Fotini Papadopoulos

Papadopoulos was born on 6 March 1950 in Paris, France, as the daughter of renowned businessman and philanthropist Anastasios George Leventis.^[1][2][3] She studied and grew up in Paris.^[2]

In 1967, she married politician Polycarpos Giorkatzis, with whom she had two children, Constantinos and Maria.^[1] Giorkatzis was murdered in March 1970 and Fotini identified the murderer, although the murder was never solved.^[1]

She married Tassos Papadopoulos in 1972, with whom she had two children, Nikolas and Anastasia.^[1][3]

Papadopoulos has been a member of the Cyprus Red Cross since 1973, of which she is also president since 2004, and she created its youth department shortly before the Turkish invasion of 1974.^[1][4][3] She created several programmes that helped to promote volunteering in schools.^[1]

She became First Lady of Cyprus on 28 February 2003 after his husband Tassos was sworn in President of Cyprus.^[5] That year Fotini was named "Women of Europe" by the Cyprus Council of the International Association for the Promotion of Women of Europe.^[6] During her tenure, Fotini organised social and charitable events at the Presidential Palace.^[2]

Tassos died on 12 December 2008 from cancer.^[7] After Tassos' corpse was stolen in December 2009, Fotini confirmed on 9 March 2010 the discovery of his body after DNA testing confirmed it.^[8]

• Honorary Member of the Xirka Ġieħ ir-Repubblika (Malta, 2005).^[9]
• Commander of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece, 2014).^[10]
• Legion of Honor (France, 2023)^[11]