A rare photo of Alexander Onassis, son of legendary tycoon Aristotle Onassis with former Greek star Zozo Sapountzaki reveals their brief affair almost sixty years later.
The picture was taken at an Athens night club some time in the 1960s by an unknown photographer. It recently surfaced at Elena’s Diary Blog on Instagram. It shows a young Alexander Onassis, most likely in his late teens.
Sapountzaki (91) was a popular show woman, singer, and film star who still performs occasionally to this day. Born in Thessaloniki, she moved to Athens in the 1950s and started working as a theater actress. Within a few years, her singing and acting talents, extravagant appearance, and striking looks soon made Athenians dub her “queen of the night.”
In the 1960s, she left the stage and started performing in night clubs. In a particular club she was performing at in the 1960s, shipping magnets Aristotle Onassis and his rival Stavros Niarchos were regulars, she said.
It was at that time Sapountzaki met the young Onassis at the club and became friends with him. She spoke about their acquaintance in a March 2023 television interview.
The story of the rare photograph
At the time of their meeting, Sapountzaki was performing at a nightclub called Petalouda (Butterfly). Her fame and charm attracted the Greek elite to the place. Aristotle Onassis, Stavros Niarchos, three-time Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou, former Prime Minister Sofoklis Venizelos, politicians, businessmen, socialites, and artists were among patrons.
In the interview, the famous entertainer said people were releasing white pigeons at the club for her sake and passed matchboxes with gold liras inside to her. In recounting her meeting with young Alexander, Sapountzaki claimed he was a shy boy who was trembling the first time he kissed her.
“Alexander Onassis came to the ‘Petalouda’ (Butterfly) club and sat at the front table. He was throwing flowers at me and invited me to his table. He opened a bottle of champagne for me and we started talking about this and that,” Sapountzaki said in the interview.
“He says to me, ‘Do you want to go to lunch with me tomorrow?’ and I say to him ‘Let’s go.’” He would come by my house with his chauffeur to pick me up, and we would go to a fish restaurant. I could tell that he was in love. He was talking to me about his childhood and his dad. He didn’t like (Maria) Callas at all. He was only talking about his mother (Tina Livanos),” she continued.
“At one point, he left and wrote me letters, saying ‘no one is like you.’ We met a few times, but it was okay, [and] he was a child, [so] things didn’t go any further,” Sapountzaki said.