Nicole Moschella
Antonio D’Amico certainly won’t be tuning in to the upcoming season “American Crime Story.”
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The former lover of slain fashion designer Gianni Versace weighed in on the upcoming Ryan Murphy project and shared his opinion of singer Ricky Martin’s portrayal of him. In production shots from the set, Martin can be seen cradling Edgar Ramirez, who plays Versace and crying out to the sky in the dramatic reenactment.
Versace and D’Amico were together for 15 years before Versace was killed on the steps of his Miami Beach home in 1997, and D’Amico has a different take on how the events actually transpired.
“The picture of Ricky Martin holding the body in his arms is ridiculous,” D’Amico told The Observer in an interview. “Maybe it’s the director’s poetic license, but that is not how I reacted.”
D’Amico was reportedly not consulted on the making of the follow-up to Murphy’s fictional crime series, “The People vs. O.J. Simpson.”
According to D’Amico, he was sitting on the porch of their home when Versace left to get the paper. That’s when D’Amico heard the gunshots.
“I felt as if my blood had turned to ice,” he recalled. After hearing the gunshots, D’Amico and the family butler found the fashion icon laying a pool of blood on the steps of the mansion.
“The house had stained glass windows so we couldn’t see what had happened from inside, so we had to open the gate,” he said. “I saw Gianni lying on the steps, with blood around him. At that point, everything went dark. I was pulled away, I didn’t see any more.”
Seeing his lover dead left D’Amico in a depression for several years.
“I had never been through a depression and never saw a therapist as I was advised to; why did I need to tell someone else what had happened when I knew I was this way because Gianni’s death had torn me in two?” he said. “I was in a nightmare, I felt nothing and gave no importance to anything […] the house, the money […] because it felt false to have expectations of life.”
Versace left D’Amico with $30,000 a month for the remainder of his life in his will, but D’Amico feuded with the designer’s family and ended up with only a portion of what was promised to him.
He said he has no plans to watch “American Crime Story” in the future.
