Grandpierre's family name comes from French Huguenot ancestors,[REF] according to family tradition, with some French bishops, of whom one, Louis Grandpierre, was a Swiss politician and president of the Swiss Appeal Court,[REF] and another, Károly Grandpierre, a writer and consultant[REF] of Lajos Kossuth, settled in Hungary.
Grandpierre was born in Hungary under the Soviet regime on 4 July 1951 in Budapest.