Natalia Andreichenko and Maximilian Schell: wedding in a million

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

It happens that iconic meetings take place at the very moment when, it would seem, life has cracked. So it was with the magnificent actress Natalya Andreichenko, when she, tired of many years of scandals and betrayal of her husband Maxim Dunaevsky, failed audition for the main role in the series "Winter Cherry", got a chance to play Evdokia Lopukhina in a film by Hollywood director Maximilian Schell.

Hearts on napkins

They met by chance on the stairs in 1984, and Andreichenko in a whisper asked her colleagues who it was. She was answered: "What are you, shame on you, this is Maximilian Schell, you will work with him, he plays Peter the Great." And then Natalya decided for herself that this man of insane beauty would be her husband. Filming began, and a few days later Shell invited Andreichenko to a restaurant. She did not understand a word of English, he did not speak Russian. Natalya tried to find an interpreter for this meeting, but apparently fate itself decreed that this evening they were only left alone.

It was impossible to talk, and Shell spent the whole evening drawing hearts and other cute drawings for his companion on napkins. Returning to the hotel, we stopped on the bridge, and Shell explained with gestures: "You see, this is the bridge, we are standing, and over there, above, is the moon." And the actress understood what he wanted to say: “It doesn't matter where you are - in Moscow, Munich or Los Angeles, that through this moon we can always convey the most important things to each other. For example: "I miss you." So their romance began.

The novel of the actress and the foreign director was no longer a secret to those around him and even interested representatives of the KGB. Andreichenko explained that the romance of a Soviet woman with a foreigner is very undesirable and compromises not only the actress herself, but also the country. But how could this have stopped a woman in love!

A new stage in the couple's relationship began after Maximilian Schell had a heart attack right in his hotel room. Andreichenko did not leave her beloved. The doctors sent Schell home to be treated, but he soon returned and continued to direct the filming right from the wheelchair. Andreichenko decided to explain herself to her husband and divorce. The actress refused to divide the property and they were divorced in 48 hours. And then Natalia was in for a shock: Shell suddenly remembered about his three main life rules: never marry, never marry a woman with a child and never marry a woman actress. He needed to think.

And Andreichenko herself, who at one time did not find a common language with Dunaevsky's mother, was very afraid of meeting the aristocratic family of her beloved. Shell flew home, the actress locked herself in her apartment out of grief and did not even answer the phone for several days. Not calling his beloved, the director went to the trick. He contacted the family of his friend Andreichenko, asked to call Natalia and ask for a visit. The actress opened the doors to her friend, and Maximilian was standing on the landing. The lovers reconciled, entered into a marriage union, and the Baroness Mother and the Shell sisters took Natalia as their own.

The son of Maxim Dunaevsky became a member of a new family. Shell adopted him. Later, a daughter, Nastya, appeared in a friendly family. The happy marriage lasted 21 years. Andreichenko moved to the USA, continued to act, Shell made a successful career and took care of his wife and children. She managed to leave her husband after a coma and clinical death. Maximilian not only recovered, but was able to return to work.

… and I will stay with her

But one day on the way from the airport, Shell said to his wife: “I met a woman. She is simple, primitive, ugly and unintelligent, and I will stay with her. Andreichenko really did not want to lose her husband. Seeing the photo of her rival, the actress realized that this relationship would not last long. She personally chose bouquets for her, handed them to her husband, who was going to her passion, was ready to endure and forgive. But Elizabeth Mihich, that was the name of Shell's beloved, claimed full ownership of the director. She got his attention, money, business. But she still insisted on an official divorce from her Russian wife. Andreichenko and Shell divorced in 2005. The director parted with his new wife three weeks later to marry for the third time. Maximilian Schell passed away in 2014. And his relatives today share his many millionth inheritance.

Now Natalya Andreichenko lives in the USA, then in Mexico, then in Moscow, is fond of vegetarianism and visits Tibet.

And one more union of famous people - Fyodor Chaliapin and Iola Tornagi … what was that love with an Italian accent like?