426 The Later Years
of Tito’s marriage by the Yugoslavs. Convinced he was a bachelor, Eden had
left his young, recently wedded wife at home out of kindness.^184 Not to men-
tion the embarrassed Jovanka, who seemed like a fledgling fallen from the nest.
According to Djilas she was so frightened that she trembled like a debutante
from a Russian novel at her first court ball.^185 Her fears overcame her some
months later, in the spring of 1953, when Tito visited a Western country for
the first time: he went to London, to Queen Elizabeth’s court. Jovanka was
not with him, probably unsure as to whether she could rise to the occasion.
She came from a modest family, was semiliterate, and knew how to handle a
gun better than wield a fork at an elegant table. Before her wedding she had
been sent to Rome for two weeks as a guest of Ambassador Vlatko Velebit
and his wife, Vera, to receive instruction on etiquette.^186 But evidently it was
not enough. The Velebits asserted the contrary, but they were among the few
in Tito’s circle to have a friendly attitude toward Jovanka. Her bad temper,
which became evident after the wedding, did not improve others’ opinions of
her. She was especially frowned upon by the wives of the political elite. When
Pepca Kardelj criticized her overly generous cleavage at a reception in 1954,
Jovanka responded sharply: “I have something to show.” She took her revenge,
banishing Kardelj’s wife from the court receptions for eight years.^187
However, Jovanka—“Jole” or “my comrade” as Tito sometimes called her—
was intelligent and quickly learned how to behave, so much so that according
to foreign diplomats she represented Yugoslavia with dignity. Nevertheless she
was not able to overcome her deep-seated insecurity, although she did eventu-
ally pass gymnasium exams (a high school or O-level equivalent).^188 Perhaps to
hide her discomfort she began dressing extravagantly, wearing jewelry not suit-
able for the wife of a revolutionary and head of a socialist state. This was par-
ticularly evident in 1974 during Tito’s official visit to Bangladesh. In Dhaka he
was greeted by a million-person crowd who saw in him a spokesman for their
hope for a better life. As he later told a colleague, he had only ever been greeted
in this way in Mexico and Egypt. A description of the event relates that “in the
Bangladeshi parliament, a solemn session was organized. In that country, the
poorest in the world, even the parliament building is modest, as are the clothes
of the local population. Jovanka came to the ceremony, at which Tito was going
to give a speech, in an elaborate white dress, with heavy diamond earrings and
necklace. In that tropical heat she looked like a sad Christmas tree. Everyone
in the hall looked at her with a touch of contempt and indignation. Meanwhile,
Tito spoke of poverty and misery.”^189 Stress led Jovanka to seek comfort in
food, and she became dependent. Marija and Joža Vilfan, who were in Tito’s
circle in the fifties, related that during her stays at Brdo Castle Jovanka would
wake at night and go to the kitchen to eat cakes from the fridge.^190 This, along