Kriti Mehrotra
While there’s no denying Ayrton Senna da Silva gained a lot of traction throughout his career for his aggressive style and unwavering skills, his personal life was also often a point of discussion. That’s because, as explored in Netflix’s six-part miniseries ‘Senna,’ this legendary Foruma One driver had many high-profile relationships, yet he never really settled down to start his own family. He did tie the knot with Lilian de Vasconcelos Souza when he was just a young man kickstarting his career, but unfortunately, it didn’t pan out as they wanted different things out of life.
Ayrton Senna Was Lilian Souza’s First Love
It was back when Ayrton was just a young boy running around his neighborhood of Tremembé in São Paulo, Brazil, that he first came across Lilian, only for them to quickly become great friends. However, as time passed, their platonic relationship naturally evolved into much more, and they decided to give romance a try despite knowing they were young, ambitious, independent individuals. The hope they held at every step of the way was that they would grow together, resulting in them tying the knot in a beautiful ceremony surrounded by all their loved ones on February 10, 1981.
Lilian and Ayrton’s union actually came mere months before he was to relocate to England to try and make it as a professional racer in Formula Ford, just for it to be the beginning of their end. After all, in the former’s own candid words, she was “his second passion. His first passion was racing. There was nothing more important in the world for him, not family, not his wife, nothing.” The truth is she was always by his side during events and encouraged him to improve following not just every loss but also every win, yet the racing lifestyle and being away from home wasn’t something she could adapt to.
Therefore, the couple did return to Brazil in early 1982 with the intention of settling down, with Lilian completing her education and Ayrton joining his family business, but the latter simply couldn’t give up on his dreams. He thus flew back to England to continue racing shortly after, resulting in his official separation from his wife before they quietly divorced a few months later in 1982 itself — it was very amicable. In a television interview with SBT Brasil, Lilian has since conceded, “I didn’t love Ayrton because he was a racing driver — a driver that everybody loves — I loved the boy who always lived in my heart.”
Lilian Souza Has Moved Forward to be a Hard-working Family Woman
Considering Lilian was merely 19 when she married Ayrton upon knowing him almost all his life thanks to their hailing from the same area, the first thing she did following their split was continue with her college education. She had no idea at the time she would meet her second husband the next year, just for their romance to be a whirlwind too – minus the proposal because he was moving to Europe for racing, as with Ayrton. Nevertheless, they still tied the knot around six months into their relationship, which was followed by them living their dream by building a home together and welcoming a son into this world.
But alas, Lilian’s second marriage soon crumbled apart too – the reason for the same is unclear as of writing since she has long chosen to lead a quiet life for the safety as well as privacy of her family. Yet, we do know she remained close with Ayrton’s family for years to come and even spoke to her ex-husband from time to time, with the last one being two years prior to his unfortunate 1994 demise. As for Lilian’s current standing, from what we can tell, this proud mother is actually a three-time divorcee who has established an incredible career for herself in her homeland as an interior designer. In other words, while she may be unlucky in love, she does seemingly have a great career as well as a sound support system that backs her at every step of the way in life.
Read More: Neyde Senna and Milton da Silva: Where Are Ayrton Senna’s Parents Now?
