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After the unsuccessful end of the government he headed and his subsequent political moves, the marriage of former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is also waning, read the Greek media. According to the publications, he is no longer living with his wife Ada Papandreou, the reason for this being his relationship with a Dutch woman whom he met by chance on one of the Sporades Islands.

Rumours of problems in the marriage of the former Prime Minister appeared last April when the Greek press published the first materials, according to which he and his wife had decided to get divorced. In response to the articles, the press office of George Papandreou issued a message that categorically refuted the information.

A week ago, however, there was a new publication, claiming again that George and Ada Papandreou are no longer together and have decided to proceed to a divorce by mutual consent. This time, the former Prime Minister’s office issued no denial.

According to today's article by the online edition protothema.gr, Ada Papandreou is now living alone in the family home in the suburb of Kastri whereas George Papandreou has moved to the coastal house near Athens. The publication denies the rumours that his wife has moved into a flat in the posh neighbourhood of Kolonaki and that the already former couple is planning to dissolve their marriage in the courtroom.

According to sources of the edition, the deepening relations between the former Prime Minister and the Dutch lady, who is described as "a middle-aged woman", have strained the relations with his wife. Despite being soft-hearted, Ada Papandreou could not bear another of her husband’s whims, which was far from political at that, and the result was a separation.

The publication states that the problems between the two worsened after his decision to form a new party before the parliamentary elections on 25 January last year. Ada strongly opposed this scenario as she thought that it was doomed to failure and could damage her hopes that their 26-year-old daughter Margarita could continue the political tradition of the Papandreou family. Obviously, he did not listen to her and set up the party that failed to enter parliament. Thus, the expected "big comeback" of George Papandreou in politics became a "big fiasco".

George Papandreou and Ada have been together for 26 years, the former Prime Minister was married before that and has a son from that marriage.

George Papandreou with his first and second wife at the military oath of his son Andreas

The publication states that, according to close associates of the former Prime Minister, neither he nor his wife wants to file for divorce and both have decided to let things take their course. People from his entourage anyway indicate that the occasion, but not the reason, for the breakup is "the small Dutch woman", who actually is not small at all.

Because the history of the Papandreou family is inextricably linked with Greece’s political history of the last 70 years, the Greek media invariably stress that divorces actually are a sort of a family tradition for its members. Of course, this is due to the affinity of the male family members with women, which apparently passes from one generation to another.

This tradition dates back to the grandfather George Papandreou, who bears the same name and is Greece’s former Prime Minister too. He is known as the "old man of democracy" and had a wild relationship with famous theatre actress Kiveli Adrianou. He divorced the mother of his son Andreas, Sofia Mineikou, to marry her, without caring for the consequences on his political career. Several years later, he fell in love with Chilean singer Rosita Serrano and sent to Adrianou a telegram from the US, urging her to leave their common home. They did not end up divorced but in his testament, he blamed her for leaving the family home. The high society of the time analyzed the events as a result of "the female curse of an ex".

His son and father of George, Andreas Papandreou, divorced twice before entering into his third marriage to flight attendant Dimitra Liani who was much younger than he was. He split up with his first wife Christina Rasia, a medical student in Boston, to marry American Margarita Chant in 1951, with whom he has four children. Evil tongues say that until they divorced in the mid-1980s, she swallowed dozens of her husband’s love affairs and even an illegitimate child.