Adorable Story #24: the Chronicle of Enrico di Portanova (Part 2)

How Texas oil turned a young man into a legendary bon-vivant

This is the second part of the Adorable Story #24: the first part can be found here.

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Ricky with his third wife, Alessandra di Portanova

Back in Monte Carlo

In August 1966, Ricky and Ljuba broke up: according to court transcripts, Ricky returned from New York to Monaco and found Ljuba in bed with another man in their Monte Carlo residence.

Banished from Enrico’s life, Ljuba left Monte Carlo to go to Rome in order to collect her things from her husband’s apartment in the Italian capital.

To get to Rome she hitched a ride on the 165-foot Malahne yacht (photo below), owned by Hollywood producer Sam Spiegel, who was headed from Monte Carlo to Capri with Kirk Douglas and others aboard.

The 165-foot Malahne, which was built in 1937 by Camper & Nicholsons. It was acquired by movie producer Sam Spiegel in 1960. He used her as, among other things, a floating production office during filming of Lawrence of Arabia, and he welcomed guests including Kirk Douglas, Jack Nicholson and Greta Garbo aboard.

Still hoping to work things out, Ljuba called Ricky from the Malahne so that Kirk and Sam could convince their friend to take her back.

“Kirk,” Ricky replied, “you stay out of it. I don’t think we can be together anymore.”

By 1972, Ricky and Ljuba had divorced.

Alessandra, Baroness di Portanova

In 1973, Ricky married in London a beautiful Texan woman, Sandy Hovas, who shortly thereafter changed her name first into Sandra Hovas and then into Baroness Alessandra di Portanova.

The New York Times reported that in order to impress his new wife, Ricky offered 13m USD for a share in the famous “21” Club in New York City, which he intended as a birthday present for her. The deal was called off at the last minute, when it came out that the Baroness planned to open a boutique on the second floor, right above the dining room.

Baron Ricky and Baroness Alessandra di Portanova, 1984 — © Photo by Helmut Newton

While the lawsuit against the Cullen Sisters was ongoing, the original 5000 USD a month that he was receiving in the late 50s, had gradually increased to 64000 USD a month by the late 60s (500k USD in today’s money), and had reached the staggering amount of 1.2m USD a month by 1980 (4.5m USD in today’s money).

Lavish lifestyle

“They spent money like eau de toilette.”