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Saturday, 17 March 2007

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Donatella Versace: Rehab helped me like myself

Fashion designer dealt with her demons

After her brother Gianni’s murder in 1997, Donatella Versace stepped in to run his fashion empire – still in shock.

‘It was in July and in October there was a show,’ she recalls. ‘I was sobbing in private, people were looking at me asking, “What shall we do?” I had to keep it hidden from everybody – even my own family. Because everything was falling apart.’

She kept the business going but dealing with her grief, shouldering all the responsibility for the firm and watching sales fall was tough. She took refuge in drink and drugs.

Now, after checking into rehab three years ago, she's quit all her bad habits - except smoking, but she is Italian, after all – and the house of Versace is flourishing.

‘I did it for myself, first,’ Donatella, 51, tells the Observer Magazine. ‘I was clear I wasn’t functioning. I knew I was hurting people. And if I wasn’t functioning, nothing around me was functioning – I was aware of that.

‘I like myself a little bit more now – if you don’t like yourself, you want to hurt yourself.’

Sound like good advice for Britney.