TAKI: THE LAST ROGUE OF THE RIVIERA

Gianni Agnelli and the Golden Years

One of the most important figures in Taki's early life was Gianni Agnelli, the legendary Fiat industrialist whose wealth, style and appetite for excitement made him an unofficial monarch of the Riviera.

Taki recalled being introduced to Agnelli in 1957 aboard the magnificent yacht Creole, owned by Greek shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos. Agnelli took the young Greek under his wing, introducing him to a glittering collection of international personalities.

Among the memorable episodes Taki later recounted was a helicopter journey with Aristotle Onassis to Agnelli's Villa Leopolda. Rather than land conventionally, Taki and Agnelli supposedly jumped from the helicopter into the swimming pool. Onassis, according to Taki, was baffled by their choice of arrival.

Learning from Porfirio Rubirosa

Another of Taki's companions was Porfirio Rubirosa, the Dominican diplomat, racing driver, polo player and internationally celebrated ladies' man.

Rubirosa represented an older school of playboy. He could drive a racing car, handle a polo pony, box, sail and hold court at the most fashionable dinner tables in Europe.

Taki later described staying at Rubirosa's house outside Paris, where their mornings might begin with boxing practice before moving to the Bagatelle polo club. Lunch at the Relais Plaza and an evening of Parisian nightlife often followed.

For a young man with money, good connections and boundless energy, it was an education unlike anything offered at a university.

A Playboy Who Could Actually Fight

Unlike some society figures who merely posed beside sports cars or yachts, Taki was a serious sporting enthusiast.

He played competitive tennis, appearing at the 1961 French Championships, and represented Greece at the 1962 Nordic World Ski Championships. He also pursued polo, boxing and karate, eventually earning a black belt.

His friend, the famously hard-drinking British journalist Jeffrey Bernard, once attended a European karate competition in Manchester to watch him fight. Bernard later remembered seeing another competitor crawling around the mat searching for teeth that had been kicked out.

It was a rougher sporting world than the champagne receptions and polished tennis clubs that usually appeared in society photographs.

A Pie in the Aga Khan's Face

Perhaps no episode better captures the outrageous side of Taki's personality than his famous story about the Aga Khan.

During an interview with The Washington Post, Taki explained that he had once been expelled from the exclusive Eagle Club in Gstaad after throwing a pie in the Aga Khan's face.

The punch line was that he subsequently became the only man to have been elected to the club twice. Whether every detail survives independent scrutiny or not, it is precisely the kind of tale that helped make Taki a legend among Europe's privileged troublemakers.

The Women, the Nightclubs and the Jockeys

Taki's romantic adventures were practically a career unto themselves. Over the decades, society columns associated him with glamorous women, while his own writing celebrated a lifestyle that seldom involved an early bedtime.

He moved easily between Parisian nightclubs, the fashionable tables of El Morocco in New York and the exclusive London clubs where fortunes could be won or lost over cards and dice.

Horse racing even supplied one of his more outrageous stories.

In a 1992 interview, Taki recalled attending the bachelor party of British racing correspondent Charles Benson in the late 1970s. By his own account, he had arranged for ten prostitutes to arrive as part of the festivities.

His recollection was that most guests displayed little interest in the surprise visitors, with the notable exception of several jockeys. Like many Taki stories, it was told with an unmistakable mixture of mischief, bravado and an eye for an irresistible punch line.

High Life Meets Low Life

During the 1970s, Taki turned his extraordinary social experiences into a writing career. He had also ventured into more dangerous territory as a journalist, reporting from Vietnam earlier in his career.

In 1977 he began his famous High Life column for Britain's The Spectator. Jeffrey Bernard, meanwhile, became associated with the publication's Low Life column.

The contrast could hardly have been more entertaining. Taki chronicled palaces, private clubs, yachts and European aristocrats. Bernard preferred Soho pubs, racetracks, bookmakers and assorted London eccentrics.

The two nevertheless shared a taste for drinking, gambling, colorful characters and good stories. Their friendship illustrated how easily the upper crust and the underworld of nightlife could overlap.

The Night the Party Finally Stopped

For years, Taki seemed capable of getting away with almost anything. Then came Heathrow Airport.

In 1984, British authorities arrested him after discovering approximately 20 grams of cocaine in his possession. The glamorous shipping heir eventually served three months at London's notorious Pentonville Prison.

Gone were the private dining rooms, luxury hotels and perfectly tailored suits. In their place came an overcrowded prison environment, institutional routines and the unsettling company of men whose experiences were very different from his own.

Taki later wrote candidly about the humiliation, discomfort and unexpected friendships of incarceration. He worked as a gym orderly and told fellow prisoners that he had been a waiter at a Greek restaurant.

The experience eventually became the subject of his 1991 memoir, Nothing to Declare. His prison sentence had ended, but the literary mileage was just beginning.

The Yacht Named Bushido

Taki never entirely abandoned the pleasures of the Mediterranean.

Over the years he owned several yachts bearing the name Bushido, reflecting his fascination with martial arts and the traditional Japanese warrior code.

His later vessel, measuring approximately 37.5 meters, represented the elegant, understated style of yachting he associated with the 1950s and 1960s.

He frequently complained that modern superyachts had become floating monuments to excess, lacking the character and proportion of the vessels that once carried Agnelli, Niarchos and their friends along the Riviera.

Controversy Beyond the Champagne

Not every chapter in Taki's long public life fits neatly into an amusing playboy adventure.

His journalism drew considerable criticism over the years for provocative and inflammatory commentary, particularly concerning race and politics.

More seriously, in October 2023, a Swiss court found him guilty of attempted rape in connection with an incident dating to 2009 at his chalet in Gstaad. He received a 12-month suspended sentence.

Taki denied the accusation and maintained his innocence. His lawyers announced an appeal, and subsequent reporting in 2025 indicated that the conviction was being challenged. The case is a serious part of his public record, distinct from the practical jokes and social escapades for which he became famous.

A Lifetime of Stories

Taki's writing career extended well beyond The Spectator. He co-founded The American Conservative, established the online publication Taki's Magazine, and produced decades of columns describing the powerful, the eccentric and the extravagantly wealthy.

In 2025, he revisited his extraordinary past in another memoir, The Last Alpha Male: The Amorous Pursuits and High Life of a Poor Little Greek Boy.

His stories now stretch across generations, connecting the old European aristocracy with an international social scene that has been transformed almost beyond recognition.