The real story behind the House Of Gucci
Consider the following scenario: You’ve just finished watching House of Gucci, the film in which Adam Driver and Lady Gaga run around Italy looking fabulous while Jared Leto looks… less so. You’re still trying to figure out which of the film’s accents are Italian and which are completely based on other nations, and you’re thinking to yourself, “Was this sh*t real?” The film’s primary premise is that Lady Gaga’s character, Patrizia Reggiani, marries Maurizio Gucci, the heir to THEE Gucci empire and company. When things between them become tense, Gaga’s character hires a hitman to assassinate Gucci. Simply said, it’s insane.
Although the film is based on a novel (House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Insanity, Splendor, and Wealth by Sara Gay Forden), the novel is based on a true story.
When it came to the foundations of the real-life murder, the movie didn’t stray far from the truth.
On March 27, 1995, a year after his and Patrizia’s divorce, Maurizio was shot to death on the steps of his office, and Reggiani was caught, convicted, and sentenced to 18 years in jail for her role in the crime. In her journal that day, Patrizia wrote “paradeisos,” which means paradise, precisely as in the movie.
Prosecutors “argued that Patrizia was furious that Maurizio was set to remarry (to Paola, who also appears in the film) because that marriage would cut her alimony payments in half,” according to People. For her part, Patrizia insists, “I’m not innocent, but I’m not guilty.”
In actual life, however, the time was different than in the movie.
The movie fudges several facts and doesn’t do a great job of creating a timeframe. It takes over ten years for Maurizio and Patrizia to divorce following a momentous vacation to Saint Moritz, according to the film (which IRL was a trip to Milan). Here’s a quick rundown of events:
1985: Maurizio travels to Milan and informs Patrizia that he will not be returning and that their marriage is ended; 1993: He begins dating Paola;
Patrizia and Maurizio legally divorce in 1994.
Maurizio is assassinated in 1995.
1997: Patrizia is sentenced to 29 years in jail for her role in the crime, which was later reduced to 26 years, bringing her total time in prison to 18 years.
In 2016, the genuine Patrizia got freed from prison.
She was given a 29-year sentence, but it was cut to 26, and she was released after 18 years for good conduct. She is currently based in Milan.
Despite the fact that Reggiani is now a free woman, she has yet to meet Lady Gaga, and it appears that Lady Gaga has no plans to do so anytime soon. During an appearance on Good Morning America, Lady Gaga said, “I didn’t want to meet her because I could see right away that this woman wanted to be exalted for her crime.” “She also desired to be known as a criminal. I didn’t want to be associated with anything I didn’t agree with. Her spouse was assassinated by her.”
