Thursday, June 30, 2011

Monaco princely wedding: the witnesses

The Prince of Monaco's best man will be his cousin, Chris LeVine.   Miss Wittstock's witness will be Donatella Knecht de Massy, the wife of Sebastien de Massy, Albert's first cousin once removed.

Sebastien is the grandson of the late Princess Antoinette of Monaco.  He is the son of the late Christine Alix de Massy and her first husband, American, Charles Wayne Knecht.   Sebastien was born in Philadelphia in 1972.

http://www.mariageprincier-live.com/

It seems unlikely that the wedding will be televised live in the United States, although it will be on the news!

4 comments:

Dennis said...

In addition to being related to Prince Albert via Princess Antoinette, Sebastian's father's maternal grandmother was apparently also a Kelly descendant (or at least it is so reported in various Kelly books, though without enough details to verify it.)

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

I believe Wayne's mother, Evelyn Elaine Gruice, was Princess Grace's first cousin (mother's side)

Dennis said...

That sounds about right; Mary A. Kelly, sister of John Brendan Kelly, Sr., Grace's father, married Joseph John Cruice. They had a daughter Elaine, but she seems to have married a Richard Beyer and had two children, Paula and Wayne.

Approaching it from the other end, C.E.D.R.E. says that Charles Wayne Knecht's father was Richard Wayne Knecht and his mother was Evelyn-Elaine Cruice. So there's a name change or a remarriage or an extra generation or some detail wrong there that I can't quite nail down, though I'm sure the connection is there.

Cecile said...

I am organizing some information about the witnesses at the wedding of Prince Albert of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock.

Albert's witness was his first cousin, Donald Christopher LeVine. Chris is 54 years old and lives in Bryn Mawr, Pa with his wife, Victoria, and their three children. He is the son of Donald Caldwell LeVine and Elizabeth Anne Kelly. Lizanne was Grace's younger sister.

Chris had an older sister, Grace, who died from cancer on 6 October 1999 in Philadelphia at the age of 43. Grace was named after her aunt Grace. Grace LeVine had been the witness for Caroline at her wedding to Philippe Junot.

Charlene's witness was Donatella di Guevarra Fabbri who is married to Keith Sebastian Knecht. Sebastian is 38 years old and lives in the Paris area with Donatella and their four daughters. Sebastian is doubly related to Albert. They are first cousins, once removed on the Grimaldi side and second cousins, once removed, on the Kelly side.

Sebastian is the son of Christine Alix de Massy and the grandson of Princess Antoinette, Baronne de Massy and Alexandre Noghes. Antoinette was Prince Rainier's older sister. Christine died from leukemia on 15 February 1989 in Nice, France at the age of 37. Sebastian was 16 years old when his mother died. Christine had divorced Sebastian's father in
1976.

Sebastian is the son of Charles Wayne Knecht, the grandson of Richard Wayne Knecht and Evelyn Elaine Cruice, and the great-grandson of Joseph John Cruice and Mary A. Kelly. Mary was John Brendan Kelly's older sister. Charles Wayne Knecht is 66 years old and lives in Bryn Mawr with his wife, Naomi. Elaine was apparently married twice and divorced twice as there was no mention of either of her husbands in her obituary. Her first husband, Richard W. Knecht, died on 25 September 2005 in Fort Washington, PA at the age of 92. He was survived by his wife, Suzanne, his son, Wayne Knecht, and his daughter, Paula Brill. Elaine E. Beyer died on 17 May 2007at her home in Stuart, FL at the age of 86. She was preceded in death by her parents, Joseph Cruice and Mary Kelly Cruice. She was survived by a daughter, Paula Jones, of Havertown, PA and a son, Wayne Knecht, of Bryn Mawr, PA.