Onassis to wed Brazilian equestrian star

Surrounded by palm trees and azalea bushes on a lush Brazilian estate, Greek billionaire Athina Roussel Onassis will say ‘I do’ to an Olympic athlete on Saturday in what Brazilians expect will be one of the most lavish weddings in years.

The 20-year-old Onassis – granddaughter and sole heiress of the late shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis and one of the world’s richest women – will marry Brazilian equestrian star Alvaro Afonso de Miranda, the 32-year-old son of an insurance company owner.

Miranda, known popularly as Doda, was a member of the Brazilian showjumping team that won a bronze medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and another in 2000 in Sydney.

The wedding will be held at the Maria Luiza and Oscar Americano Foundation. The estate is in Sao Paulo’s upscale Morumbi district, near the palace where the governor of Sao Paulo state lives and works.

Organisers refused to provide details of the wedding, claiming they were sworn to secrecy. But local news media were awash in details, including what happens to anyone caught talking to the press: a fine of three times the value of services or products provided.

The wedding will be a “family affair” attended by some 750 guests, the groom’s father, Ricardo Miranda, told IstoE Dinheiro newsmagazine.

The bride will wear a dress styled by Italian designer Valentino, and more than 1,000 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne will be opened, Miranda said.

The marriage will be an ecumenical ceremony, because Onassis is Greek Orthodox and the groom is a divorced Roman Catholic. According to Veja newsmagazine, the couple signed a pre-nuptial agreement protecting all assets acquired before marriage.

During the wedding, at least 400 private security guards will be deployed to protect the guests and keep out paparazzi, Epoca newsmagazine reported.

The entire area has been sealed off since Sunday by 100 guards in black suits, and the chain-link fence surrounding the grounds has been covered with green plastic to keep passersby from seeing the festivities.

Guests must pass through two metal detectors, leave behind cameras and mobile phones and park their cars several blocks from the wedding grounds. Vehicles provided by organisers will take them to the party.

Instead of gifts, the couple has asked that guests make donations to the Aconchego day care centre for underprivileged children, IstoE Dinheiro reported. The centre cares for 25 children under the age of five.

The couple, who share a love for horses and showjumping, met in 2002 at a riding centre in Belgium owned by Brazilian equestrian Nelson Pessoa.

A year later, Onassis moved to Sao Paulo, where she shares an apartment valued at 16 million reals (£4.2 million) with Miranda and Viviane, his six-year-old daughter from his previous marriage, IstoE said.

The couple reportedly has a discreet, unpretentious lifestyle that includes daily outings to the Hipica Paulista equestrian club and visits to Japanese and barbecue restaurants.

“She is not a stuck-up woman,” the bride’s future father-in-law told IstoE. “She is a very intelligent woman who speaks fluent Portuguese and likes to watch soap operas.”

According to Veja, Miranda is considering becoming a Greek citizen so he can compete for Greece in the next Olympic games.

“He would never even consider this if he weren’t deeply in love with Athina,” his father told Veja.

Athina Roussel Onassis was raised in Switzerland by her French-born father, Thierry Roussel, and inherited an estimated 2.7 billion dollars (£1.56 billion) from her grandfather on her 18th birthday. Roussel’s presence at the wedding has not been confirmed.

The Onassis fortune was divided two ways, between Roussel Onassis’ inheritance from her mother Christina Onassis, and a foundation that controls the shipping business and a vast charitable trust.

Aristotle Onassis died in 1975, two years after a plane crash that killed his son Alexander, after whom the foundation is named. Christina Onassis died of a heart attack in 1988 in Argentina.

Thierry Roussel and the Onassis Foundation are engaged in a tug-of-war for management of the shipping fortune left by Aristotle Onassis.