Destiny Prevails: My Life with Aristotle, Alexander, Christina Onassis and her daughter, Athina

Before there were multimillionaires lurking around every corner of 57th Street in New York and buying up mansion blocks in London’s toniest neighborhoods, you used to be able to count the really rich on one, maybe two, hands. And in that simpler epoch, Aristotle Onassis was the one of a few real self-made multimillionaires, toasted and admired by kings, politicians and the global jet set, and the object of fascination by journalists and the world’s public. His life may have seemed an open book, but there was so much going on behind the scenes. Always close by in Onassis’ later years was his trusted aide Paul Ioannidis, a decorated war hero and pilot who helped Onassis build Greece’s small domestic airline with just 15 (1 DC-4 and 14 DC-3s) aircraft into a major international airline, Olympic Airways. For nearly half a century, Ioannidis, who served as Director General of the Onassis-owned Olympic Airways and as one of the founding board members, of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, shared a special relationship with Onassis as well as with his children, Alexander and Christina. Paul Ioannidis’ memoir, “DESTINY PREVAILS: My life with Aristotle, Alexander, Christina Onassis and her daughter, Athina,” recounts for the first time, the true, tragic saga of the Onassis family and their fortune estimated, at the time, more than half a billion dollars. Ioannidis tells the tale of the fabulous growth of Olympic Airways. With routes all over the world and a cabin staff outfitted in Pierre Cardin. In April 1960, Olympic set a new flight time record between London and Athens when the Comet 4B was introduced on that route. First-class guests were served, in real crystal glasses, champagne with caviar and ate gourmet meals with golden cutlery earning a reputation of luxury. With the tremendous success of this global transport empire, Onassis became the prototypical one-man business conglomerate, the type we associate today with tycoons such Richard Branson or Donald Trump. With holdings in almost 100 companies around the world, his reach was truly incredible for his time. Onassis’ personal life was the stuff of rigorous tabloid coverage, as well. He lived mostly on his opulent 325-foot yacht, the Christina, where he entertained everyone from Winston Churchill and the Kennedys to Marilyn Monroe. While married to the daughter of another Greek shipping magnate, Tina Livanos, he carried on a years-long and very public affair with the beautiful opera diva, Maria Callas. It ended only when Onassis met and married recently widowed U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy shortly after her brother-in-law was assassinated in 1968. In Destiny Prevails, Ioannidis describes what it was like to be so close to the Onassis family during this tumultuous time. He is there in the hospital room when Onassis’ learns his beloved son Alexander, fatally injured in a routine test flight, is brain dead and will never recover. He is at the cockpit controls when a married Onassis takes a private flight to Crete with his lover, the opera singer Maria Callas. He also watches the strain between Jackie Kennedy and Onassis’ only daughter, Christina, over the terms of Aristotle’s will. And after Christina’s untimely death at the age of 38 from an “acute pulmonary edema,” he is the one to fly her body back from Argentina to Skorpios, the family island, for burial. Ioannidis’ story, which also relays his own experiences as a resistance fighter against the Nazis, unfolds accompanied by dozens of photographs, intimate details and documentary evidence, including a photo of Onassis’ handwritten will, a note from Maria to Aristotle and a thank-you letter from Jackie Kennedy to Onassis. Ioannidis' insider perspective and his concise and detailed prose make Destiny Prevails a must read for anyone interested in a fascinating slice of Greek history or the story of Aristotle Onassis, one of the most fascinating characters in the story of the modern world.