I followed up one of David Milliband’s recommended links from his blog after noticing that he is an admirer of writer Arianna Huffington’s blog. I met her once when she was Arianna Stassinopoulos, she must have been with her true love Bernard Levin then. They had a truly deep love affair which sadly did not work out.
I was a fresh faced cub reporter on the Wisbech Advertiser and Arianna had already distinguished herself as Presient of the Cambridge Union Society and had been invited to present prizes at Wisbech Grammar School. I had to secure an interview with this bright, rising star, only time ran out and the school’s Chair of Governors, a distinguished solicitor in the town, suggested I ride in the back of his two-seater sports car and chat to her then on their way to the railway station, a 30 minute drive.
How I managed to write shorthand in a squashed up horizontal position across his back window ledge I shall never know – but where there’s a will there’s a way. I do remember her lovely smile and large Greek eyes and lustrous hair; incidentally, I am half-Greek too.
She went on to marry Michael Huffington, a Texan oil millionaire – who she is now divorced from, and many years later I am still writing about her – on my blog.
Cool – Arianne’s blog is actually at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ slightly raunchy with the 1500 naked people on its cover.
Did you read this in the wikipedia discussion:-
I read somewhere that before her marriage she had a long-term relationship with Bernard Levin. Is this true? — Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:27, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Answering my own question, and citing sources for my last edit: Numerous sources put the year of her wedding to Mike Huffington as 1986 (SF Chronicle). In her article on Levin in The Sunday Times (August 15 2004, section 5, page 1-2) she says she met and began dating Levin in 1971, lived with him for a period (she doesn’t say how long, but I think a number of years), and left him in 1980 to move to the US (partly, she says, because he wouldn’t marry her). In that article she calls Levin “the big love of my life” (2nd col) — Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:32, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Yes, I have seen the Huggington Post blog and will add it to my favourites. I believe Levin was very much the love of her life, that if was a meeting of the minds where true seduction takes place. Ellee
I love the malapropism of Huggington post rather than Huffington post 🙂