The murder of Mario Oliver Jutard, 71, after suffering a robbery at his mansion in Samaná (Dominican Republic) on November 2, has made prominent headlines in the European press. The French businessman, whose body appeared gagged, with blows to the head and signs of strangulation, rose to fame in the eighties for his media romance with the princess Stephanie of Monacoa relationship that, at its maximum effervescence, placed Tenerife in the informative epicenter of coated paper, very aware of the adventures of the youngest daughter of Rainier and Grace of Monaco, a gold mine for its tendency to break the script of what is politically correct.
Barely 15 days after the magazine Interviú published that the couple had married in the Mauritius Islands, an extreme that would be denied by the princess’s manager, Ivez Roze, both landed in Tenerife in the first week of February 1987, months after they They began their relationship after meeting at a nightclub that Oliver ran in Los Angeles, a city in which he was a business benchmark for nightlife.
About to turn 22, 15 years younger than Mario Oliver, Estefanía was then standing out in the world of music and accepted the invitation from businessman Jean Marie Goeders (backed by a group of promoters and hoteliers interested in promoting Playa de Las Américas, including its founder, Santiago Puig) to record the video clip of his next musical release on the Island, a song entitled Live your life.
A score of televisions, radios and newspapers welcomed them at the airport, where she smiled her first when she received a bouquet of sterlitzias from the CIT del Sur. They stayed for eight days in a luxurious 500-square-meter penthouse in the Rebeca urbanization, in Playa de Las Américas, and frequented the restaurant of the Las Águilas del Teide complex, owned by Goeders, staffed by staff from France for the occasion.
Outside, Civil Guard agents reinforced the private security in charge of protecting the privacy of the couple, who entered and left their attic through the garage, from the paparazzi. The start of the filming of the video clip, scheduled for the Vulcano hotel 24 hours after arriving on the island, had to be postponed because the sun did not shine that day, so the princess limited herself to rehearsing in the gardens of the Goeders chalet . She later enjoyed her first night of drinks with her partner and companions at the La Gaviota pub.
The recording began the next day in the surroundings of the Águilas del Teide, where he appeared in front of the cameras driving an SUV under a splendid sun. Filming continued at the Vulcano hotel, where she was awaited by a crowd of fans and onlookers who greeted her with applause. Estefanía, wearing shorts and a blouse, rested between takes, in room number 170.
At the end of the performance, he showed his sense of humor by spraying the beard of one of the members of the audiovisual production company with a red spray. Mario, on the other hand, arrived late and was seen during the recording next to the stage, without interacting with anyone, as if he wanted to go unnoticed.
The following sequences of the video clip included the participation of a representation of the Chicharrero Carnival, with the comparsas Los Tamanacos and Danzarines Canarios, the musical group Los Gavilanes and even the Charlot de Tenerife, Pedro Gómez Cuenca. Filming was completed on Mount Teide, although the film crew, made up of around thirty people, could not carry out their work where they intended, the Ucanca Valley, as vehicles were prohibited from entering this protected area.
“This place is impressive,” exclaimed Estefanía, who was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a blue jacket, but the change of scenery to another point in the park (last-minute efforts to warn that the video clip would be seen “all over the world”), together with the increasingly narrow siege of the paparazzi, did not sit well with the singing princess, who, according to the journalistic chronicles of the time, was seen crying at the foot of Mount Teide. Her anger led him to threaten to return the golden key delivered the day before by the businessmen from the South.
Mario Oliver was late again and presented himself, again, with a certain air of indifference, accompanied by the photographer Philippe Bonaldi. With a reputation as a womanizer, the French businessman had time during the long week of his stay in Tenerife to get angry and reconcile with his partner after starring in some incidents, including a disturbance at the Prismas de Las Verónicas nightclub.
That altercation, which caused a rift with Estefanía, was the cause of her absence, the next day, at her birthday party. The princess blew out the 22 candles at the Costa Brava restaurant, run by Fermín Puig since 1978, the year it opened, where the 70 diners sampled an exquisite menu consisting of a terrine of truffled duck liver, a lobster curry fricassee and the “dish of chocolate lovers. The youngest of the Grimaldi brothers “sucked her fingers”, according to several guests at the dinner.
There was no lack of French Dom Perignon champagne to toast, nor the song of Happy Birthday by the Medicine tuna of the University of La Laguna, chanted by all those present, including the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Jerónimo Saavedra; the president of the Cabildo, José Segura, and the mayor of Arona, Manuel Barrios. The party, to which the Monegasque princess had recommended going without a tie, lasted in the La Tortuga pub until the wee hours of the morning.
In addition to the incident in the nightclub, there was another notorious altercation that found wide echo in the media, when two photojournalists from news agencies were surprised while doing their work from the wall of a chalet next to Goeders’s. Her lenses pointed to the pool, where the couple sunbathed and she practiced topless. Oliver’s photographer friend, in charge of compiling the material to sell the exclusive of the trip, did not take it easy and began to beat up the photojournalists.
Mario Oliver went into action again and snatched the camera from one of them. The incident ended with the mediation of Goeders, who calmed things down and returned the camera to its owner in exchange for the alleged reel of discord. The incident brought to light the tension that reigned between the informants and the entourage that Estefanía and her lover surrounded themselves with since they landed on the Island.
The waters returned to their channel in the last days of stay in the South. The reconciliation between the eccentric businessman and the princess was corroborated by her in an exclusive interview with DIARIO DE AVISOS in which she confessed to Javier Zerolo that “with Mario everything is perfect, we are happy together and I hope we stay that way for a long time.” weather; we both love each other”. After showing his desire to get married and have children, “although it is not the time”, he also took the opportunity to express his gratitude for the treatment received in Tenerife: “I have had a great time and I thank the people of this island for having made the making of this video possible. Some inconveniences arose, but problems should always be forgotten. People are beautiful in Tenerife and I plan to return, I don’t know when, but I will surely return”.
Some media published that the visit cost 35 million pesetas, but its promoters denied it and assured that the only expenses were those caused by their stay, “less than 10 million”, plus the five of the shooting of the video clip . No one questioned the external projection of the visit.
