G.A: When Sergio died, a part of me died with him. I must say I’m still amazed that I found within myself the resilience to withstand such an immense pain. We spent a year going from hospital to hospital, and to avoid hurting him, I kept working the whole time so that I could bring him the photos of the fashion shows. In the final days, I could see tears welling in his eyes. It was an extremely difficult time, terribly hard for me to overcome. I heard people say: 'Armani is no longer himself, he’ll be overwhelmed with grief, he won’t make it on his own...' For this reason, when people offered to take a stake in Giorgio Armani, I answered: 'No, thanks, I can do it alone'