When the beautiful Patricia Reggiani married Maurizio Gucci, they became one of Italy's most famous couples. But then the fairy tale came to an end: he cheated on her, and she decided to take cruel revenge.
We tell the most tragic love story in the fashion world that shocked everyone.
A dizzying romance of a not-so-successful businessman
One of the greatest brands of our time is based on a family business. However, at the end of the 20th century, things were not as successful as they are now. The company was passed from hand to hand – brother snatched the business from brother, and the son was ready to sue his father. Maurizio Gucci, the grandson of the founder Guccio Gucci, seemed to many not the strongest candidate for the role of leader. And after several personnel reshuffles, it was he who unexpectedly became the head of the brand. However, his reign was marked by waste, family strife and huge debts. In the end, due to the inability to effectively manage the brand, Maurizio was forced to sell his share to an investment company, which, however, ensured his further comfortable existence.
But with his personal life, at least at the initial stage, Maurizio had much better luck. In his youth, he fell in love with Patricia Reggiani. The Florentine beauty met the rich, beautiful and successful heir to the Gucci empire when she was 22 years old. She was popularly nicknamed Elizabeth Taylor – for her resemblance to the actress and her incredible love for jewelry and luxurious ornaments.
“I met Maurizio at a party and he fell madly in love with me. I was interesting and different,” Patricia told The Guardian.
At that time, Reggiana had other suitors, but young Gucci was particularly persistent and assertive in his courtship.
The young man's relatives were initially against his love affairs with a girl of dubious origin, and one who did not want to work. However, at first no one took Maurizio's affair seriously – until he announced his intention to marry his beloved.
Contrary to family opinion, there were no obstacles to their feelings – Patricia and Maurizio's wedding took place in 1972, when they were both 24 years old, and the couple lived in marriage for almost 18 years (albeit with quarrels, as is typical of many expressive and hot-tempered Italians). The marriage also gave birth to two daughters, Alessandra and Allegra.
“Maurzio felt at ease with me. We had fun, we were a team,” says Reggiani.
Expensive real estate, star-studded parties, trips to private islands – the family lived comfortably, sparing no money for the entertainment of the wasteful Patricia. Until the idyll of Gucci and Reggiani turned into a love triangle.
A split in a marriage
According to Reggiani, the relationship began to deteriorate after Rodolfo Gucci's death in 1983, when Maurizio inherited his father's 50% stake in Gucci.
“Maurzio went crazy. Before that, I was his main advisor on all matters Gucci. But he wanted to be the best, and he stopped listening to me,” Reggiani said.
In 1985, the happy marriage came to an end: Maurizio began an affair with the younger Paola Franchi, to whom the Gucci heir planned to leave his wife and children. Patricia was furious – the hot-tempered Italian woman could not forgive such a thing. The divorce between the former spouses was officially finalized only six years later. The court determined alimony in the amount of $ 860,000 per year – this amount seemed humiliatingly small to Patricia. Maintaining the former luxurious life with this money would not be so easy.
In addition to jealousy towards the younger woman, Patricia had other reasons for concern: if Maurizio decided to remarry, then after his death the daughters would have to share the inheritance with the new wife (and, perhaps, even with other children). Patricia did not want such a future for herself and her children and decided to take a radical step.
A woman who decides to take revenge
For a long time, there were rumors in the Italian press that Patricia had the idea to kill her unfaithful husband after a spiritualist session – supposedly, evil spirits suggested this decision to her. One way or another, but after the news of the possible wedding of Paola Franchi and Maurizio Gucci, the hot-tempered ex-wife decides to put an end to her unfaithful husband. For help in organizing the murder, she goes to her friend Giuseppe Auriemme, who helps hire three accomplices: Ivano Savioni, Orazio Cicala and Benedetto Ceraula. All this cost Patricia $350,000.
On March 27, 1995, Maurizio Gucci was murdered on the doorstep of his office. The tragedy was witnessed by doorman Giuseppe Onorato.
“Mr. Gucci arrived with some magazines and said good morning. Then I saw a hand. It was a nice, clean hand, and it was holding a gun.”
The killer fired several shots into Gucci's back as he climbed the stairs, and a final one as he fell.
“I thought it was a joke. Then the killer saw me. He raised the gun again and fired two more shots. 'Shame,' I thought. 'This is how I'm going to die,'” the doorman recalled.
Onorato couldn't remember how he reached the lobby stairs after being shot twice in the arm, but he sat there until the police arrived.
“I was holding Mr. Gucci's head. He died in my arms,” the former doorman recalled.
The high-profile murder shocked all of Italy, but the first version of the tragedy was that it was a mafia prank – they said that Maurizio and the bandits did not share the business. But later the participants were able to be counted.
The Trial of the “Black Widow”
Reggiani's former best friend, Giuseppina Auriemma, confessed to organizing the hit-and-run and told the court that Patricia could not bear the thought of another woman taking her place as Mrs. Maurizio Gucci – and at the same time the thought of her power, status, and money that came her way.
“Patricia was stalking us,” said Gucci's new lover, Paola Franchi. “She still had spies in Maurizio's circle, and she knew everything about our plans, his business dealings, everything. She called many times, insulting him and threatening to kill him.”
If Gucci did not answer Reggiani's calls, she would send him a message on tape, saying he was a “monster” for forgetting about her and their daughters, and warning that “hell is still ahead for you.”
In court, Reggiani admitted that she had paid Auriemma around £200,000, but denied that it was for murder, claiming that her friend had arranged the murder herself and threatened to frame her if she did not pay. Although Reggiani denied any wrongdoing, all five of those involved in the murder were found guilty, and the killer was sentenced to life imprisonment.
“Patricia, why did you hire a hitman to kill Maurizio Gucci? Why didn't you shoot him yourself?” Italian Patricia Reggiani was asked in an interview. “I have bad eyesight,” she replied. “I didn't want to miss.”
Patricia and her carefree life
Reggiani was initially sentenced to 26 years, but on appeal the term was reduced to 18 years. However, in order to be released on parole, she had to find a job. As Italian journalists wrote, she refused the first offer of release – the very idea of looking for work terrified her.
“I have never worked in my life and I am not going to start now,” she told her lawyer.
But later she agreed and in 2014 she took a position as a consultant at the Milan jewelry company Bozart – after all, jewelry was her true passion, and she was able to make such a compromise.
After her release, the public was particularly curious about what Patricia would do first when she was free – and it seems no one was surprised that one of the first things on Reggiani's list was a shopping trip on Via Montenapoleone. “Lady Gucci” returned in glamorous glasses and luxurious jewelry, looking exactly as she had before her imprisonment.
After the conviction, Reggiani, nicknamed the “Black Widow” by journalists, was ordered to pay compensation of about £142,000 to the former doorman and accidental victim of the tragedy, Giuseppe Onorato. The daughters of Patricia and Maurizio, who are in their thirties and who have always been particularly attached to their mother, directly inherited Maurizio Gucci's millions, as well as a yacht and real estate in New York, St. Moritz and Milan. Reggiani herself declared herself bankrupt.
“If I could see Maurizio again, I would tell him that I love him because he is the person who meant the most to me in my life,” she told the journalist.
When asked what he would say to her in response, she says calmly:
“I think he would say the feeling wasn't mutual.”
Джерело: ukr.media
