Businessweek Extra - House of Gucci

Bloomberg Business Week Extra. This is a highlight from one of our favorite interviews to him from the week, and this week it's all about House of Gucci. And we're not only talking about really Scott's star studded movie. Nope. More than twenty years ago, before the Gucci Family story hit the silver screen, Bloomberg Sarah Fordon wrote the book about the real life saga that would turn into the basis for the film. Sarah panned The House of Gucci

a sensational story of murder, madness, glamor in greed. She's also team leader for Corporate Influence in Washington for Bloomberg News. Sarah's peace in this week's Pursuit section brings a new twice to the story that voice Sherry McLoughlin, who was the romantic partner that gave fashion scion Marizio Gucci the strength to leave his wife. It was a decision that would get him killed back in. Sherry's story has not been told until now. Sarah joined us along with Bloomberg

Pursuits editor Chris Rousing. Sarah, it's really great to have you with us. Just just take us back and tell us how so many years ago you became so immersed in the story to begin with. Hi, Well, thanks for having me. I mean, this was an incredible story that just really drew me in because there were so many twists and turns and this family fashion dynasty over three generations. Um, it was a kind of story that if you made it up, people wouldn't believe you. Um. It was so

so outrageous and so many surprising twists and turns. Well, and I think about you know exactly. There were so many twists and turns, and it is something that you feel like, Okay, this would be a streaming service, but no, it was reality. Um, you know, as you were putting it together, because it played out in in real time right, there was so much coverage. What is it that you

wanted to dig into? Well, I was really drawn to the story by the figure of Mado Gucci, and I was covering him as a as a beat reporter em Milan and his vision to um pilot his family company from sort of an over licensed um, sort of cheapened brand to a top tier luxury brand. He wanted to make Gucci like Italy's heir Mas Um, So he wanted

to be sophisticated, he wanted excellent craftsmanship. He brought in Um, you know, American creative director and designer, and his his vision was to take it way up market only Um. As he started putting it into place, he had cut off the cash cows. He had um not really given consumers a chance to figure out that there was a new Gucci and the company was just heading towards bankruptcy. And as while this was going on, Sarah, this is

Chris Um. You know, there was this whole personal side of the saga where he was going through a divorce from his wife, Patricia Reggiani, who was played by Lady Gaga in the film, and where he was at least for part of the time in a romantic relationship with Sherry, which is what our stories about exactly. So my I realized that I was, you know, it's one thing to write a business story for um, you know, for for

a newspaper, UM. But I realized that there was there was a narrative here that had the qualities of a novel. And it was by blending the family saga with the business story that I felt that this story really really came to ship to life. And I interviewed more than a hundred people for the book. Talked to family members, I talked to you know, current and former employees of Gucci. But the one person who slipped away was Mariza Gucci's girlfriend at the time, UM well, for seven years. Her

name was Sherry McLoughlin. She was an American former model who worked in the fashion industry. But they actually met sailing in Sudania, um as the Italian team was preparing for the America's Cup. So Sherry didn't want to talk to me at the time that I was writing the book. She didn't know what kind of book I was going to write, and she ducked my phone calls and didn't

answer my emails. Well, she came out of the woodwork. Um. A few months ago when the stills from the movie set started breaking the internet, and I realized as we chatted that she was ready to tell her story. All right, so you go up to Chris, and you go, Chris, I've got the story. Is that? Well, like, tell me

how this came together? Well, it's Um. It's actually really exciting to see it out in pursuit today because I was very uncertain whether Bloomberg would be interested in the story because it seemed like such a non Bloomberg story, right, it was really about the personal side, um. And yet Sherry had been you know, at mad too side when he was going through some of the toughest uh fights of his of his life, both with his financial partner

invest Corps and with his family. You know, he was battling for you know, the his uncle sent the financial police after him, Um was an accusation that he hadn't signed his father hadn't signed the shares um, you know, giving him the control and sent him, you know, escaping and a motorcycle across the border into Switzerland where there was no extradition. So he was really really grappling with a lot at the time, and she was the person who who was at his side trying to help him

the whole time. All right, question for you, Chris, were you like, yeah, of course I'm interested. Well, yeah, I think I think maybe Sarah thought it felt a little gossipy for Business Week, and I love gossip, especially especially because this gossip really actually informed major news events and also obviously this crime. And it was a perspective that Sarah was really excited about hearing and getting out there.

And Sherry's not in the movie her She's not portrayed in the movie because no one knew her story, and so this is really like a missing piece of of the saga. And it also includes all these great details, Like Sarah mentioned the the publicity stills that broke the internet.

You might remember the first stills that came out were of Lady Gaga and Adam Driver playing Marizio and Patrizia, and they were in Italy and it was so like Italian and eighties and he's wearing white ski pants and and Sherry told us that he always wore white ski pants because he was a terrible skier, so he would fall and by when he would get down to like the wine fueled lunch with everybody. No one would know that he felt because he was wearing white so smart,

which is a great little detail. That's the kind of thing that's in this story. Great. And she also she told me that he was terrified that Patricia was going to have him killed. And he always used to say to her, I know, Patricia wants to kill me. And so she didn't take him seriously at the time because she thought he was being being Italian and being over Jim Attic And then lo and behold, you know, look

what happened. So it's been take us back more than twenty years ago, when you were working on this book and you not being actually able to speak to Sherry, because she actually did approach you. You write after the book was out, tell us about that interaction. That was really an incredible moment. So I had I had really given up on I had had to give up on her. My manuscript was going into press and she hadn't responded. So I limited, um, you know, my treatment of her

just to just a few lines in the book. And I knew from other people that she had existed, but I didn't really have any any contours of the relationship or how how they had met or you know what

time they spent together. And the book came out in two thousand and then the paperback edition came out in two thousand one, and I was in New York presenting the paperback edition at the Exilarly Bookstore and I had finished signing books and everybody was just about leaving, and I noticed a tall blonde woman instead of standing hanging back looking at me. And after the last person left, she came up to me with tears in her eyes

and she said, Hi, Sarah, I'm Sherry McLoughlin. If I had known you were going to write such a wonderful book, I would have talked to you. And she gave me a big hug and we both cried, and then and then she left. And you know, at that point, the book was out and there had already been an update, so there wasn't going to be another update, and literally we went our separate ways for twenty years until you know, the movie still started coming out and she she direct

messaged me and we started talking. Having written the book and talked to so many people like you said, um, Sarah, and then sitting down and talking with her, what's changed? And you're thinking about this story. Well, I think that she really, Um, she helped me understand a little bit more why Maudito was the way he was. And um, there are a lot of people around him who who wanted him to get help, wanted him to give up control.

They could see that things weren't going well. And she said that he was bound and determined that he he had to prove to his father and to his grandfather that he was going to be able to turn Gucci around, and he didn't want anyone else to do it for him. Um. I think that to me, you know, made me understand why he was so kind of almost stubborn about doing it his way. How does she feel now, not necessarily being included in this story and not being included in

the film portrayal of your book? You know, she she really came out now because she said, you know, the story is so sad, and you know Madio failed and then he was killed, and it's just such a sad story. She said, I just feel like this man needs a little bit when people need to know that there he did have some happiness in his life and and those happy moments were some of the moments that they spent together, and and she said, you know, they laughed a lot.

You know, here was a guy who was you know, had legions of lawyers and all kinds of calamitous things happening in his and his work and family life. Um, but with share he was able to laugh and and be lighthearted and and uh and have fun. So I think she wanted to show that he was he was actually um, you know, had had some joy in his life, even though it didn't look like it from the outside. So joy in their life together and laughter. As you said, I do wonder too though Sherry in some ways blame

herself for what for his ultimate death. You know, I don't think she blames herself because it was her. It was her decision to end the relationships. She could see that he was completely a meshed in his family and his affairs, and she she wanted to have a life and to have a family and to settle down, and she could see that wasn't happening. But I have had several other people who who knew him, knew the family,

knew the story. Several people have told me that they thought that if if he had stayed with Sherry, he might still be alive today. Because his ex wife Patricia somehow didn't fear or didn't feel threatened by Sherry the way she did by his his later girlfriend Paula. What did you learn about what Sherry and Marizio did together, Well, it's kind of a fairy tale lifestyle that they had. She she moved to New York and had a small apartment there, and he would fly her on the Concorde,

which existed back then. It was three hours to either Paris or London, and then she would go with him. She was helping him to restore a beautiful historic three masts and sailing yacht that he had bought UM that was in sort of in the shambles. It was in bad shape. It had been owned by Stavus Niakos, and that I had been used by UM the Dutch government and Star the Danish government as a training ship for

for sailors, young sailors. And so they would go to Paulo mad Majorca, or to Las Bazzio, to Breman and you know, be there while the work was being done on the creole Um. They went to St. Mare. It's a skied. He would pick her up in his ferrati and get pulled over during two hundred kilometers an hour, and it was very much the kind of lifestyles of the rich and famous. Well, yeah, I do wander too. Like when you first sat down with her, like, what

was the first question you asked her? Well, she just told me. She just started talking, she said, Sarah, I can't stop dreaming about Marizio. She said, the movie Coming Back just made her kind of go back to all all so many you know, interactions that they've had. You've seen the movie, I have, I have, and um, tell us your thoughts on it. Oh, it's it's fantastic. It's it's a big family drama, but it's also got some satire and some farce in it, so it's not a

dark movie at all. Um. Many of the characters are larger than life, especially Maudita's uncle and his cousin and um it's Mado is the one who who changes the most during the course of the movie, and you can actually see him evolve from this very shy, kind of insecure, um young man who falls in love with Patrizia to then coming into his own you know, controlling his fighting with his relatives and kind of taking taking over sort of what he thinks Gucci needs to be Does it

feel like the story that twenty years ago you wrote It does? Oh, it's very much the arc of the story. And they actually even go, um, you know, pretty deeply into into the business foundation, which I was ap eyes. Um, but I do see it as intrinsic to the story. So you do get to see Namir Kardar, who was the head of the invest Corps, Madricia's financial partner. You do get to see Dominico de Sole, who became the

CEO of Gucci after Madzio. You get to see the first blockbuster fashion show, Um, that was staged by Tom Ford, that that put Gucci on the fashion map. They recreate this amazing show with an Amber Valletta and a big white, bright spotlight. UM. Yeah, it's sensational. Hey, I'm I'm want to end and just talk a little more about Sherry and what she's doing now, because you did describe the relationship that she had with Mauricio sort of lifestyles of

the rich and famous years ago. What's she doing now? What's her life like now? Yes, so Sherry kind of left that whole fashion, glamor luxury world and she is living in Connecticut. Um, she you know, as many people struggled through through COVID. She lost her job and she's got a job now with a geese management company that uses border colleagues to clear property of geese, which will

become a big annoyance up there. Um. And she actually loves this job because she's very much an outdoor person, you know, as as I say in the in the article, she was an expert skier and sailor. She loves the outdoors, she loves working with the dogs, and so she's in a very living, in very different life than the one she lived with Modi too. Final thought, wrote the book years ago, movies out and you've got to get to

a voice that hadn't been heard from before. Final thoughts for our listeners, Well, I think it's it's it's one of these compelling stories that really withstands the test of time. And these are kind of eternal themes. So even though a lot of the events happened in you know, the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, Um, I think the story is still fresh, fresh today, and I think I think it's gonna appeal to a lot of people. Go the book. You've been listening to Bloomberg

Business Week Extra. That was Sarah Ford, an author of the House of Gucci, a sensational story of murder, madness, glamor, and greed. She's team leader for Corporate Influence in Washington for Bloomberg New She joined us along with Bloomberg Pursuits editor Chris Rouser. Be sure to listen to our Bloomberg Business Week Daily radio program. It airs live Monday through Friday at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. Watch US two on our daily broadcast on YouTube. Just

search Bloomberg Global News. You can also see me on Bloomberg Quicktake, available on Bloomberg dot com, slash qt, and streaming platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV, and more. I'm Tim Stenebeck. Catch more of our interviews just check out our podcast feed. I'm Carol Masser. This is Bloomberg