediately banished from the Court of Monaco and forbidden from seeing his children. Ducruet was later awarded £20,000 in damages after he made allegations that it had all been a trap designed to disgrace him.
After her quickie divorce was granted, Stephanie embarked on a string of brief affairs which included the footballer Fabien Barthez and screen heartthrob, Jean-Claude Van Damme. Then the newspapers got hold of another story – that Stephanie was romantically linked with yet another of her bodyguards, a former Paris policeman Jean Raymond Gottlieb. Just a few months into the affair, Stephanie was pregnant again and gave birth to her third child, Camille Marie Kelly, who was born on 15 July 1998. Although it is believed that Gottlieb is the father, Stephanie refused to have the father’s name put on the birth certificate and so this has never been confirmed.
Prince Rainier had simply had enough of his daughter’s unbefitting behaviour and ordered her to leave Monaco. She went to Auron, the ski resort, where she had an affair with a barman, Pierre Pinelli, and was even photographed waiting on tables at his restaurant. However, the affair was short-lived.
Stephanie’s predilection towards low-life friends put her life in danger. For years she had associated with a crowd that both bought and used large amounts of coccaine. When she was approached by the police, she made a deal with them that she would be immune from prosecution in return for supplying them with information. One of her associates was linked to the cartels of Colombia and subsequently the Sicilian Mafia, which made Stephanie a target after she turned in a ruthless drug runner by the name of Giovanni Felice and 12 other known dealers. Prince Rainier, forgetting his past differences with his daughter, immediately stepped in and gave her a safe refuge. She was placed in a luxury penthouse in Monaco with armed bodyguards 24 hours a day. Although she did receive several threatening phone calls, one of which said that her young son was a target, the threats were thankfully never carried out. In August 2000 a cocaine dealer Eskander Laribi was shot dead outside a Nice post office. His girlfriend arrived at the scene driving a car that belonged to the princess, but because of her diplomatic immunity Stephanie was prevented from standing as a witness in the subsequent trial.
After Stephanie’s life of living on the edge, she embarked on one that was totally bizarre. In 2000 she had a romance with a leading Swiss circus owner and elephant trainer called Franco Knie. The affair became public in 2001 when Knie announced that he was leaving his wife for the princess. Stephanie spent several months touring with the circus, living in Knie’s caravan together with her children. However, the affair ended abruptly in 2002 when it was reported that Stephanie was having an affair with her father’s butler, Richard Lucas, who was also married with two children. In 2003 it was rumoured that she was having a fling with the palace’s head gardener and also her sister’s ex-husband Philippe Junot.
Stephanie married a Portuguese trapeze artist on 12 September 2003, ten years her junior and a member of the Circus Knie. This marriage ended in divorce on 24 November 2004, and Hello! magazine published photos of her with a new man, married croupier Franck Brasseur. Since then she has been linked with several other men, including her current boyfriend, French actor and musician Merwan Rim.
Prince Rainier died on 6 April 2005 of heart, lung and kidney failure. Since his death Stephanie has settled down considerably and has become involved in the fight against AIDS.
Prince Albert, as the sole male in the line, is left as heir and successor. Albert, a dedicated sportsman, formed the Monaco national bobsled team in 1986 and competed in five Olympic games. Albert never married and is still considered today to be one of the world’s most eligible bachelors.
However, Albert’s slate is not entirely clean as just one month after taking over as sovereign of Monaco, he announced that he was the father of a two-year-old boy born to an air stewardess by the name of Nicole Coste. Apparently he had met Nicole on an Air France flight in 1997. The following year, Albert also admitted he had a daughter, who was the result of a romantic tryst with an American waitress by the name of Tamara Rotolo. Unfortunately, neither child is in line for the throne, as the principality’s constitution states that only direct and legitimate descendants are considered to be rightful and legal heirs.
PART NINE: Sports Personalities
O. J. Simpson
The murder trial of a former American football star, Orenthal James Simpson ( better known to his fans simply as ‘O. J.’ ) dragged on for nine months in true Hollywood style in 1995. It was played out in court like an extremely tacky novel, with 11 formidable lawyers representing the easily recognizable sportsman standing in the dock. Unbelievably 91 per cent of the American population watched the trial on television, while a further 142 million tuned their radios to hear the eventual outcome of possibly the world’s greatest true life soap opera.
Simpson was standing trial for the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend, Ronald Goldman, but the proceedings turned into a political fight as to whether a black man could find justice in a legal system predominantly controlled by whites. Sadly the focus on the two hapless victims was totally overwhelmed by the team of polished lawyers who seemed willing to try any tack to turn their client into a political pawn.
the events unfold
The evening of 12 June 1994 was shrouded in fog and the howling Akita dog pacing up and down the street in a distressed manner, added to the eeriness. Steven Schwab, who lived in South Bundy Drive in Los Angeles, was walking his own dog at around 11.00 that night, when he came across the Akita. It was acting strangely and its fur and paws were covered in blood. At first the man presumed the dog had been injured, but on closer inspection could find no wounds. His neighbour Suka Boztepe agreed to look after the dog until morning, but was not happy when the Akita continued to pace up and down, whining continually. Eventually he decided to take the dog out for a walk in the hope that he could settle it down for the night. The dog was powerful and dragged Boztepe to the gates of number 875, where it just stood staring into the darkness.
Boztepe tried to focus his eyes and cautiously walked a little way down the path. He stopped abruptly when the dog let out a pitiful cry, and could just about make out the outline of a body lying at the foot of some stone steps. Boztepe retraced his steps and immediately contacted the LAPD.
Two police officers arrived at the three-level condominium at a little after midnight. The first thing the officer noticed in his torchlight was a large pool of blood, and then he saw the first body. It was a woman, lying face down, pressed up against the steps that led to the front door of the condominium. She was covered in blood, which appeared to have gushed out of wounds to her upper body and throat. Just a little to her right, hidden partially by a bush, lay the body of a man, who was also steeped in blood.
The woman turned out to be Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of the retired football player O. J. Simpson. She was the owner of the condominium and on searching the property, the LAPD found Brown’s two children fast asleep in their bedrooms. At this time the identity of the dead man was uncertain. When the forensic team arrived they discovered a number of objects close to the bodies. There was a dark blue knitted cap, a set of keys, a beeper, a white envelope speckled in blood and also a bloodstained leather glove. Leading away from the bodies was a set of bloody footprints that continued to the back of the property.
O. J., being Nicole’s former husband, was immediately placed on the list of suspects, although there was no evidence at the time that linked him directly with the scene of the crime. Meanwhile, O. J. himself, was on bo
ard an American Airlines flight to Chicago, unbeknown to the police.
When the police arrived at O. J.’s gated estate at Rockingham Avenue just 3 kilometres (2 miles) from where the bodies had been found, they noticed a 1994 white Ford Bronco parked bizarrely outside the property. As one of the officers took a closer look, he noticed in the beam of his torch what appeared to be a blood spot on the door near the driver’s handle.
The lights in the house were blazing and the police felt sure someone was in the house. However, despite several efforts to arouse someone, they received no response to either their phone calls or knocking on the door. Without a search warrant they were unable to break into the property, so they decided to walk round the side of the property to a row of three bungalows. They managed to raise the occupants of two of the bungalows, Arnelle Simpson, O. J.’s daughter and a friend, Kato Kaelin.
When Arnelle learned that her stepmother had been murdered she called a close friend of her father’s, Al Cowling, who was able to tell her the police the whereabouts of her father. The police placed a call to the O’Hare Plaza Hotel in Chicago, informing O. J. that his wife had been murdered. Although evidently distressed at the news, the policeman thought it was strange that O. J. never asked any details about the murders, apart from enquiring about the safety of his children. He told the police he would catch the next available flight back to Los Angeles.
Because of O. J.’s status, the police were aware that the news of the double murder would make the headline news, so they thought it apt to break the news to Nicole’s parents before they heard about it on the morning news. They arrived at Dana Point in Orange County just before 6.30 a.m. and sadly passed on the news to Nicole’s father, Louis Brown, that his daughter was dead. As the policeman attempted to comfort Brown, a woman’s voice started crying out in another room – ‘O. J. did it! O. J. killed her! I knew that son of a bitch was going to kill her!’ The outbreak came from Nicole’s own sister, Denise.
Back at Rockingham Avenue, the police had found another leather glove covered in blood, which seemed to be an exact match to the one found beside the body of Nicole. On further investigation they found what appeared to be spots of blood on the ground near two cars parked on the driveway. The trail led them out of the gates and stopped at the back of the white Ford Bronco parked outside the estate. When the police peered through the window of the car they noticed other blood spots on the driver’s door and some on the passenger side of the vehicle. On returning to the garden, the police found the trail of blood took them right up to the front door. With all the evidence to hand the investigating officers returned to their station to prepare a search warrant to enter the home of O. J. and seize and relevant clues.
As soon as O. J. returned to Los Angeles he was taken in for questioning. When asked about a deep cut to his right hand, O. J. initially claimed he did not know how it had happened. When asked again later in the interview about the cut, O. J. said he might have received the injury when he reached inside his Ford Bronco on the night of the murders. Then he changed his mind and said it had most probably happened when he had broken a glass in his Chicago hotel room on hearing the news about the death of Nicole. Although the initial interview was not very forthcoming, the police eventually accumulated enough evidence against O. J. and they issued a warrant for his arrest.
the chase
O. J. contacted his attorney, Robert Shapiro, and asked him to make a deal with the police, which allowed him until 10.00 the following morning to turn himself in. However, when the allotted time came and went and there was no sign of O. J., the police informed Shapiro that they would be going to his house to pick him up. When they arrived O. J. was nowhere to be found, but he had left behind a letter addressed to ‘To Whom it May Concern’.
. . . Don’t feel sorry for me. I’ve had a great life, great friends. Please think of the real O. J. and not this lost person. Thanks for making my life special. I hope I helped yours. Peace and love, O. J.
At around 6.20 that evening, a man phoned the police and said he had seen O. J. driving around in a white Ford Bronco, apparently belonging to a close friend of the star, A. C. Cowlings. The police put together a posse of cars and went in hot pursuit, followed by a news helicopter and several curious members of the public. It couldn’t in any way be described as a fast chase through the streets of Los Angeles – to the contrary it was more of a crawl, and ended with O. J. being arrested in his own driveway. Inside the car the police discovered a false beard and moustache, a loaded gun, a passport and $8,750 in cash.
the trial
The prosecution believed that their case was so strong against O. J. that they had no doubt that the jury would find him guilty of murder. However, a series of major blunders cost the prosecutors their case. After the initial hearing, when O. J. categorically denied any connection with the murders, the trial opened on Tuesday, 24 January 1995.
Despite the dismal weather on the first day of the trial, everyone was intrigued and wanted to be there to watch what turned out to be a total farce. Over the next 99 days, the prosecution presented 72 witnesses, many of them friends and relatives of his ex-wife. The majority suggested that O. J. had both the motive and the opportunity to carry out the murders, and pointed out to the court that he already had a history of domestic violence. Despite the prosecution supplying endless pieces of evidence which could have placed O. J. at the scene of the crime, the defence used every tactic to prove that the evidence provided was ‘contaminated, compromised and ultimately corrupted’.
The prosecution felt the case was slipping away from them and decided to use a piece of circumstantial evidence, the bloodstained gloves found at O. J.’s property and by the side of Nicole’s body. The judge instructed O. J. to put the gloves on, but the star seemed to struggle to get them to fit. ‘They don’t fit. See? They don’t fit,’ O. J. claimed. The damage had been done and the seed of doubt had been planted in the jury’s minds.
O. J.’s defence team worked like a well-oiled piece of machinery and earned themselves the nickname the ‘Dream Team’. Day by day they undermined the evidence submitted by the prosecution, raising more and more doubts until eventually they virtually forced an acquittal. It would be a forensic expert by the name of Henry Lee, that finally won O. J. his acquittal by firmly planting doubts leaving a final impact on the jury.
By the time the teams put together their closing arguments, the case had already gone down in Californian history as the longest trial in front of a jury. The American public watched and waited with baited breath to hear the outcome of the trial that had become their favourite soap opera. At 10.00 a.m. on 3 October 1993, the jury announced their verdict:
We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.
From O. J. could be heard an audible sigh, but from the friends and family of his ex-wife, there were cries of ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’
O. J. was ordered to pay compensatory damages of $8.5 million and punitive damages of $25 million.
where are they now?
Despite being a broken man, today O. J. lives well on a substantial pension plan set up by the former football star when he was still making millions. This type of pension is exempt from civil court judgements, which means he can live quite comfortably off $25,000 a month.
Nicole’s parents, Louis and Juditha Brown, became embroiled in a protracted court battle with their former son-in-law, in an attempt to win custody of the couple’s two young children, Justin aged 10 and Sydney aged 13. Their daughter, Denise Brown, focuses her attention on the plight of battered wives and travels around the country speaking of domestic violence.
As for the Akita dog, who alerted people to the plight of its master, she now lives with Nicole’s parents in Orange County. She is a great playmate for the Simpson children when they go to visit.
In November 2006, O. J. published a book entitled If I Did It and the publisher, Judith Reagan, told the Associated
Press, ‘This is an historic case and I consider this to be his confession!’
David Beckham
David Beckham is one of Britain’s most iconic athletes whose name and face are instantly recognisable around the world. He is married to Victoria Beckham, otherwise known as Posh Spice, and, as a family they symbolise fame, beauty, success and fortune – something which most people can only dream of. Always in the limelight, the epitome of the perfect family, it is not surprising that the tabloids jumped on the news of David Beckham’s infidelity.
the young sportsman
He was born David Robert Joseph Beckham on 2 May 1975, in the East End of London at Leystonstone. His father, Ted, was a kitchen fitter and his mother, Sandra, a hairdresser. Both his parents were avid supporters of Manchester United, and realising their son was a natural athlete they enrolled David in Bobby Charlton’s football school in Manchester. He quickly showed his natural aptitude for the sport. He was given a place in a training session at FC Barcelona and by the age of 16 was playing for Manchester United as a trainee. Between 1992 and 2003, David made almost 400 appearances for Manchester United and scored 85 goals.
His success on the football field, his good looks and his marriage to Spice Girls star, Victoria Adams, meant that the name Beckham was never out of the news. Both David and Victoria were snapped up by the fashion industry and they quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. However, with all the positive press came the bad, and the Beckham’s perfect image was tarnished for a while with not just one accusation of infidelity, but two.
Infamous Scandals Page 28
