Heiress to Onassis fortune weds Olympic horseman
RIO DE JANIERO — Hundreds of guests danced into the early hours Sunday at the wedding of Athina Roussel, heiress to the Onassis fortune, and Alvaro Affonso “ Doda” de Miranda Neto, an Olympic show jumper 12 years her senior.
The event, Brazil’s most anticipated social function this year, was surrounded by secrecy.
More than 600 guests were given barcoded invitations to the wedding, which was held at Sao Paulo’s Oscar Americano Foundation, refurbished at a cost of $50,000 US for the ceremony.
Hundreds of security officers and dozens more police stood guard. Friends said the measures were deemed necessary partly because the couple sometimes felt uncomfortable about their wealth and partly because they were eager to minimize the risk of kidnapping, a particular problem in Sao Paulo.
The bride and groom also wanted to stop the media highlighting the wedding’s extravagance in a country the World Bank has named the third most unequal in the world. The richest 10 per cent of the population have nearly half of national income, while the poorest 20 per cent have 2.5 per cent.
The world’s media tagged the heiress a “ p o o r l i tt l e r i c h girl”when her mother, Christina, died at 37 in 1988 in Buenos Aires, after a history of drug abuse and weight problems.
The couple, who share a love for horses and showjumping, met in 2002 at a riding centre in Belgium. A year later, Onassis moved to Sao Paulo, where she shares an apartment with Miranda and Viviane, his six-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, IstoE Dinheiro said.
Onassis, one of the world’s richest women, was raised in Switzerland by her French-born father, Thierry Roussel, and inherited an estimated $2.7 billion US from her grandfather on her 18th birthday.
Aristotle Onassis, who married Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1968, died in 1975. The Frenchborn bride is the sole heiress to her late grandfather. Her property portfolio includes the Greek island of Skorpios, where Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968.
The bride walked down the aisle in a Valentino dress costing $ 80,000 US and the couple bought 1,000 bottles of Veuve Cliquot champagne for the toast but instead of gifts, the couple asked that guests make donations to Sao Paulo’s Aconchego daycare centre for underprivileged children, IstoE Dinheiro reported.
Many people, especially in Greece, question whether Neto would a suitable husband for the 20- year-old Greek billionaire.
Athina’s father, Thierry Roussel, opposed the union for years.
Athina is due to assume control of the billion dollar Onassis Foundation charity in Greece when she turns 21 in January.
But the fund’s trustees are fighting to prevent her taking over. They are claiming that her ties to Greece are “too tenuous.’’
Daily Telegraph with files from
Associated Press