Buzz
In today’s world, the concept of curses seems out of place. How can a logical person believe in such superstitions? Yet, as the saying goes, “old habits die hard,” and there’s a part of us that yearns to believe in the supernatural. So, setting aside rationality, let’s dive into the terrifying tales of 10 families plagued by their own dreadful curses.
10. The Grimaldi Family Curse
This curse is something any unhappy spouse might understand. The Grimaldi family, Monaco’s ruling dynasty, has faced a series of tragic marriages, and their misfortune is often linked to the actions of two infamous ancestors. Francesco Grimaldi, one of these ancestors, is credited with securing the family’s control over Monaco. He disguised himself as a monk, deceived the fortress guards, and seized power, setting the stage for the family’s troubled legacy.
Another ancestor—Prince Rainier I—took his cruelty to another level by kidnapping and assaulting a beautiful maiden. In retaliation, the maiden transformed into a witch and declared, “No Grimaldi shall ever find true happiness in marriage.”
This curse has proven accurate, starting with the tragic death of Prince Rainier III’s wife, American actress Grace Kelly, in a car accident. Their three children also faced their own series of scandals and misfortunes. Princess Caroline, the eldest, divorced her first husband, lost her second husband to an untimely death, and rumors suggest her third marriage is also struggling. Meanwhile, Princess Stephanie, the younger sister, had tumultuous relationships with men ranging from her bodyguard to an elephant trainer and a circus acrobat, resulting in three children born out of wedlock.
Prince Albert II, their brother, has managed to avoid major marital disasters so far and remains married to former Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock. However, their relationship has faced its own challenges, including Albert’s past as a playboy and Wittstock nearly canceling the wedding.
9. The Kennedy Family Curse
Although the Kennedy Curse has been covered in a prior list, we revisit it due to a recent tragedy. The suicide of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s second wife in 2012 reignited discussions about the infamous curse plaguing the Kennedy family for generations. This raises the question: Who initiated this curse?
According to legend, it was Thomas Fitzgerald, John F. Kennedy’s great-grandfather, who set the curse in motion. In 1842, he stumbled upon a chest filled with gold coins in an Irish village. The coins were said to be cursed, and the village was subsequently destroyed. Fitzgerald fled to Boston with the treasure, using it to build a successful business and amass great wealth.
Another version of the curse’s origin involves JFK’s father, Joseph Kennedy. He allegedly offended a group of Jews during a voyage on a passenger ship by demanding they stop their prayers. Enraged, a rabbi cursed him, declaring his descendants would face great suffering. In a different account, a Jewish father cursed Joseph after he refused to aid his sons in escaping a concentration camp. Yet another story claims an entire Jewish village cursed him upon discovering he was supplying weapons to the Nazis. Clearly, Joseph Kennedy had a knack for making enemies.
8. The Dragon’s Curse
The title alone likely gives you a hint of where this is headed. The bizarre and untimely deaths of martial arts icon Bruce Lee and his son Brandon have fueled countless conspiracy theories that persist to this day. Beyond the speculation involving the Chinese Mafia or Kung Fu masters, there’s a more supernatural angle: the idea that Bruce and his son fell victim to a family curse triggered by Bruce’s father, Lee Hoi Chuen.
As the story goes, Lee Hoi Chuen once angered a group of Chinese merchants, who retaliated by cursing him, declaring that all male members of his family would die young. Whether true or not, the elder Lee and his wife took the curse seriously. After losing their firstborn son (who would have been Bruce’s older brother), they referred to Bruce by the feminine name Sai Fon (Small Phoenix) at home to confuse the evil spirits. The curse theory gained even more traction after the release of the film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, which featured a Bruce Lee lookalike battling a demonic entity haunting the family. Eerily, the movie debuted just two months after Brandon’s death—a chilling coincidence.
7. The Nepalese Royal Family Curse
In 2001, the world was stunned when Nepal’s Crown Prince Dipendra fatally shot his father, mother, and seven other royal family members before taking his own life. Speculation suggested he was devastated by his family’s rejection of his chosen bride and had been heavily intoxicated during the tragedy. After the shooting, Dipendra fell into a three-day coma, during which he was declared king before his death. His uncle, Gyanendra, ascended the throne, ruling during a tumultuous period until the monarchy was dissolved in 2008, paving the way for a democratic republic.
For some superstitious Nepalese, the monarchy’s downfall was no surprise, as it had been prophesied over 200 years earlier. Legend has it that Prithvi Narayan Shah, Nepal’s first king, once offered curd to a yogi named Gorakhnath, who vomited and returned it to the king. Disgusted, the king refused the offering, angering Gorakhnath, who then declared that the king’s descendants would rule only until the tenth generation. True to the prophecy, Dipendra (the tenth generation) and Gyanendra (the ninth) became the last kings of Nepal.
6. The Coburg-Kohary Family Curse
While inbreeding among European royals often led to hereditary diseases like hemophilia, one prominent family blamed their misfortunes on a curse by a resentful monk. The monk, a Kohary, was allegedly disinherited after his beloved relative, Antoinette Kohary, married Ferdinand Coburg. Antoinette’s father, impressed by the union, bequeathed all his wealth to the couple, enraging the monk. In retaliation, he cursed their descendants, dooming them to suffer.
Whether the curse is genuine or not, many members of the Coburg-Kohary lineage faced significant misfortunes. As previously noted, several died young from hemophilia or illnesses like typhoid. Those who married into other European royal families spread hemophilia, with the Romanovs being among the most notable victims. Beyond physical ailments, the curse is said to have weakened the mental resilience of some family members, as seen during World War II when Belgian King Leopold III was accused of collaborating with the Germans.
5. The Hapsburg Family Curse
For the Hapsburgs, once among Europe’s most dominant families, their curse originated from an unusual source: ravens. Legend has it that their ancestors killed all the ravens inhabiting their ancestral castle, prompting supernatural ravens called Turnfalken to appear before or during the deaths of family members, including, reportedly, Marie Antoinette’s execution.
Another curse plaguing the Hapsburgs was cast by Countess Karolyi against Francis Joseph, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor. She cursed him after he ordered the execution of her son, who had joined a failed Hungarian rebellion. From that point on, Francis Joseph’s reign was marred by tragedy. While he survived an assassination attempt, his wife did not. His only son also died by suicide alongside his lover in a hunting lodge.
Other members of Francis Joseph’s family faced equally grim fates, succumbing to death, injury, or madness. The pinnacle of the Hapsburg curse arguably occurred with the assassination of his nephew, Archduke Franz Ferdinand—an event that triggered World War I and ultimately led to the downfall of the Hapsburg dynasty.
4. The Wodeyar Family Curse
Alamelamma harbored such deep resentment toward Raja Wodeyar of the Mysore Kingdom that she cursed him not once, but three times. The Raja, the ninth ruler of the Wodeyar dynasty, had defeated her husband’s army, forcing them to flee their stronghold in Srirangapatna. Alamelamma and her husband escaped to Talakad, a temple town near Mysore, where she safeguarded a collection of precious jewels used to adorn her patron deity’s statue. When the Raja sent troops to seize the jewels, Alamelamma chose to end her life by leaping into the Cauvery River rather than surrender them.
Before her death, she delivered a threefold curse: Talakad would turn into a desert, the nearby town of Malangi would become a whirlpool, and the Wodeyar dynasty would struggle to produce heirs. While skeptics attribute the first two curses to natural environmental shifts, the third remains baffling. For over 400 years, the Wodeyars have only had male heirs in alternate generations, creating significant challenges for royal succession. Still, it’s better than no heirs at all, isn’t it?
3. The Von Erich Family Curse
Professional wrestling has seen its share of tragedies, from frequent injuries to untimely deaths, such as Eddie Guerrero’s heart failure in a hotel room and Chris Benoit’s murder-suicide involving his wife and son. Yet, these grim events are overshadowed by the infamous curse of the Von Erich wrestling dynasty, which has endured unimaginable losses.
Known as the Kennedys of wrestling in the 1980s, the Von Erich family, led by patriarch Fritz (born Jack Adkisson), faced their first tragedy when their eldest son, six-year-old Jack Jr., died from accidental electrocution and drowning in a snowy puddle near their home. This marked the beginning of a series of misfortunes. David, the third son, succumbed to severe gastroenteritis, while Kerry, Michael, and Chris—the fourth, fifth, and sixth sons—all died by suicide through drug overdoses.
Only Kevin, Fritz’s second son, survived to carry on the wrestling legacy before retiring in 1993. Now, with the third generation of Von Erichs—Kevin’s two sons and Kerry’s daughter—following in their grandfather’s footsteps, there’s hope they can escape the curse that nearly wiped out their family.
2. The Guinness Family Curse
The Guinness family, renowned for their iconic beer brand and as one of Ireland’s most distinguished clans, has faced its share of misfortune. While large families often encounter troubles, the Guinnesses’ tragedies seem like scenes straight out of a Final Destination movie, defying the odds with their sheer intensity.
Arthur Guinness, the founder of the famed brewery, lost 10 of his 21 children while establishing his empire. After his passing, other family members faced poverty, insanity, or alcoholism. The idea of a “Guinness Curse” gained traction during World War II when two prominent family members died—one at the hands of Jewish terrorists and another in battle just weeks before the war’s end. Post-war, a string of deaths from suicides, car accidents, and bizarre incidents (like a family member drowning in a bathtub after hitting her head during a drug session) fueled belief in the curse. Even animals weren’t spared, as a prized racehorse owned by a Guinness descendant was kidnapped by the Irish Republican Army and vanished without a trace.
1. The Onassis Family Curse
Can a curse transfer from one family to another? Some Greeks believe this happened when Jackie Kennedy, JFK’s widow, married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1968, allegedly bringing the Kennedy Curse with her. This curse is said to have caused the tragic death of Aristotle’s only son, Alexander, in a 1973 plane crash. From there, the Onassis family’s fortunes declined rapidly.
Aristotle’s first wife, Alexander’s mother, took her own life a year after her son’s death. Aristotle followed a year later, dying as a broken and ill man. Alexander’s sister, Christina, died in 1988 from a heart attack linked to depression. The once-mighty Onassis financial empire also crumbled, with its remnants going to Christina’s daughter, Athina, the last surviving member of the family. Athina has so far avoided the curse, living a quiet life in Brazil with her husband and stepchildren.
