Gucci dynasty is rocked by claims of child abuse
Heiress accuses mother and grandmother of covering up stepfather’s attacks for years
A GUCCI heiress has rocked the fashion house with claims of child abuse and cover-ups.
Alexandra Zarini, great-granddaughter of founder Guccio Gucci, has alleged she was sexually abused by her stepfather from the age of six in an explosive legal claim.
Now 35, Miss Zarini says her British-born mother and her grandmother hushed up the scandal to spare the Gucci name and avoid wiping millions from its value.
The claims were filed in a Los Angeles court this week, adding another chapter to the fashion giant’s dark history, which includes hitmen, tax evasion and family feuds.
Miss Zarini claims that her former stepfather Joseph Ruffalo, a onetime music manager to Prince and Earth, Wind & Fire, abused her from
‘Humiliation shame and horror’
a young age when they lived in the US. The abuse allegedly continued while she was at boarding school in England and into her 20s, the court papers say.
Miss Zarini claims her mother, Patricia Gucci, and her grandmother, Bruna Palombo, were instrumental in keeping the scandal quiet and said that going public would be the ‘ultimate betrayal’.
The lawsuit alleges they repeatedly threatened to ‘financially cut off and disinherit her if she went against their wishes’.
Miss Zarini, now living in Germany, alleges that she ‘suffered humiliation, shame, and horror and will continue to suffer for the rest of her life’.
The court filing says: ‘Throughout the plaintiff’s childhood and adolescence, defendants Gucci and Palombo protected Ruffalo and themselves, and tried to avoid, at all costs, what they perceived would be a scandal that could tarnish the Gucci name and potentially cost them millions.’
It adds that the two women ‘actively sought to cover up defendant Ruffalo’s sexual assaults and allow them to continue unabated’.
The action was launched to coincide with the launch of anti-child-abuse non-profit organisation the Alexandra Gucci Children’s Foundation.
Miss Zarini told the New York Times: ‘I just want to stop this. ‘She [her mother] can call me anything she wants. I just don’t want this to happen to anyone.’
She is demanding unspecified damages for negligence, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and gender violence.
Mr Ruffalo, now 80, married Patricia Gucci in 1993. They divorced in 2010 after Miss Gucci, now 57, says she was told of the abuse.
She said: ‘I was devastated when she disclosed everything... in September 2007. I am equally devastated by the allegations against me and her grandmother, which are completely false.’
Richard P Crane Jr, a lawyer for Mr Ruffalo, said: ‘My client has not been served and has not read the complaint.
‘What he has been informed of, he categorically denies. While married... Mr Ruffalo and his wife were greatly concerned about the mental wellbeing of Alexandra and took steps to address her instability. Apparently, their efforts failed.’
Miss Palombo was a teenage shop girl in Rome when she caught the eye of married 50something Aldo Gucci, who turned his father’s leather business in Florence into a luxury brand. The existence of a ‘second family’ is the scandal that has haunted the Gucci family for decades.
Aldo was in his 50s and had three sons with his Shropshire-born wife, Olwen Price, when he met Miss Palombo at the flagship store in 1956.
Brown-eyed Bruna Palombo was soon promoted to be the boss’s secretary and a 30-year affair began. At the time adultery in Italy was illegal so when Miss Palombo became pregnant, she was sent to England and had their daughter, Patricia.
Italian society was scandalised but over time the existence of his ‘second family’ became an open secret and Aldo and Miss Palombo are said to have married in 1987. Patricia rose to the company board before the family sold their shares in the 1990s.
Maurizio Gucci, last of the family to run the brand, was killed in 1995 by a hitman hired by an ex-wife.
Current owners French group Kering paid £1.2billion to the Italian authorities last year for failing to pay taxes related to Gucci.
‘Their efforts failed’