Paola Franchi (born 17 November 1953) is an Italian

interior designer Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

, artist, author and former model. Her 2010 autobiography ''L'amore spezzato'' (''"The Broken Love"'') details her relationship with Italian businessman

Maurizio Gucci Maurizio Gucci (26 September 1948 – 27 March 1995) was an Italian businessman and the one-time head of the Gucci fashion house. He was the son of actor Rodolfo Gucci, and grandson of the company's founder Guccio Gucci. On 27 March 1995, he was ...

, who was murdered in 1995 while they were a couple.

Early life and relationship with Maurizio Gucci

Franchi was born in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

on 17 November 1953. She attended

Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera ("academy of fine arts of Brera"), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di ...

. Franchi was a childhood friend of Italian businessman

and attended his wedding to

Patrizia Reggiani Patrizia Reggiani (; Martinelli; born 2 December 1948) is an Italian convicted criminal and former socialite. She was convicted in a highly publicized trial of hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci. Early life and marriage t ...

in 1972. In 1983, Franchi married copper

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

Giorgio Colombo. Their son, Charly, was born in 1985. In 1990, Franchi began dating Gucci after encountering each other at a private club in

Saint Moritz St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in ...

. Both reeling from unhappy marriages, Franchi became Gucci's live-in partner for five years, sharing a luxury apartment in

Corso Venezia Corso Venezia is a street in Milan, Italy. It is one of the city's most exclusive and elegant avenues, being part of the city's upscale ''Quadrilatero della moda'' shopping district, along with Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga, Via Sant'Andrea a ...

, Milan. When Gucci's divorce from Reggiani was finalized in 1994, Franchi claims that they began plans to get married on Gucci's St. Moritz estate in Switzerland. However, Maurizio's daughter, Allegra Gucci, disputes Franchi's claim, and maintains that her father never intended to marry Franchi. Relatedly, Maurizio Gucci's previous ex-girlfriend, Sheree McLaughlin Loud (whom he dated 1984-1990) claimed that she and Gucci broke off their relationship because Gucci refused to marry her. In 1995, Maurizio Gucci was gunned down by a hired

hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...

. The day after the murder, Franchi received an

eviction Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortgage ...

order from Reggiani to move out of the luxury apartment she shared with Gucci. The order was written less than three hours after Maurizio's death. When Franchi moved out, Reggiani moved in with her two daughters, Alessandra and Allegra. The three lived there for two years, until Reggiani's arrest in 1997. In 1998, Patrizia Reggiani was sentenced to 29 years in prison for arranging the killing. According to prosecutors, Reggiani was jealous of Franchi and wanted to prevent her from marrying Gucci. The marriage would have cut Reggiani's

alimony Alimony, also called aliment (Scotland), maintenance (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand), spousal support (U.S., Canada) and spouse maintenance (Australia), is a legal obligation on a person to provide financial suppo ...

in half.

Personal life

In 2001, Franchi's 16-year-old son Charly Colombo took his own life. Franchi is heavily involved in the charity "L’Amico Charly,” which was set up in memory of her son to help troubled or suicidal teens. In 2016, she denied claims she dated Gucci because of his fortune: "Actually my previous husband, whom I left for Maurizio, was even richer, so it was all nonsense."

In popular culture

In the film ''

House of Gucci ''House of Gucci'' is a 2021 American biographical crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott, based on the 2001 book ''The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed'' by Sara Gay Forden. The film follows Patriz ...

'' (2021), Paola Franchi is played by French actress

Camille Cottin Camille Cottin (; born 1 December 1978) is a French actress and comedian. Following her debut as a stage actress, she became known in 2013 for playing a capricious Parisian woman in the Canal+ hidden camera-sketches series ''Connasse'' (2013–20 ...

Bibliography

* (autobiography)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franchi, Paola 1953 births Italian socialites Living people