Former 'First Lady of Greece' and writer, Amalia Megapanou, passed away aged 91.
Amalia Megapanou was the wife of late Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis (1907-1998).
She was born in Athens in 1929 and was the niece of Greek author Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, who served as the last Prime Minister prior to the coup d'état of 21 April 1967.
In 1951, she married Konstantinos Karamanlis and followed him into self-imposed Paris in the 1960s.
Their relationship ended in divorce in 1972 on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.
Megapanou wrote more than a dozen books under the name of her second husband, prominent obstetrician Epameinondas Megapanos.
Commemorating her contribution to the letters in a statement on Tuesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that Megapanou’s books had taught him “the balance between the public and private, how a personality can be a star while also staying in the background.”
“I bid her a heartfelt farewell as, I am sure, all Greeks do,” Mitsotakis said, calling the writer a “worthy Greek.”
Η Αμαλία Μεγαπάνου διέτρεξε με ευθύνη και σεμνότητα τη ζωή της, μιλώντας λίγο και πράττοντας πολλά. Αισθάνομαι τυχερός που την γνώρισα από μικρός. Διαβάζοντας, αργότερα, τα βιβλία της, ταξίδεψα στη γνώση & στην ευαισθησία της. Την αποχαιρετώ με συγκίνηση. https://t.co/2NjJs9iIxZ
— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) June 2, 2020