Sibylle’s Style Diary: Tony Cointreau, French Liqueur Heir, on Sharing the Gift of Love

Courtesy of Tony Cointreau

This week’s style diary is about Tony Cointreau. Tony Cointreau, an heir of the French liqueur family, has led many lives. At 21, Tony was on stage, living in New York and California, and performing everywhere from Las Vegas to Carnegie Hall. Although Tony’s career as a performer was successful, he eventually traveled to Calcutta, where he was drawn to Mother Teresa’s work. In the early ‘90s, Tony began volunteering at Gift of Love, Mother Teresa’s home in Greenwich Village for destitute men dying of AIDS. Unexpectedly, he found that Mother Teresa became his mentor and “other mother” as they worked together to take care of the sick and the dying over the next 12 years. He and Jim Russo, his now-husband and partner of fifty years, returned to India in 1997 to be with Mother Teresa for the last Easter week of her life. Tony, who recently published his newest book, “A Gift of Love: Lessons Learned from My Work and Friendship” with Mother Teresa and celebrated it at a book party on Sept. 20 at Michael’s, is sharing with us this week his perspective on style.

Style is the sense of feeling confident in the presentation of yourself, whether you are in jeans or black tie.

— Tony Cointreau