'I wanted to be no one, to not be recognised'

In an rare interview, Allegra Versace has spoken out about what she calls her 'period of absence'. The 25-year-old daughter of Donatella Versace and Paul Beck reveals how a troubled adolescence made her crave anonymity.
Carefully sidestepping any comment about her battle with anorexia, which was made public in 2007, she describes how she 'couldn't confront reality'. She told La Repubblica: 'I call this my period of absence, I was lost in other thoughts and couldn't confront reality, with my eyes shielded from everything. Above all, I wanted one thing - to be no one, to not be recognised, not be hunted down. I studied theatre, and it pleased me greatly to play parts in little independent films that perhaps no one went to see... Still, anywhere I went, I was Versace. I couldn't escape, and it did me harm. I hated Los Angeles.
She explained how she relished earning her own money, taking jobs that would see her take a back-seat role. 'When I was in New York, Rupert Everett played in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and I, behind the scenes, acted invisibly as a dresser,' she revealed.
Allegra, who inherited 50 per cent of the family empire when she turned 18, has also been spending time in designers' studios - again, carving a role for herself under the public radar. 'I still prefer the anonymity,' she said. 'I've spent some time working with a non-Italian designer, I've been helping him organize fashion shows, the advertising, also helping with the creative part. But the great part about this work is that I am no one...'
'I think you can get used to everything, if you feel free, if you are yourself and not what others want you to be, if you don't see a photographer around every corner, if you do not bury yourself in cruel gossip that does so much harm.'
Allegra's eating disorder was announced by her parents in 2007, in response to widespread media speculation. A statement released by a company spokesman read: 'Our daughter, Allegra, has been battling anorexia, a very serious disease, for many years. She is receiving the best medical care possible to help overcome this illness and is responding well.'
She was a favourite with her late uncle, Gianni, who was murdered in 1997, and the interview also shed light on how much the close family suffered at that time. 'For years I lived in the dark,' she told La Repubblica. 'I remembered little of my life before that terrible day. I even forgot what he looked like, and everything I felt about him.
'Then little by little the memories came back... emotions, flashes of happiness, and I was finally free of the emptiness that scared me so much.' Reminiscing about the legendary designer, she continued: 'My uncle did not work, the job was his life... I do not think that today there is anybody like him - he was unique.'
Speaking of her brother's decision to leave such a large portion of the family firm to Allegra, Donatella once revealed: 'My children were his children.' She told New York magazine: 'He was always with Allegra. Since she was nine years old she would go to museums with him, she knew all the museums in America, in France, in England, and Gianni loved art. She would sit with him and go through art books, and she knew the art of Picasso ... It was adorable.'
She said that her brother, who had been suffering from cancer in the two years prior to his death, told her: 'I want to leave everything to your daughter because I want to make sure you take care of her so well.'



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