Afdera Franchetti

Afdera Franchetti (born c. 1931) is an Italian baroness, descended from an old Jewish family of Venice which intermarried with the Rothschild family and who eventually converted to Roman Catholicism. She is most famous for being the fourth wife of American actor Henry Fonda.

The Italian Jewish Franchetti family, from the 18th century, was one of the wealthiest families in the Mediterranean. Afdera Franchetti was the daughter of Baron Raimondo Franchetti, a famous explorer who traveled extensively in Ethiopia and charted hitherto unexplored territories (Dancalia) during the 1920s. On his return from an expedition to Ethiopia, his plane exploded over Cairo in 1935. Raimondo's grandmother was Sara Louise de Rothschild (1834-1924). Her brother, the Baron Raimondo Nanuk Franchetti, was a friend of author Ernest Hemingway, who hunted with him in San Gaetano.

Afdera Franchetti was married to Howard Taylor from 1954 to 1957. They met in Italy on a vacation. Afdera Franchetti was married to Henry Fonda from 1957 to 1961; they were introduced to each other by Audrey Hepburn in Italy while he was filming War and Peace with Audrey and Mel Ferrer. Audrey had been struggling with infertility, and had sought advice from Afdera's sister, Simba. When she became pregnant straightaway, she felt a certain loyalty to the Franchetti Family. She befriended Afdera, which resulted in her meeting with Henry. Afdera was roughly 23 years old when she married Fonda; his eldest child, Jane, was 18 years old.

She was once arrested for drug smuggling, as detailed in her autobiography, for one "joint", which she brought in her luggage for a friend without knowing that possession of this small amount of marijuana was a serious offence. The "friend" had a parcel delivered to her at her hotel with instructions to take it on the plane. The parcel was delivered to her hotel along with a record by an up and coming group called the Rolling Stones. The deliverer of said parcel was by an unknown at the time, Mick Jagger. She currently resides in South Kensington, London with her dog Marley.

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