Seen by: Mlahanas (Greece/Germany)

Athina Roussel de Miranda (born January 29, 1985 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), née Athina Roussel and often dubbed Athina Onassis Roussel, is the French-Greek granddaughter of the late shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Her mother Christina Onassis died prematurely in 1988 from a pulmonary edema at the age of 37.

After her mother’s death, Athina was raised by her French father Thierry Roussel, who later married Gaby Landhage from Sweden. As Athina’s stepmother, Gaby provided a stable and protective family environment for Athina in the family’s five-bedroom villa in Lussy-sur-Morges, Switzerland.

Athina inherited an estimated US$2.7 billion worth of cash, property, jewels, and other assets from the Onassis estate. Her grandfather and mother, however, had never trusted her father completely, which led the family to arrange for a Board of Administrators to have control over the family money until Athina comes of age. During her childhood and adolescence, all expenses made on her behalf by her father (using money from the Onassis inheritance) had to be approved by the Board in advance (which led her father to threaten constantly to move back to Paris, France with the family, where income taxes would cost the estate a “small fortune a year”, as he put it). On her 18th birthday, also in accordance with the Onassis will, Athina was granted control over half of her personal fortune. On her 21st birthday, she has gained control over the other half, in addition to becoming the president of the Onassis Foundation, with assets in excess of US$2.1 billion. The Foundation’s Board, however, has made public that they have no interest in turning over control to Athina, whom they do not trust. The Board has arranged to modify the Statutes of the Foundation so that Athina would not become head of the Foundation automatically upon completing 21 years of age. Her lawyers have contested the validity of the changes and promise to fight the Board to ensure Athina’s takeover as of January of 2006, when she was to turn 21.

Athina has bought a house in Belgium, near the capital Brussels, where she has several horses. Since she started dating Brazilian professional showjumper Álvaro de Miranda Neto, more commonly known as “Doda” (12 years her senior), in March of 2003, Athina moved to São Paulo, in Brazil, where the couple now lives. They paid $8.6-million for a 10,600-square-foot duplex, with space for 15 cars and are engaged in renovations.

“Doda” was married to Sibele Dorsa, a Brazilian model, when he and Athina met. Doda and his wife had been separated around the time Athina joined the Show Jumping training school where Miranda trained. As his and Athina’s romance blossomed, Doda told his wife that he wanted a divorce so that he could be free to pursue other interests. As Ms. Dorsa remarked, “She can buy him horses and I can’t …. He exchanged me for Athina’s money.” Athina and Doda were married on December 3, 2005. Athina’s father, Thierry Roussel and his Swedish wife Gaby Landhage – the stepmother who bore Thierry’s children while still married to Christina Onassis- were absent from the ceremony in Sao Paulo’s exclusive Morumbi district. Thierry is said to have reservations about his daughter’s choice of partner. Athina will become stepmother to Viviane, Doda’s five-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.

Athina is determined to distance herself from the past, decided that she will drop the name Onassis and be known as Athina de Miranda. Although eyebrows have been raised at the age difference between Athina and Doda, this is nothing new for Onassis women. Christina’s first husband was at least 30 years her senior, and her grandmother, Tina Livanos, was only 17 when she was led to the altar by a 40-something Aristotle Onassis.

It is said that Doda only married her for her money, like so many others before him tried to. Under the terms of her grandfather’s will, his fortune was divided in two, with half going to set up a charitable foundation in memory of his only son, Alexander, who was killed in a plane crash.

Athina reportedly has her eye on control of this. But there are several problems, not the least of which is that she is not Alexander’s heir.

In addition, her father has ensured she was brought up knowing almost nothing about her Greek heritage, scarcely setting foot in the country.

In 1999, she said in court documents she felt “great aversion to anything Greek,” even though she knows her mother, her grandfather and her fortune come from Greece.

Stelios Papadimitriou, president of the foundation, has remarked, “We are not going to turn it over to someone who has no connection with our culture, our religion, our language or our shared experiences, and who never went to college or worked a day in her life.

“She can do whatever she wants with what she inherited from her mother, but not with Onassis’s legacy to the Greek people in memory of Alexander.”

More recently, Athina has been trying to reach out to the Greek trustees. She has expressed an interest in learning Greek and has renewed her Greek passport. She also hopes to be on the Greek equestrian team at the next Olympics.

Their plans were to stay in São Paulo, which caused Nelson Pessoa, the captain of the Brazilian Equestrian Team, to regret publicly that Doda has forsaken his international career, and [informally] call upon Athina’s influence on him, to persuade her fiancé to return to Europe and compete there. Lately, as Athina’s interest in competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics grew, the couple announced that they would return to Belgium to train following their honeymoon.

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/NewEnterprise/AthinaOnassisRoussel.html