Dec 14, 2005, 15:04 GMT
Milan - Sir Elton John played a key role in helping Donatella Versace kick her longtime cocaine addiction by persuading the Italian fashion queen to attend a rehab clinic in Arizona, Italy's Corriere della Sera reported Wednesday.
File photo: Italian designer Donatella Versace poses for photos after the presentation of her Men's 2006 Fashion Collection, 26 June 2005 in Milan. EPA/UFF. STAMPA
In an interview with the Milan-based daily, Versace said she underwent treatment in the same clinic used recently by Kate Moss, a year before the British supermodel was admitted there.
'She is fine now. She is working hard and I am sure she will be back stronger than before,' Versace said of Moss.
Versace, 50, said she had her good friend Elton John to thank for kicking years of drug addiction following the death of her brother Gianni, who was shot dead outside his Miami Beach mansion on July 15, 1997.
'I had met Elton John about a month before, at a concert in Bari in memory of Gianni.
'I had cried all evening and through my eyes pleaded to him for help. He understood.
'On June 30 (2004) he was in my house in Milan, along with a few friends. I went to the bathroom to powder my nose and they blocked me. They told me there was a plane about to depart for Arizona. I was shocked but I understood the time had come. I slipped into a tracksuit and... alone and with no make up, caught the plane'.
The glamourous blonde fashion designer said Gianni's death, coupled with the responsibilities of running the company he had founded, had proved too much for her.
'Gianni's death made me ill. It was brutal and senseless. I went into a tunnel. I could see that people were looking at me perplexed, asking themselves whether I would be able to run the business on my own. In front of them I was cocksure, I would pretend. Once home, I would collapse.'
Donatella co-runs the Versace clothing company along with her brother Santo. Her glamourous friends include pop icon Madonna.
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