Stavros Niarchos, the Greek shipping heir, and Dasha Zhukova ex-wife of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, announced the birth of their first baby boy.
His name is Philip Stavros Niarchos.
This is the third child for the 39-year-old art collector, who shares two children from her previous marriage to Roman Abramovich, and the first for Niarchos, 35.
Stavros Niarchos, born in 1985, is the grandson of the billionaire Greek shipping tycoon of the same name. He is the son of art collector Philippos Niarchos.
Zhukova, the founder of Garage Magazine, has been keeping the details of her pregnancy off social media, having last posted in November before the news broke.
The couple quietly tied the knot in Paris in October 2019 in and then held a larger celebration in January 2020 with 300 guests, including Kate Hudson, Karlie Kloss and Orlando Bloom, in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Zhukova and Abramovich, Chelsea FC owner, amicably split in 2017, after 10 years together. Meanwhile, Niarchos previously dated Jessica Hart and Mary-Kate Olsen.
Niarchos shipping empire
The newborn was named after his billionaire great-grandfather who starting in 1952, he had the world’s biggest supertankers built for his fleet.
Niarchos was a naval officer in World War II, during which time part of the trade fleet he had developed with his uncle was destroyed.
He used about two million dollars in insurance settlement to build a new fleet. His most famous asset was the yacht Atlantis, currently known as Issham al Baher after having been gifted to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
He then founded Niarchos Ltd., an international shipping company that at one time operated more than 80 tankers worldwide. He and Aristotle Onassis were great shipping rivals.
In 1952, high-capacity oil supertankers were built for the competing Niarchos and Onassis fleets, who both claimed to own the largest tanker in the world.
In 1955, Vickers Armstrongs Shipbuilders Ltd launched the 30,708 GRT SS Spyros Niarchos. Then the world’s largest supertanker, it was named after Niarchos’ second son, Spyros, born earlier that year.
In 1956, the Suez Canal Crisis considerably increased the demand for the type of large-tonnage ships that Niarchos owned. Business flourished and he became a billionaire.
After his death in 1996, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation has become a leader of philanthropic donations in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and medicine, and social welfare.
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