“Es mejor llorar en un Rolls-Royce que ser feliz en una bicicleta”.
Patrizia Reggiani pronunció su frase más célebre en una entrevista televisiva cuando formaba parte de lo más alto de la élite italiana.It is perhaps the one that best defines the obsession with luxury and glamor that has accompanied her for almost her life.
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Años después, la que se conoce como la “viuda negra de la moda” se convertiría en una de las mujeres más odiadas de Italia, tras un mediático juicio en el que fue condenada a casi 30 años de prisión por orquestar el asesinato de su exmarido a manos de un sicario en 1995.
Su exesposo no era otro que Maurizio Gucci, heredero del imperio de la moda Gucci, fundado por su abuelo, el prestigioso diseñador Guccio Gucci, en 1906.
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The case, which shocked Italy and the fashion industry of the 1990s, now returns to the media eye thanks to a film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Lady Gaga.
La cantante y actriz encarna en el segundo rol principal de su carrera a Patrizia Reggiani en “House of Gucci” (“La casa Gucci”, en Latinoamérica), junto a un destacado elenco que incluye a Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek y Jeremy Irons.
The film, based on the homonymous book by Sara Gay Forden, celebrated last Tuesday in London and will reach cinemas around the world from November 25.
But what is the real story of the woman to which Lady Gaga gives life and how did the nickname of "Black Fashion Widow" earned?
The beginnings
Patrizia Reggiani was born in a small Italian town on the outskirts of Milan, in northern Italy, on December 2, 1948.He did not meet his biological father and his mother worked as a waitress.
His humble situation changed when he was 12 years old and his mother married Ferdinando Reggiani, a rich entrepreneur of the transport industry.
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Reggiani empezó a agasajar a su hija adoptiva con espléndidos regalos, como abrigos de piel o autos deportivos.
Little by little, the young woman began to ascend on the social scale and relate to the most influential people in Milan...including Gucci.
En una fiesta en noviembre de 1970, conoció a Maurizio Gucci, con quien se casaría dos años más tarde y con quien tuvo dos hijas: Alessandra (en 1977) y Allegra (en 1981).
La ostentación rodeaba la vida del matrimonio: un ático enorme en la Quinta Avenida de Nueva York, una lujosa villa en México, un chalet de invierno en los Alpes o el yate de madera más grande del mundo (el Creole) eran algunas de sus propiedades.
Patrizia Lucía Valentino and Chanel costumes in social events. Las páginas de sociedad de la prensa italiana la apodaron la “Joan Collins de Monte Napoleone” (una calle elegante en Milán famosa por sus comercios de moda y joyas).
Maurizio's father, Rodolfo Gucci, never approved that relationship;He considered that Patrizia was a "hunting", explains Sara Gay Forde in her novel.
The marriage began to deteriorate when, after the sudden death of Maurizio's father, he took control of the company, and Patrizia's apparent pressures on how to manage the brand created tensions.
“When he was younger, Maurizio looked for Patrizia to support him and give him strength to face his father. Pero a medida que ganó poder, se sintió oprimido por sus críticas”, escribe Forden.
Eventually, the relationship came to an end.
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From love to hate
En 1985, Maurizio dejó a Patrizia.He left home and never returned.
Fordden that, for years, she kept the hope of returning with him.But when Maurizio began to leave with other women his hopes became bitterness.
In 1991 they divorced.
“Vio que todo lo que había tratado de lograr en la vida a través de Maurizio, toda la fama, el estatus y la riqueza, se le escapaba de las manos”, describió Forden.
In 1992, Patrizia was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which was eliminated without major consequences.He asked his ex -husband to take care of the girls, but he refused, saying that the work had him very busy.
For the next three years, Maurizio gave Patrizia a monthly assignment of US $ 100.000, but forbade him to use some of his luxurious homes, in favor of his new partner, Paola Franchi.
Forden cuenta que Patrizia juró destruir a su exmarido y que le dijo a varias personas, incluida su ama de llaves, que quería “verlo muerto”.
Patrizia herself has recognized those statements.
the murder
At 8:20 in the morning of March 27, 1995, Maurizio Gucci, 46, left his home to go to work.
About 15 minutes later he received four shots at the doors of his office, located in one of the most elegant neighborhoods of Milan.
He was killed by an assailant, a wavy hair, according to reports. Más adelante la policía establecería que se trató de un sicario.
Patrizia soon moved to the house of Maurizio Gucci in the luxurious Corso Venezia street in Milan with her two daughters - then teenagers - expelling Franchi.
Casi dos años después, el 31 de enero de 1997, dos autos de policía la arrestaron en la puerta de la casa.
Quiet and serene, he left the house with shiny gold jewels and diamonds, a mink coat that brushed the floor and a gucci leather bag.
"I thought it could evade (the accusation for) the murder, which would return home in a few hours," said Forden.
It was not so.
La policía milanesa tenía pruebas de que Patrizia había ordenado matar a su exmarido y había pagado a un sicario US$375.000 to commit crime.
In June 1998 he was judged by a court in Milan.His short and dark hair was disheveled.He wore simple blue cotton pants and a cotton sweater on his shoulders.Little left of that ostentatious woman.
En noviembre de ese mismo año, Patrizia, junto a cuatro cómplices, fue declarada culpable del asesinato de Maurizio Gucci y condenada a 29 años de prisión.
The trial had a huge media impact.That was when he became known as the "black fashion widow".
Las hijas de Patrizia —las verdaderas víctimas de la tragedia, según Forden— pidieron que la sentencia fuera anulada, alegando que su madre había quedado trastocada por el tumor cerebral que había sufrido, que podría haber afectado a su personalidad.
The sentence was not annulled, but reduced to 26 years.Given the prospect of spending so many years, he tried to commit suicide, but the prison guards found her on time, according to the local press in 2000.
Finalmente, Patrizia terminó cumpliendo 18 años de condena, y hasta rechazó el tercer grado que le ofrecieron en 2011."I've never worked on my life and I won't start now," he told his lawyer, according to The Guardian.
In 2016, he left prison with a sentence shortened by "good behavior".
Según el diario The Telegraph, debido a un acuerdo firmado en 1993, Patrizia cobra más de US$1 millón al año de la herencia de Gucci.He also receives a backward payment of more than US $ 22 million, which accumulated during his prison stay.
From his departure from the prison, Patrizia lives in Milan, where he has been seen (and photographed) on several occasions with his parrot on the shoulder.
Last March the woman, who is 72 today, told the Italian press: “I am quite annoying for the fact that Lady Gaga interpreted me in the new Ridley Scott movie without having had the consideration and sensitivity to come to meet me".
También expresó su disgusto por no haber estado involucrada en el proyecto y aclaró que no va a recibir “ni un solo centavo de la película”.
"It is not an economic issue, but common sense and respect," he added.
She has always denied being the author of the murder.
