Maurizio Gucci: Who Was the Head of the Fashion House?
(Image/ Source: stylecaster.com)
While fans can catch Adam Driver playing Maurizio Gucci in the film House of Gucci, things played out a little differently in real life.
Ridley Scott’s new movie is “inspired by a true story”, which means the tale of Maurizio Gucci has been embellished in typical Hollywood style.
But what really happened to the wealthy Gucci family?
Maurizio Gucci
Maurizio Gucci married Patrizia Reggiani in 1973, which was the beginning of a VERY wild story between the pair.
Patrizia was an Italian socialite, and is still alive today. Her husband meanwhile, is dead. More on this later….
For a while, all seemed peachy between Maurizio and Patrizia. They had had two daughters, Alessandra and Allegra.
Maurizio was the only child of Rodolfo Gucci, who had inherited the fashion house from Maurizio’s grandfather, Guccio Gucci.
The empire was passed down through the generations, and Maurizio then became the majority stakeholder in Gucci. And it was Maurizio who turned the brand into the huge luxury empire that it is today.
(Image/ Source: popsugar.com)
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As Maurizio became head of the business, Patrizia took on the role of Gucci’s chief advisor.
This then led to a LOT family fighting, and Maurizio became caught up in a tense public legal battle against his uncle Aldo Gucci, who wanted full control of the company.
He also didn’t approve of Patrizia, and saw her as nothing more than a social climber. He didn’t even attend their wedding.
After years of legal wrangling, Maurizio won- and decided to ditch Patrizia and their daughters for his new girlfriend, model Paola Franchi.
But this didn’t go down too well with Patrizia…
A Family Affair
At this point, Maurizio Gucci was splashing the cash like no tomorrow. This went on for a good few years, until he was forced to sell his shares in the company to Investcorp for $120 million.
All seemed quiet with Patrizia, but she was secretly plotting her revenge against her former husband.
On 27th March 1995, Maurizio Gucci was shot four times as he entered his office building Via Palestro 20. He died at the scene.
(Image/ Source: mirror.co.uk)
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As soon as the assassination happened, Paola feared the worst.
“I thought straight away it was on the orders of his ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani. She was crazy for vendetta.
She’d been threatening Maurizio ever since she found out that our relationship was a lasting one”.
Maurizio’s former wife had apparently paid £250,000 to have her ex-husband assassinated, and was later implicated in his death by a tip-off to police.
She was arrested two years later.
Patrizia was accused of wanting control over the Gucci estate, and blocking Maurizio’s attempts to marry Paola. Apparently this would have cut her spouse maintenance in half.
She was originally sentenced to 29 years in jail, but ended up with 18 years after she appealed with an apparent narcissistic personality disorder.
Patricia Reggiani was released in 2016.
House of Gucci
Adapted from Sara Gay Forden’s non-fiction book of the same name, House of Gucci had already created huge hype from the very first trailer.
The film picks things up in the 1970s– at the very time when Maurizio Gucci starts to stray away from Patrizia and their girls.
(Image/ Source: people.com)
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Lady Gaga, who plays Patrizia, didn’t actually meet her before filming started. Apparently this is because she didn’t want to be seen as condoning her crime.
But Patricia was pretty irked by this, and (predictably) had something to say about it…
The former socialite said:
“I’m annoyed by the fact that Lady Gaga is portraying me in the new Ridley Scott film without even having the courtesy or the good sense to come and meet me”.
But apparently she soon started heaping praise on Lady Gaga once she’d actually seen the film.
