Kriti Mehrotra
As a documentary series that exposes the reality behind an empire amassed by a German Shepherd over the last three decades, Netflix’s ‘Gunther’s Millions’ can only be described as baffling. After all, it turns out neither the world’s wealthiest canine’s known roots are real and nor is the narrative of the “inheritance” he had attained from a “German Countess” upon her death in 1992. In fact, the dog’s original owner was his now-handler’s once-girlfriend Antonella Signorini — so now, if you just wish to learn more about her as well as her current standing, we’ve got you covered.
Who is Antonella Signorini?
It was back in the early 1970s when Antonella first came across Maurizio Mian, unaware that their innocent young romance would inadvertently give rise to the baffling gimmick specified above. The truth is she instinctually didn’t like him at first due to the fact she always kept hearing a lot of praise for his intellect and charm from her father as he was a student in his art history school class. However, everything changed the day the then-16/17-year-old decided to ask her out since she got to experience his allure first-hand — they “fell madly in love” right there, per her accounts.
“Maurizio was very kind, very sensitive, and he made me fall in love also because of his great altruism,” Antonella conceded in the production before adding they even shared a passion for animals. Though this particular adoration was familial, driving her to visit Pisa’s different shelters alongside his mother each month, purchase four or five dogs, and then give them up for adoption into healthy homes. The fact her German Shepherd then gradually became all of theirs was thus no surprise; “basically, he was our dog because we shared everything,” she candidly said in the docuseries.
“Gunther was mine,” Antonella elucidated. “[He was named after French actress] Brigitte Bardot’s husband. He was a great Latin lover, a great playboy. And ‘the third’ because he was our third German Shepherd. Maurizio immediately fell in love with this dog. He adored him.” Therefore, when the pet was diagnosed with a rare chronic disease in 1984, and its treatment left his bones fragile, the qualified clinical pharmacologist took matters into his own hands. He was actually able to administer a few new drugs on Gunther III since his family owned-operated the Istituto Gentili pharma company, which proved to be an incredible success.
Both Maurizio as well as Gunther hence became the center of media attention with this “miracle healing,” leading the former to admittedly try and drift the audience’s attention to these drugs. “The dog started to heal, and it filled me with joy,” Antonella honestly said. “But Maurizio made the dog the center of all his aspirations. I started to feel some resentment… My dog had been used as a publicity stunt by Maurizio.” The couple thus broke up for good. Then, because the focus on the pet’s recovery also started dwindling, the former came up with the idea of giving him a Countess’ inheritance — in reality, his own family’s money — to maintain the public’s interest.
Where is Antonella Signorini Now?
It has never been wildly known that Antonella was the original owner of Gunther III, who himself passed away in 1992, yet she did feature in Charles Osgood’s 1999 book ‘More See You on the Radio.’ However, the really surprising aspect is that she maintained the whole Countess narrative in her account, which likely could be by reason of her believing it to be the best choice at the time. Coming to her current whereabouts, although Antonella prefers to maintain her distance from the limelight these days, it appears as if she’s a lawyer, a dog mom, as well as a family woman based in Tirrenia, Pisa.
Read More: Cristina Mian: Where is Maurizio Mian’s Ex-Girlfriend Now?
