Aristotle Onassis

A womanizer, he was in a string of relationships with famous women around the globe. His relationship with Athina Livanos, who was half his age but daughter of shipping magnate, ended up in marriage in December 1946. The couple was blessed with two children

The marriage with Livanos did not last long and the two divorced in 1960 following his infidelity and romantic relationship with singer Maria Callas, which initiated in 1957.

He ended his relationship with Callas and befriended Jackie Kennedy, widow of President John F Kennedy. The relationship strengthened further as the two became lovers and eventually married in 1968.

Aristotle Onassis was born to Socrates and Penelope Dologu in Karatass, surburb of Smyra. He was the only son of the couple who were blessed with a daughter Artemis. He had two half-sisters as well.

Born in a financially secure household, young Onassis had the privilege to attain education at prestigious schools. By the time he turned 16, he gained a mastery over four languages. He graduated from the local Evangelical Greek School.

After the Turkey’s invasion of Greece and the subsequent Great Fire of Smyra, he left for Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1923, where he found job as a telephone engineer at the British United River Plate Telephone Company.

It was during his time as a telephone engineer that he started eavesdropping on important business calls and used the information gained from the same to make his own deals. No sooner he started securing big deals which brought in a lot of money.

It was while overhearing a conversation that the idea struck him to revive his father’s tobacco business. He imported tobacco from Turkey and started looking to make a business deal.

Failing to secure a deal for his tobacco, he turned to manufacturing his own brand of cigarettes. The business thrived and so did his reputation and financial worth. He soon made a considerable amount of money and became a drawing influence in the social circle with escalating power.

Shortly, he realized that shipping merchants were making more money than cigarette manufactures by transporting tobacco. Ambitious as he was, he started buying ships at a time when people were moving out of the shipping business. It took him a few days to expand his fleet.

This Greek Argentine shipping magnate ended his much hyped relationship with opera singer Marie Callas to marry President John F Kennedy’s widow, Jackie Kennedy.