Giorgio Armani, the legendary fashion designer, passed away on September 4 at the age of 91. By his side until the very end was his partner, Leo Dell’Orco.

The couple first met when Dell’Orco was just 24, crossing paths with Armani while walking his dog in a park in Milan.

Their romance — between Armani and his 18-years-younger boyfriend – brought a bright, loving chapter to the fashion icon’s life, especially after he had tragically lost his longtime partner years earlier.

Pantaleo “Leo” Dell’Orco
Even though he was in his nineties, Giorgio Armani’s death came as a shock to many. Few people haven’t heard his name, so deeply tied to fashion, tailored suits, perfumes, and timeless elegance.

Over the past five decades, Armani built one of the world’s most iconic fashion brands. Now, his passing has also sparked speculation over who will inherit his estimated $12.1 billion fortune — could it be his longtime partner?

Armani shared a deep, long-term relationship with Pantaleo “Leo” Dell’Orco, who has been involved with the Armani company since 1977 and now leads the Men’s Style Office.

While Armani and Dell’Orco kept much of their romance private, Armani called Dell’Orco the person closest to him in a 2024 interview with Italian publication Corriere della Sera. In the months before Armani’s death, Dell’Orco had been representing him at multiple fashion shows, highlighting the strength of both their professional and personal bond.

The Italian fashion designer had relationships with both men and women but rarely spoke about his sexuality, only sharing details about his love life on a few occasions throughout his lifetime.

”He made me Papa”
What we do know is that Armani first met his longtime partner Sergio Galeotti in 1966, in Tuscany, when Armani was 32.

Galeotti, 11 years younger, sparked an immediate connection with the designer.

Recalling their early bond in an interview with Vanity Fair, Armani said, “Right away he made me Papa – I felt right away responsible for him and for his life. It was really as if he were my child.”

Galeotti was the driving force behind Armani’s leap into fashion. He encouraged Armani to leave his steady $40,000-a-year job with menswear designer Nino Cerruti and take a risk on his own path.

Together, they sold their Volkswagen and launched the Armani label in 1975, with Galeotti managing the business side while Armani focused on the creative vision, ultimately turning Armani into one of Italy’s wealthiest men.

Their partnership lasted nearly a decade until tragedy struck: in 1984, Galeotti was diagnosed with AIDS. When he passed away a year later, at just 40, his death was reported as a heart attack, amid the intense stigma surrounding the disease.

For Giorgio Armani, the loss was devastating. During Galeotti’s illness, Armani relied on antidepressants to cope, struggling to hear Sergio’s frail voice and watch his life partner slowly fade away.

He later called it the “worst year” of his life, admitting that losing Galeotti felt like losing “a part” of himself.

Sergio Galeotti’s last years
In Galeotti’s final years, the two were more best friends than lovers, with Armani acknowledging that “passion doesn’t last.”

But the heartbreak still hit Armani hard, and he never fully recovered.

Eleven years after Galeotti’s death, Armani told New York Magazine that he still wore his late partner’s ring every day. “He never saw me cry. He himself never said anything. In a whole year, he said once, ‘Giorgio, look how thin I have become’—that’s all,” Armani recalled.

Just last year, he reflected again on the loss: “When Sergio died, a part of me died. I have to say I congratulate myself a little, because I withstood such intense pain.”

The impact was also noticeable to those around him. His niece Roberta told Vanity Fair that Armani became “more serious and introverted,” immersing himself even deeper in his work following Galeotti’s death.

More than a professional partner
But years later, another man entered Armani’s life: Pantaleo “Leo” Dell’Orco, who met the designer when Armani was walking his dog in a Milan park.

Dell’Orco, 18 years Armani’s junior, was 24 at the time and had just transitioned from advertising to industrial design.

Their connection soon deepened, with Dell’Orco modeling for companies Armani collaborated with and eventually joining Armani’s design house just two years after its founding.

In the decades that followed, Dell’Orco became more than a professional partner. Armani described him as the person closest to him, providing “incredible psychological support, practical as well as workwise. First Sergio, then Leo,” he told CNN in 2022. Dell’Orco frequently appeared alongside Armani at fashion shows, honors, and events, eventually heading the Men’s Style Office and overseeing all menswear for Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani, and Armani Exchange.

Although the two never married, Armani proudly wore a diamond ring gifted by Dell’Orco. In interviews, Dell’Orco referred to their connection as a “lifelong partnership,” while Armani acknowledged that, though generally indifferent to love, he had strong affections for Dell’Orco, who lived with him for years.

”I would like the succession to be organic..”
Before his death, Armani had also addressed the succession of his fashion empire, making it clear that Dell’Orco, along with family members like his niece Silvana Armani and longtime team members, would play key roles in the transition.

As he told the Financial Times just days before his passing, “I would like the succession to be organic and not a moment of rupture.”

Through it all, Armani never forgot Sergio Galeotti, the partner who had set him on his path to global fashion stardom, and he cherished Dell’Orco for the unwavering support and love he brought into Armani’s later years.