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Donatella Versace remembers late brother Gianni during onstage talk

Donatella Versace remembers late brother Gianni during onstage talk
Donatella Versace / © Cover Media

Donatella Versace remembered her late brother Gianni Versace during an onstage Q&A on Monday.

While speaking at the Los Angeles LGBT Center on Monday, the fashion designer recalled her late brother Gianni coming out to her as gay when she was 11 years old.

"And then he asked me to bleach my hair blonde," she joked, reports Variety.

Gianni was fatally shot by Andrew Cunanan outside his Miami Beach mansion in Florida in July 1997. He was 50 years old.

Donatella took control of her brother's namesake luxury brand following his death. She recalled in the discussion that she began to doubt herself when businessmen questioned her expertise when she first took over Versace.

"I got very confused," she admitted, adding that those businessmen now trust her implicitly. "They say, 'Do more, do what you want.'"

Elsewhere in her speech, Donatella remembered her friendship with the late Purple Rain singer Prince.

"Prince was the most generous person I ever met," she said, before praising his fashion choices. "He said, 'I'm short. I need heels...' He was doing it 20 years ago - the jewellery, the hair."

The 67-year-old gave the talk to celebrate the launch of the Versace Foundation and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)'s scholarship program for LGBTQ+ fashion students.

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