Jeff Koons wishes he’d never fallen in love, said Andrew Anthony in the London Observer. In the late 1980s, the pop artist and sculptor became obsessed with Italian porn star Ilona Staller, after spotting her picture in an adult magazine. “I was moved by the fantasy of the photographs,” he explains. “They were like a fairy tale.” Koons invited Staller to the U.S. to model, and the couple fell in love. “Ilona was very comfortable with her body, so that was very liberating for me.”
They married in 1991, and a year later their son, Ludwig, was born. But the relationship soured, Koons filed for divorce in 1992, and Staller fled to Rome with Ludwig. “After months of trying, I was eventually able to see my son, but only for an hour and a half under armed guard.” Today, Koons has little contact with Ludwig. “My son was turned against me.”
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