5 skeletons in the closet of the noble Gucci family: Italian passions behind the sign of a fashion house

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Behind the beautiful sign of the Gucci fashion house, whose history began more than 100 years ago, real passions have always boiled. The Gucci family was shocked by events that were too impartial to be mentioned in decent society. In September 2020, a new scandal erupted: the great-granddaughter of the founder of the fashion house accused her stepfather of violence, and her own mother and grandmother - of complicity and concealment of the crime. However, this is not the first skeleton in the closet of a noble family.

Natural selection

As you know, Guccio Gucci had four sons and a daughter, and to whom of them the right to manage the family business should be transferred, the parent decided in a very peculiar way. He simply forced them to fight with each other, provoked quarrels and fights. The winner in a home war could become the head of the company. Father encouraged the use of any methods of waging this war, from banal fights to secret denunciations.

As a result, Aldo, most often the winner, became the chairman of the board of Gucci in 1953. In the future, Rodolfo's connections in the world of cinema contributed a lot to the promotion of the brand among celebrities. It was he who at one time persuaded Beth Davis and Katharine Hepburn to go out without fail with some trifle from Gucci.

Litigation

The company flourished, but members of the Guccio family were constantly suing each other. Paulo, the son of Aldo Gucci, prosecuted company executives (including his own father) for unpaid dividends and sued the family firm for $ 13 million. The rest of the family members were especially pleased to send audits to the company, which invariably revealed some flaws and the fashion house paid numerous fines.

After Rodolfo Gucci's death, Maurizio inherited his share in the business, and his relatives immediately filed a lawsuit, proving that the heir forged his father's signature on the check in order to avoid paying a multimillion-dollar inheritance tax. Maurizio, in turn, sued Aldo Gucci, accusing him of tax evasion in the amount of seven million. As a result, Aldo went to prison, and Maurizio took over the management of the family business.

However, it is simply impossible to list all the litigations in which the plaintiffs and defendants were people with the last name of Gucci, because only in the USA 15 of them have passed in five years.

Infidelity

Aldo Gucci has been married for many years to Olwen Price, who bore him three sons. But family status did not interfere with Aldo's outbreak of romance with Bruna Palombo, a young saleswoman from her own store. In 1963, the young lover made Aldo happy with the birth of her daughter Patricia, and when Olwen Gucci found out about her husband's mistress and daughter, Aldo stopped hiding his second family. By the way, even the presence of a young mistress did not prevent Aldo Gucci from spending time with other women with pleasure, cheating on both his wife and lover at the same time.

Maurizio Gucci in his youth, in order to marry the daughter of a loader, Patricia Reggiani, withstood a confrontation with his entire family and took his beloved down the aisle. But even such fervent feelings did not make him remain faithful to his wife, who became the mother of his two daughters. All 12 years of marriage, he did not consider it shameful to enjoy the company of other women, and in 1985 he left Patricia for a young mistress altogether. At the same time, the day before, he simply informed his spouse about leaving for a short-term business trip, from which he never returned. The divorce was filed only six years later.

Revenge for treason

Patricia Reggiani was enraged not only by her husband's betrayal, but also by the amount of alimony assigned to her. 860 thousand dollars a year seemed to her a pitiful handout. Patricia did not hide her feelings and at any opportunity she wished death to her ex-husband. When rumors began to appear about the impending marriage of Maurizio, Patricia decided to act. Later, she says that it was the spirits that made her eliminate her ex-husband.

Be that as it may, it was Patricia Reggiani who became the organizer and customer of the murder of Maurizio Gucci, which took place in March 1995 on the doorstep of the victim's office. And only two years later, Patricia and her accomplices were arrested and convicted of this crime.

Violence

Alexandra Zarini is the great-granddaughter of the legendary Guccio Gucci and the granddaughter of Aldo Gucci, the daughter of the very Patricia, who was born as a result of the love affair of the heir to a famous surname with a young shop assistant. Alexandra's mother Patricia Gucci has been married twice. In the first marriage of Patricia, two daughters were born. It was the eldest, 35-year-old Alexandra, who went to court in California and called to account the ex-husband of her mother Joseph Ruffalo, from whom she was subjected to harassment and violence for 16 years.

Together with her stepfather, Alexandra calls her mother and grandmother, Patricia Gucci and Bruna Palombo, to account. According to Alexandra Zarini, they both knew about what was happening over the years of violence against her and forced her to remain silent with the help of threats and even beatings, and also allowed Joseph to photograph Alexandra naked while bathing. The girl was only six when her stepfather first showed a physical interest in her. And this nightmare ended after the girl turned 22.

Why was the girl silent for so long? She was not going to wash dirty linen in public, but she heard that her former stepfather decided to become a volunteer in one of the children's hospitals in Los Angeles and wanted to protect other children from abuse.

Joseph Ruffalo, quite naturally, denies everything and, in turn, accuses his stepdaughter of mental disorder and drug abuse. Patricia Gucci also does not consider herself and her mother to be guilty of anything, for she divorced Ruffalo immediately when her daughter told her about the abuse in 2007.

They were people from different worlds. Maurizio Gucci is the grandson of the founder of Gucci and heir to Rudolfo Gucci, perhaps the most enviable and wealthy groom in Italy. Patricia Reggiani is a Florentine beauty who has never worked in her life, but was beautiful and charming. They married despite the protests of the Gucci family and were happy together for 18 years. When Maurizio went to another woman, he could hardly have imagined how terrible the ex-wife's revenge for treason would be.