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Patrizia Reggiani used to be on top of the world, living out a luxurious fantasy as the wife ofMaurizio Gucci, the one-time Gucci heir and majority shareholder of the company.
One year after their divorce was finalized, Maurizio Gucci was shot and killed while heading into his Milan office on March 25, 1995. Two years later, Reggiani was arrested and later convicted and sent to prison for 18 years for her involvement in orchestrating the crime.
The twisted tale is back in the headlines as the inspiration behind director Ridley Scott’s new movieHouse of Gucci, starringLady Gaga, Adam Driver, Salma Hayek, Jared Leto and Al Pacino.
Reggiani, who has already publicly statedshe is “annoyed"that Gaga did not reach out to her prior to filming, claims she “does not like to remember” the events that led to the murder and still doesn’t understand why she was arrested.
“I’m not innocent, but I’m not guilty,” Reggiani says inKilling Gucci, in which she reveals that she was in bed when she found out about her ex-husband’s murder.
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“I heard my telephone ring, and my nanny told me that Maurizio was shot,” recalls Reggiani. “First I couldn’t believe it and then I thought, my problems are gone and then just [felt] sorrow.”
Before the murder, Reggiani’s hate for Maurizio intensified so much after he left her, that she would ask in public for someone to kill him for her.
“In court, I [admitted Maurizio and I] hated each other. I made a lot of threats, but I didn’t give the order to kill him,” she says. “The others [convicted co-conspirators] blackmailed me. What they said about me was not true.”
Reggiani’s four convicted accomplices and public prosecutor Carlo Nocerino, who led the investigation, fully disagree on that point.
“She wasn’t keeping [her hatred] a secret,” says Nocerino, the prosecutor who led the investigation. “Everyone in her house and her friends confirmed this.”
For much more on the murder of Maurizio Gucci and the new movieHouse of Gucci, pick up the latest issue ofPEOPLEnow on newsstands.
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“She’s never admitted to killing him,” saysHouse of Gucciauthor and journalist Sara Forden, who wrote the book on which the film is based. “But lately, she sounds like she has some remorse.”
26 years after the crime, Reggiani is wistful about the happy early days of her marriage to Maurizio.
“The thing I miss most with Maurizio is the peaceful environment [before the hatred],” she says. The time I was most happy was when we were traveling.”
Reggiani was found guilty of murder in 1998 after a five-month trial and was released from prison in 2016. All these years later, despite her role in Maurizio’s killing, she says she still feels “enormous love for” for her ex-husband.
“If I met Maurizio now I would tell him to forgive me for what happened,” she says. “All the things that happened were a big misunderstanding.”
House of Gucciopens in theaters Nov. 14.People Magazine Investigates: Killing Gucciis now streaming on discovery+.
source: people.com
