Maria was born on 24 June 1929, in Grancona near Vicenza, Italy, and educated in Milan.
Cristina met Henry Ford II in 1960 during a party at Maxim's in Paris.
[3] In 1975, Henry Ford II reportedly had an affair with model Kathy DuRoss, who would later become his third wife.
[5] In an interview with Walter Hayes, UK public relations executive for Ford, he related how Henry accused the two women of being lovers, a charge which Cristina indignantly denied.
[7] The two women, as documented in a Filipino newsreel of Imelda Marcos' official visit to Iran to represent President Marcos at the 2500th Persian monarchy celebrations in October 1971, shared her assigned royal encampment tent (for which Mrs Marcos received personal permission from Queen Farah Pahlavi to do so) so that Mrs Ford could stay with her during the event rather than at a hotel in the city of Shiraz.