Born this day: Christina Onassis

Christina Onassis (Greek: Χριστίνα Ωνάση) (December 11, 1950 – November 19, 1988) was the daughter of the billionaire Aristotle Onassis and Athina Livanos.

Born in New York City, her parents had a stormy marriage, filled with many affairs (including one by her father with Maria Callas) and arguments, finally divorcing. At the age of seventeen, she had plastic surgery to shrink her nose and remove the dark rings under her eyes. She was educated in London at Queen's College, London.

In 1968, her father married Jacqueline Kennedy, whom Onassis loathed and did not get along with, considering her a gold-digger only interested in her family's money.

Onassis lost her entire immediate family within a period of 24 months. Her brother Alexander died in a plane crash in 1973 and her mother committed suicide shortly thereafter. Her father's health had started to deteriorate after Alexander's death and he died in 1975. Alexander was the focus of her father's attention as his successor until his death, after which her father considered her his successor and began training her in the business operations of the Onassis business empire. She became very involved in the business operations of the Onassis shipping empire and successfully ran the business after her father's death.

Onassis was married four times, all ending in bitter divorces. Her first three husbands were Joseph Bolker, Alexandros Andreadis and Sergei Kauzov. Her final marriage to Thierry Roussel produced her only child, daughter Athina Roussel. This marriage ended in divorce as well. Onassis knew that Roussel had been having an affair with Swedish model Marianne "Gaby" Landhage and even paid to maintain Landhage in a house with her two children, both of whom were conceived during Onassis' marriage to Roussel. Roussel, for his part, insisted that Onassis stay slim to be with him, subjecting her to regular weighing and forced exercise regimes and eventually left her to be permanently with Landhage.

She died at the age 37 of pulmonary edema at a country club near Buenos Aires, Argentina. Christina was just coming out of depression when she died. She doted on her daughter, Athina. At the time of her death, Christina was in a serious relationship with the older brother of one of her Greek childhood friends, who had never been married himself and insisted that they take it slowly given her history but intended to eventually marry her. Experts say that her premature death was caused by constant prescription drug abuse and dramatic changes in weight. Some say that she died from taking dangerous slimming drugs, others suggest it was too many sleeping pills.