Lady Monika Bacardi, her life after Luis
Monika Bacardi
As well as being the sixth wife of the heir to the great Cuban rum dynasty, Lady Monika Bacardi is an influential producer in the film industry.
Whether it’s the Monegasque Red Cross Gala, the Princess Charlene Foundation Christmas Ball, or a preview of the latest James Bond film at the Casino de Monte-Carlo… Lady Monika Bacardi is regularly photographed at key events in the Principality. An influential figure in Monaco, where she has made her home for over twenty years now, the fifty-something was able to shine on her own after the death of her husband, the wealthy heir Luis Adalbert Facundo Gomez del Campo Bacardi, descendant of the Bacardi rum fortune.
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Preview of the latest James Bond film “No Time To Die” at the Casino de Monaco, 29 September 2021 – © Lady Monika Bacardi via Facebook
After acquiring Photo magazine and the French licence for Playboy, Lady Monika Bacardi entered the film business in 2013, first as co-founder of distribution company Ambi Media Group, then as co-founder and president of international production company Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment (ILBE). As Forbes France reported in 2021, “the company is expanding rapidly and, in August 2019, found itself listed on the Italian Stock Exchange at a value of €1.95 per share. Today, the share is worth €3.9, having almost doubled in value, and revenues exceeded €120 million in 2020.”
In the Italian version of the magazine, the businesswoman said: “I’ve always had a passion for cinema, and even now when I have a couple of hours free, I often go and see a film. I was fascinated by the glory days of Italian cinema, the ‘Dolce Vita’. My intention was to try and breathe new life into this unforgettable, but perhaps unique, period.” Having studied art and literature, the Monegasque resident of Italian and Austrian origin, who was brought up in Merano in the South Tyrol region, has also, in the course of her career punctuated by travel, perfected her foreign language skills and is fluent in French, German, English and Spanish as well as Italian.
Prestigious collaborations
Lady Monika Bacardi has made a name for herself in what is still a very male-dominated sector, and is known today for having produced films starring renowned actors and actresses such as James Franco’s In Dubious Battle, with James Franco and Selena Gomez, Andrea Bocelli’s The Music of Silence, with Antonio Banderas, Waiting for the Barbarians, an action film directed by Ciro Guerra with Johnny Depp, Black Butterfly, a thriller directed by Brian Goodman with Antonio Banderas, Le Merveilleux de Jardin, with Antonio Banderas, Waiting for the Barbarians, an action film directed by Ciro Guerra with Johnny Depp, Black Butterfly, a thriller directed by Brian Goodman with Antonio Banderas, This Beautiful Fantastic, a contemporary tale with Tom Wilkinson, Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad by Aaron Woodley, an animated family film with the voices of Jeremy Renner, Alec Baldwin and Anjelica Huston, Rupture, a sci-fi thriller with Noomi Rapace, Michael Chiklis and Peter Stormare, Muti, an action thriller with Morgan Freeman, and finally, The Humbling, a comedy-drama starring Al Pacino.
In November 2019, Lady Monika Bacardi came to support actor Antonio Banderas at the opening of the theatre he founded in his home town of Málaga, Spain – © ladymonikabacardi.com and © Lady Monika Bacardi via Facebook
Lady Monika Bacardi’s talent led to her listing on the Euronext Growth Paris market in January 2022 and her inclusion in Forbes Italia’s annual ranking of women who stand out for their ingenuity, tenacity and know-how. The producer is a frequent guest at major film festivals such as the Mostra in Venice and the Oscars in Los Angeles.
Committed to women’s issues…
Lady Monika Bacardi quickly realised that the cinema would enable her to convey her messages, particularly those in favour of the environment and gender equality. She recently joined We Do It Together, a non-profit production company that fights for the fair representation of women in film and the media. “At the moment, I think it’s essential to deliver messages of hope. I’m convinced that cinema can have a positive impact on society, and that’s why I’m so passionate about this art form”, she told Marie-Claire magazine.
One example is Tell It Like a Woman, a film released in 2021 and presented by her company, featuring several stories of courageous and determined women and involving internationally renowned directors and actresses such as Eva Longoria, Margherita Buy, Cara Delevingne, Jennifer Hudson and Maria Sole Tognazzi. “ILBE wants to become more and more an international showcase for cinema that is attentive to social issues, inclusion and Made in Italy,” she told Il Sole 24 Ore.
Indeed, Lady Monika Bacardi has never forgotten her native land; on the contrary, she has made it her mission to be the link between Italy and Hollywood. “Made in Italy plays an important role in ILBE productions. Proof of this is Dakota, a film released in cinemas in April. The shoot involved international artists and was partly shot in Puglia: among the magnificent landscapes of the Mercadante forest in the province of Bari. In addition, a number of productions were dedicated to Italian icons, such as the film dedicated to Andrea Boccelli The Music of Silence, starring Antonio Banderas, the biopic on the history of Lamborghini and the film on the history of Roberto Cavalli”, read the columns of the Italian daily.
…and to Monaco
While the billionaire lives a life of opulence in the Principality, she remains involved in a number of social causes and works hard to raise funds through her vast network. “I’m involved in projects to support poor children in underdeveloped countries and, above all, to support their education. (…) I’m also involved in the fight against cancer and degenerative diseases, and against climate change”. In an interview with Monaco-Matin published on November 4, 2019, Luis Bacardi’s widow revealed that she was “very close to the Prince Albert II Foundation, which does excellent work”. In fact, she is a member of the foundation, which works to protect the oceans, and is a regular guest at its events.
Lady Monika Bacardi and her daughter Maria-Luisa – © Lady Monika Bacardi via Facebook.
Also in the Principality, Lady Monika Bacardi has been a patron of the Centre Scientifique de Monaco for several years, joining its board of directors in 2021. The philanthropist has also joined the board of the Oceanographic Museum, to raise public awareness of the urgent need to protect the oceans, and is very active with Unicef and the Monegasque Red Cross.
Her life with Luis Bacardi
Luis Bacardi, the great-grandson of the founder of the first “white rum”, was 67 when he fell in love with the pretty blonde, some 30 years his junior. When he left Cuba at the age of 29, the heir had an astronomical fortune at his disposal, and the company sold 200 million bottles of some 200 brands of alcohol every year. Rums of course, but also Grey Goose vodka, Bombay Sapphire gin and Martini and Rossi vermouths.
The couple said “I do” in Gibraltar, in a very intimate wedding, where no members of their families were invited. Lady Monika Bacardi soon gave birth to little Maria-Luisa in London, the 60-year-old’s first child and future heiress.
At the side of the two women in his life in the South of France, Luis Bacardi put an end to his extravagances and numerous faux pas. A drinking enthusiast in the past, according to Paris Match, he interrupted Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, during a World Wildlife Fund dinner speech so that a servant could urgently refill his glass, and even rolled under Prince Rainier III’s table at Monaco’s Red Cross gala.
Although everything seemed to be back to normal, illness was to mar the family’s happiness. Luis was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 70. In order to organise his succession, Luis Bacardi opened the Bastille Trust in 2003, based in Liechtenstein, to which he entrusted his shares, amounting to some 2 billion euros.
This trust, a common Anglo-Saxon legal structure, enables the company to transfer ownership of its assets to one or more trusted third parties: the trustees.
Luis Bacardi nominated three of them, to whom he provided a list of beneficiaries. The list includes his ex-wife and several friends, according to Paris Match. And the most important thing is to protect his daughter.
His daughter is due to receive 50 million euros in accumulated dividends when she comes of age, the same amount when she turns 25, and a final third when she turns 32. But as the girl’s 18th birthday approached, the trustees refused. Over the years, Lady Monika and Maria-Luisa have been excluded from the Trust.
A long legal battle ensued between Lady Monika Bacardi and the famous trustees. A battle that continues to this day. According to Lady Monika Bacardi, quoted in Paris Match, “they have been distorting the will, wishes, directives and instructions of the late Luis since his death.”
However, sources close to the trust have confirmed that Lady Monika Bacardi has been receiving “seven-figure” annuities every year since Luis died in 2005. “For me, it’s not a question of money, but of justice. I have enough to live on and ensure the material comfort of ten generations to come,” she says.
At the same time, Lady Monika Bacardi, in an article for Forbes.it, attests that “Bacardi LTD is the only multinational in the world in which the majority of shareholders are represented by trusts whose trustees vote against the indications and ‘desires’ of the beneficiaries of these trusts, to unconditionally support the current governance, headed by Chairman Mr. Facundo L. Bacardi”.
The case has spread beyond Monaco’s borders, as Lady Monika Bacardi and her lawyer have filed a complaint with the Principality of Liechtenstein. Their aim: to have all assets “illegally and illegitimately held and managed by the Trust” transferred, according to Forbes.it, and to obtain damages from the trustees involved.
But no sooner had the first trustees been dismissed than three others replaced them. For Lady Monika Bacardi, this change remains bitter to say the least: “We are clearly confronted with a criminal organization, acting in a concerted manner,” she asserts in Paris Match. “I don’t want to name names, but there are a lot of people in the company who seem to want us out of the way. On June 18, the trustees again voted in favour of the group’s governance. Neither I nor my daughter had given these instructions.” The widow’s lawyer, Bruno Capone, denounces attempts at intimidation by members of the Trust.
Among the new trustees is a lawyer close to the late Luis Bacardi: Bernhard Lorenz. In the columns of Paris Match, he refutes these attacks: “The accusations being spread are false and absolutely crazy. They are part of an absurd conspiracy theory. All our decisions are 100% faithful to the wishes of the deceased. We are acting solely in the interests of his heir, Maria-Luisa, and we are the only ones involved in this sad affair.”
The Bacardi family, too, reacted in the magazine, deploring all these conflicts and pointing the finger at Lady Bacardi. A cousin was quoted as saying: “We’re used to Monikas and Monikos, we’ve been through so many of these patches over the last hundred and fifty-eight years. The only thing that concerns us is the future and success of our family business. We’ve each learned to protect our heirs, and Luisito seems to have understood this too. He has done well.”
In 2020, Lady Monika Bacardi was definitively removed from the Board of Directors, by decision of a Liechtenstein court. Mother and daughter then extended the complaint previously lodged to three law firms, which they accused of supporting the actions of the “criminal association.”
Since then, Maria-Luisa and Lady Monika Bacardi have not given up their fight. On May 5, 2022, Bacardi Ltd was summoned to appear in court in Monaco, one month before the Annual General Meeting held on the following June 16. Lady Monika Bacardi issued a statement denouncing the “patent and unresolved” conflict of interest between Facundo Bacardi, the company’s CEO, and the Bastille Trust.
And beyond all this business, Lady Monika Bacardi continues her life in Monaco. The multilingual resident, considered by some to be one of the film industry’s most inspiring female entrepreneurs, continues to devote herself to her 7th art company. A producer of films committed to the feminist cause, and highly committed to her charitable work, she has even been named one of Italy’s 100 most influential women of 2021, according to Grazia.
Camille Esteve contributed to this article