Aliki Diplarakou: The Greek Beauty Who Became Miss Europe

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“My mother, a few friends and I were having tea at the British Embassy in Athens when someone jokingly suggested we go and watch the beauty contest being held at a theater in the city. Suddenly they announced my name and called me up to the stage. I thought they were making fun of me… When I tried to decline, President Alexandros Zaimis told me I must accept it as my patriotic duty. Three days later, I was in Paris…”

That is how Lady Russell remembered her crowning as Miss Hellas, and soon afterward as Miss Europe.
In 1929, 17-year-old Aliki Diplarakou, a striking Athenian whose family hailed from the Mani, entered the contest against her parents’ wishes. All 15 judges, among them the painter Konstantinos Parthenis, voted for her. On February 6, 1930, she was crowned Miss Europe in Paris.

Journalist and historical researcher Giannis Kairofyllas wrote that her triumph “broke the ice between the bourgeoisie and the institution of beauty.” Because she came from “a very good family,” many young women from respectable middle-class families rushed to compete in the years that followed.

Her victory made her famous overnight. Images of her beauty traveled around the world, and back home she was welcomed as a national heroine.

Diplarakou tried her hand at the theater and toured the United States, lecturing on ancient and modern Greek culture. She spoke fluent English, French and Italian. Legend has it that in the 1930s she slipped onto Mount Athos disguised as a sailor, defying the centuries-old ban on women entering the monastic community.

She married twice. Her first husband, Paul-Louis Weiller, was a French aviator and head of the Gnome et Rhône engineering group. Their son, Paul-Annick, became the father of Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg. In 1945 she wed Sir John Wriothesley Russell, a British diplomat who served as ambassador to Ethiopia, Brazil and Spain, gaining the title of Lady.

In the 1980s, she returned to the Greek spotlight with a memorable interview with journalist Freddy Germanos. Aliki Diplarakou, Lady Russell, died on October 30, 2002.