Aristotle Onassis's women: Maria Callas, Jackie O and an affair to remember
Netflix, in its latest biographical film, revisits the final years of Maria Callas which she spent in isolation until her death on September 16, 1977. However, the story of the iconic opera singer is incomplete without her tragic romantic relationships where she endured nothing but betrayals and heartaches.
Callas was married to Giovanni Battista Meneghini, an Italian entrepreneur, for 10 years whom she met when she was just 23. But it is her love affair with Aristotle Onassis that captured the massive limelight and broke her heart in ways she hadn't imagined.
Inside Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas's passionate love-affair
Callas first met Onassis in 1959 when he invited her and her husband on a lavish cruise aboard his yacht. By the end of the cruise, Calla's marriage was also over. And from here on, began the love affair between Callas and Onassis, the king of pa rivately-owned shipping fleet and one of the world's richest men.
75-year-old Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos said, “He (Onassis) couldn’t live without Maria," in a recent interview with People. Moutsatsos worked as a personal secretary to Onassis and knows him in ways the world doesn't. “Maria was a piece of his soul, of his body, of his brain. That’s why they never believed that they could be separate," she further said.
Aristotle Onassis's massive betrayal to Maria Callas
Onassis and Callas dated for nearly a decade, from 1959 to 1968. But her dreams of having a family with him crashed when Jacqueline Kennedy entered the picture. In 1968, Onassis married the widow of US President John F Kennedy, with Jackie’s brother-in-law Ted Kennedy negotiating the marriage contract. It was a business deal disguised as love. Meanwhile, Calls was left to face public humiliation.
However, the love triangle never ended. "They never stopped seeing each other. Never," told Moutsatsos. Jackie was aware of things happening behind her back and she confided in Onassis's sister Artemis Garofallidou.
“Jackie was never screaming, never fighting. Although she knew many things from Aristo’s behavior but she was pretending that nothing happened. She was very smart. Everyone in the house knew he was visiting Maria secretly at night,” People quoted Artemis.
The tragic end of trio's love saga
Neither of them even lived happily. Callas was left to spend her final years in isolation. Meanwhile, Onassis's relationship with Jackie grew cold. By the early 70s, his health started to fail and he died in 1975. His death devastated Callas. She withdrew herself entirely from the public. She stopped eating and meeting anyone. It was as if a part of her died with him. Two years after his death, in 1977, she died at the age of 53, due to ha eart attack.
In Netflix's 'Maria', Angelina Jolie plays the role of Maria Callas while Haluk Bilginer appears as Aristotle Onassis.
'Maria' trailer
'Maria' will arrive on Netflix on Wednesday, December 11
