Nyna’s childhood had been spent in doctor’s offices. Nyna Giles was picking up groceries at the supermarket one day when she looked down and saw the headline on the cover of a tabloid: “Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter.” Nyna was stunned, shocked to see her family’s private ordeal made so public-the woman mentioned on that cover, Carolyn Scott Reybold, was her mother. In this powerful memoir of friendship and motherhood, Nyna Giles uncovers her mother's past to answer the questions she could never ask.'A fascinating true story.' - Good HousekeepingĪ daughter’s moving search to understand her mother, Carolyn Scott-once a bridesmaid to Princess Grace and one of the first Ford models-who later in life spent years living in a homeless shelter. But how had the seemingly confident, glamorous woman in those pictures become the mother she knew growing up - the mother who was now living in a shelter? Nyna had met Grace and seen the photos of Carolyn at her wedding, wearing the yellow bridesmaid gown that had hung in her closet for years. She knew that her mother had been a model after arriving in 1950s New York, staying at the Barbizon Hotel, where she'd met the young Grace Kelly, and that the two had become fast friends. Now Nyna was forced to confront an agonising realisation: she barely knew the woman on the magazine in front of her. The doctors couldn't tell her what was wrong, but as Nyna grew up, her mother, who'd always seemed fragile, became more and more distant. Too ill, she was told, to go to school like other children, she spent every waking moment at her mother's side at their isolated Long Island estate or on trips into the city to see the ballet. Nyna's childhood had been spent in doctor's offices. Nyna was stunned, afraid that someone would know the woman on that cover, Carolyn Scott, was her mother. Nyna Giles was picking up groceries at the supermarket one day when she looked down and saw a woman on the cover of a tabloid beneath the headline: 'Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter'.

A daughter's poignant search to understand her mother - once a bridesmaid to Princess Grace and a world-renowned Ford model, who spent her final years in a homeless shelter.

The Bridesmaid's Daughter by Nyna Giles