The Later Years 427
with drinking too much, led her to become obese and she became the stereotype
of the Balkan matron, though in photographs she managed to retain her appeal.
In real life she was unbearable, full of herself, and often cruel: she behaved tyran-
nically with the personnel at Tito’s residences, sacking waiters, cooks, maids,
and gardeners, creating an atmosphere of tension and unease. It is alleged that
over time she fired more than a thousand people.^191 Leo Mates, who succeeded
Joža Vilfan as Tito’s secretary in 1958, said: “Jovanka was so malicious with the
staff of the White Palace that she deserved a life sentence.”^192
She was rude and sometimes aggressive even toward the president’s most
eminent collaborators, who took their revenge by describing her in a rather
critical way in their memoirs. During the handover from Joža Vilfan to Leo
Mates, the former warned the latter: “Try to collaborate with the first lady,
since her opinion is more important than Tito’s.”^193 Apart from Vilfan, who
was the first to treat her according to her rank, Jovanka quarreled with all Tito’s
secretaries, even with Vladimir Popović, a member of his inner circle who was
sent into exile to London where he died shortly thereafter following a battle
with cancer. On his deathbed, he exclaimed with indignation: “I was hunted
like a dog,” and warned those who were at his bedside that Tito had long been
Jovanka’s prisoner.^194 A similar fate befell Bogdan Crnobrnja, who Jovanka said
should be “hanged from a lamppost.” The first lady did not stop persecuting
him even when Tito got rid of him by appointing him ambassador to Wash-
ington. In September 1971, on the eve of the marshal’s visit to the United States,
which Crnobrnja had organized with care, Jovanka argued that he should be
removed from that assignment (he had dared to suggest that she dress as sim-
ply as Nixon’s wife). When Foreign Secretary Tepavac got this order, he could
not help but ask Tito why it had to be done in such a hurry. “Have you ever had
a quarrel with your wife?” Tito answered candidly. “Jovanka is stronger than
me. What could I do but go along with her for a quiet home life?”^195
Jovanka had become unbearable by the end of the fifties. As the memoirs
of Milan Žeželj, commander of the guard, show, during the grand Afro-Asian
tour of 1959 she began protesting the protocol, complaining of being rele-
gated to the background and creating a tense atmosphere on their flagship,
the Galeb.^196 Things deteriorated during the second important journey, in 1961,
when Tito visited Africa. Jovanka was accompanied on this occasion by a team
of seamstresses, and not just one or two, but dozens to fit her for each visit to
each country. In all she had about 150 dresses. “There was a fashion atelier on
the ship,” said Leo Mates.^197 Jovanka demanded that a special plane bring her
a cut of silk she had forgotten at home. Tito did not agree and a violent quarrel
arose, during which she reproached him venomously: “And you, what did you do
yesterday? You took advantage of the calm to go on the escort vessel to admire