‘Prince of Amauri’, João Paulo Diniz dedicated himself to sports and companies

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More than 20 years have passed and a scene remains in the memory of fashion journalist Alexandra Farah: businessman João Paulo Diniz sitting next to a dozen men, “all well dressed and with the face of powerful”, at the table of one of his (many) businesses, the Ecco restaurant, on Rua Amauri, located in Jardim Europa, a wealthy neighborhood in the city of São Paulo.

Heir to the Pão de Açúcar group, handsome, sportsman, flirt, owner of almost everything that worked in the approximately 400 meters of that road… Why not call him “The Prince of Amauri”? The nickname stuck and, when putting together all this information, Alexandra’s journalistic radar beeped: look at a great character for Chic, Glorinha Kalil’s website for which she was the content director.

Thus, in 2001, the “Diário do Príncipe” appeared, a virtual catwalk for Diniz to parade his everyday elegance in photos taken daily by a paparazzo, at a time when the “looks of the day” still did not dream of existing.

“It was very successful”, recalls the journalist, highlighting the power of attraction that João Paulo (“Our John Kennedy”) exerted on his readers not only for the aesthetic part, so to speak, but also for what he had been doing for the region, for the city. .

“He had the street tiled”, cheers Alexandra, finding a poetic way of telling that, inspired by what he had seen in New York, the businessman built a small square on the land where there used to be a house. On Amauri Street, where else? Fine thing, designed by architect Isay Weinfeld, with trees, tables and a cafe with proceeds donated to charity.

“He’s a Virgo like me, very detail-oriented. And a guy who always liked to help”, says Luciano Huck, a longtime friend (and Diniz’s former partner at Ecco). Huck gets emotional when talking, by video, about the death of João Paulo, this Sunday (31), at the age of 58. “It was very unscripted,” he says.

The businessman had a congenital disease: apical cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart muscle musculature), a condition that increased the risk of serious arrhythmias and sudden death. He had known about this condition since he was 28 years old and, at the time, sought help from experts in the United States and Germany. The disease regressed, but even so, there is still in the air, even among his closest friends, the feeling that maybe he has exceeded himself and the heart, literally, couldn’t take it.

“No, not at all,” says Marcos Paulo Reis, former coach of the Brazilian triathlon team and coach of João Paulo, perhaps the greatest patron of the sport in the country. “The guy was super good, he took care of this problem and had been cleared to do what he did”, he assures.

Reis helped him in his physical preparation and had access to the results of the cardiopulmonary test that he did about three weeks ago. “It was great. Selling health, big guy”, he says. “You can’t take what happened as normal,” he says.

Gero Fasano is not satisfied either. “Why is life like this? It’s hard to understand”, says the restaurateur, another former partner of João Paulo, whom he classified as “the most affectionate person” he has ever met.

It was from him that Gero received an electric treadmill as a gift, the materialization of his concern with his friend’s physical shape, then overweight and with unhealthy habits. “He really wanted the best for people. He was a wonderful, fucking handsome guy, wasn’t he?”

Oops. Gisele Bündchen, Luana Piovani and Daniella Cicarelli say so. Diniz dated the three of them, gave Naomi Campbell a few bites, did it and it happened.

Discreet, he ended up with Gisele Bündchen when he was photographed beside her at the beach house in Paraty where he would die, this past Sunday. He did not like the involvement in the news and decided to end his relationship with the model, then 17 years old.

With Cicarelli, he invited her to dinner at one of his restaurants and announced that he thought it was better for everyone to go their own way, it was good while it lasted, it will be better this way, etc.

When he was single, his appearance on the nightlife in São Paulo caused commotion in the people.

In parallel with his busy social life, João continued to do what he liked: playing sports and managing companies, which, according to another businessman and almost third-way candidate João Amoêdo, he did wisely.

“He had a conservative profile in management, which is fundamental for asset management”, he analyzes.

The period of hype and appearances in the social columns was definitively behind in 2011, when he married Ana Garcia, mother of two of his four children, Eduardo and Joana; the other two, Abilio and Rafael, are from his first marriage, with Paula Mott.

Fatherhood only did him good, says his friend Huck. “He played the role of father with all the intensity, it was nice to see. That’s the image that remains for us”.

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