She may have been born into enormous wealth and privilege but billionaire heiress Athina Onassis – the last surviving member of the ‘cursed’ Greek shipping dynasty – has spent her life avoiding the spotlight.
So, when she stepped out of the shadows recently to attend a glittering high-society gala in Paris, pictures of the glamorous 40-year-old went around the world.
Wearing a black sequinned evening gown and with her glossy hair back to its natural brown after a lifetime of blonde highlights, Athina seemed relaxed as she chatted to fellow guests, even posing for photographs.
It was quite a turnaround. Indeed, this rare outing was the first time she has been seen in public for three years.
Where on earth, many wondered, has one of the richest women on the planet has been hiding?
Perhaps more intriguing, though, are the reasons why she has decided to re-enter public life at this juncture.
For years the granddaughter of Aristotle Onassis – the Greek shipping and airline tycoon who married Jackie Kennedy while in a long-term romance with the opera singer Maria Callas – was dogged by tragedy, dubbed the ‘Onassis Curse’.
Her mother Christina – after years of drug abuse and battles with her weight – died of a heart attack aged 37, when Athina was just three years old. Her uncle Alex had died in a plane crash, while her childhood was marred by brutal fights over her $2.7billion fortune.
Billionaire heiress Athina Onassis – the last surviving member of the ‘cursed’ Greek shipping dynasty – has spent her life avoiding the spotlight
Aristotle Onassis (right) married his first wife, Athina’s namesake and grandmother, Tina Onassis (left) in December 1946
Adulthood proved no easier. The accomplished horsewoman had married dashing Brazilian Olympic showjumper Alvaro ‘Doda’ de Miranda, who was some 12 years older than her, much to her loved ones’ consternation.
And indeed, their union imploded in 2017 after just over a decade together, amid multiple reports that Athina’s bodyguard found him in their marital bed with another woman, much to her distress.
After their tumultuous divorce, Athina retreated to her heavily fortified mansion in the Campine, an area of outstanding natural beauty on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands, and poured all her energies into her professional stables near Valkenswaard in southern Holland.
But this week a close friend, who has known Athina since she was 13, revealed to the Mail that she is ready to ‘come out of her shell and show the world who she is’.
‘She has always been an intensely private person,’ the friend said. ‘She grew up in the spotlight as this “poor little rich girl” and she saw what fame did to other members of her family so she avoided it like the plague.
‘Athina is someone who could have lived the life of a jet-setting socialite and been on the cover of magazines.
‘But she chose to live in the shadows. She speaks four languages and is highly intelligent but she’s this modern-day enigma because she is so secretive.
‘That is about to change because she wants to be viewed as a proficient businesswoman in her own right. She turned 40 in January, which is a milestone for any woman. But public appearances will be very much on her terms.’
Some may sniff about the idea of a young woman whose coffers were well and truly overflowing from birth believing she can hold her own against some of the toughest corporate brains.
Yet, says one France-based businessman who worked with the heiress recently, ‘she is far more interested in furthering her reputation in the world of commerce than talking about her personal life’. Indeed, as one of her associates in Florida puts it when discussing her desire to become a businesswoman: ‘Athina has that in her blood.’
In a sign that her old days of avoiding the spotlight are well and truly behind her, even her ex-husband Doda, who is now married to glamorous Brazilian TV presenter Denize Severo and has rarely spoken to the press, broke his silence to wish Athina well.
‘I hope Athina finds happiness and has friends and love in her life too. I truly wish her nothing but good things,’ he told the Mail.
‘I have fond memories of our 11 years together. I can only wish Athina well.’
Aristotle’s first wife Athina, but known as Tina – died in 1974, of a suspected drug overdose
Athina’s mother Christina – after years of drug abuse and battles with her weight – died of a heart attack aged 37, when Athina was just three years old
Despite her new ambitions, those close to her say she lives a quiet life, preferring nights in watching movies with ‘simple’ meals provided by a housekeeper to dining out in five-star restaurants.
She drives herself and flies commercial rather than take the private jets she could easily afford. A source said: ‘She is a quiet person, she always has been. But beneath her modest exterior is someone who knows what she wants. Underestimate her at your peril.’
There have been rumours of only one new ‘love’ since her divorce – a dashing Italian showjumper called Alberto Zorzi, 36.
One source told the Mail: ‘The widespread belief was that she was utterly in love with Alberto but there was never any proof of that.
‘He was involved with one lady when the Greek press was writing about their so-called “relationship” and then he left her and the next thing you know he’s had a baby with an Italian fashion model.’
Zorzi, meanwhile, continues to maintain that the couple only ever worked together.
Sadly, genuine emotional contentment has always seemed just out of Athina’s reach, as even her earliest years were marked by both opulent wealth and devastating heartbreak.
When Aristotle Onassis died in 1975, he left half his $5.4billion fortune to his daughter Christina and half in a trust in the name of Alexander, his beloved only son who had perished in a plane crash two years before.
Aristotle’s first wife – also called Athina, but known as Tina – died the year before, in 1974, of a suspected drug overdose.
Their daughter Christina, a heavy-set woman who became addicted to prescription diet pills, was already on her fourth husband – French playboy, and heir to a pharmaceutical fortune, Thierry Roussel – when her only child, Athina, was born.
Roussel eventually left them for his long-time girlfriend, Swedish model Gaby Landhage, with whom he had three more children.
Friends of Christina’s say that she doted on her little girl, who was named after the Greek goddess of wisdom.
When Athina learned to recite ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’, her thrilled mother bought her a flock of sheep which were housed at the magnificent Onassis estate, La Villa Crystal Boislande, an 18-bedroom mansion near Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
A miniature Ferrari was her second birthday present, while her nursery in her family’s Paris apartment had a diamond-studded rocking horse.
Young Athina’s life saw her whisked around by nannies and surrounded by ex-SAS bodyguards, as she moved between Paris, a Swiss ski chalet and the family’s Greek island of Skorpios, which Aristotle bought in 1963 and where he wooed and wed Jackie Kennedy.
Then, at the age of three, her mother was found dead – making Athina the sole surviving member of the Onassis dynasty.
Aristotle Onassis died in 1975leaving half his $5.4billion fortune to his daughter Christina and half in a trust in the name of Alexander, his only son who died in a plane crash two years before
A long-time family friend said: ‘Athina went to live with her father Thierry and his new family. She went to the most expensive schools but she always seemed an outsider.
‘[Her father’s second wife] Gaby is a kind and wonderful woman but I remember seeing Athina, with her dark hair and dark eyes, standing there in the middle of this blonde family and thinking how out-of-place she looked.
‘And, of course, there was always the issue of her money.’
As she was a child when her mother died, her father managed her fortune.
But when she turned 18, Athina wrested back control of her inheritance, after a court battle which left father and daughter barely on speaking terms.
Matters weren’t helped by the older Doda being on the scene, which caused some considerable concern among Athina’s remaining relatives.
A friend said: ‘By this time Doda had entered the picture. I think Thierry saw Doda as a threat, a man who would take control of his daughter and her fortune and, of course, that is what happened.’
Regardless, Athina and Doda married in his native Brazil with only her stepsister Sandrine representing the bride’s side of the family. The couple settled in Sao Paulo and started their equestrian championships, the Longines Athina Onassis Horse show, held every summer in St Tropez.
Intriguingly, however, this year’s event omits Athina’s name.
Doda told the Mail this week that he has been told Athina is no longer riding competitively.
‘I don’t know for sure, but that is what I’ve heard,’ he said. ‘If so, that is sad because day-to-day contact with horses is wonderful therapy.’
A spokesman for Athina’s riding centre in Valkenswaard, Holland, declined to comment.
But one source said that Athina may have given up riding because of severe back problems she experienced after a bad fall years ago which left her with spinal injuries.
The couple’s Sao Paulo penthouse – and the magnificent home they shared in Belgium – have both now been sold, as has the Onassis mansion near Lake Geneva and a $12million horse ranch in Wellington, Florida.
‘Athina was deeply hurt by her divorce,’ said one man who knew her in Florida.
‘She was already someone who distrusted the motives of those around her, thinking they were only after her money.
‘Her father and her ex-husband both fought over her money.
‘It has taken her to get to the age of 40 to feel confident enough in her own skin to know what she wants.’ And what she wants now, according to those close to her, is to establish herself as a bona fide businesswoman – echoing back to Aristotle, who was born penniless but ended up owning more than 100 ships and estates around the globe by the time of his death.
She has quietly sold off many of the assets she was left by her mother, including the luxury Paris apartment. She has even sold Skorpios, the lasting resting place of her mother, uncle and grandfather, to a Russian oligarch’s daughter for around $150million.
But perhaps the most notable part of Athina’s ‘reinvention’ is her decision to become a board member of the Casino Group, one of France’s biggest supermarket chains, which is owned by a group headed by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, a director of West Ham United, who is due to take over the Royal Mail this month, and a close friend of Athina’s.
‘The reason she’s joined the board of the French supermarket company, the reason that she has started going to high-profile events is that she’s ready to build her own reputation as a businesswoman, says the Florida source.
But the Mail understands Athina may be preparing to ‘relaunch’ herself with an interview with a major TV channel.
‘Athina’s mother courted the press as did her grandfather and she saw where that led them,’ a close family friend said last night.
‘And Athina has her own circle of friends and they are impenetrable.
‘But, for the first time, she’s wanting to establish herself as her own person. Watch this space.’
Additional reporting by Peter Allen in Paris and Harold Emert in Brazil
