Jovanka Budisavljevic and Josip Broz Tito would celebrate the 65th wedding anniversary on the 15th of April.
In biographies of Jovanka and Tito Broz by Blazo Mandic and Aleksandar Matunovic, their relationship, proposal, and the beginning of their marriage were described in details.
Matunovic was Tito’s personal doctor and Mandic was Tito’s close adviser to whom Jovanka often confided. Thus, in his book was revealed how Tito proposed Jovanka, how they met and how Tito’s wife from an ignorant girl from Lika became educated and elegant first lady.
Jovanka met Tito in Daruvar after replacing Davorjanka Paunovic Zdenka as a secretary in his office, and their business relationship soon grew into something more and they secretly got married in April 1952. Back then, Jovanka was 28, and Tito 60 years old, as reported by Index.hr.
While Jovanka was first bothered by their huge age difference, Tito was worried by her lack of education, but that they quickly make up for it. In fact, right after the wedding, Tito provided training on protocol meetings, appropriate clothing, and foreign language classes to Jovanka. From an ignorant woman, Jovanka turned into a classy and educated lady soon.
Tito’s personal doctor Aleksandar Matunovic in his book described Jovanka as an ambitious woman who wanted to succeed Tito. She revealed to him her feelings after she was proposed by Tito.
“There is no need to say how surprised and confused I was. After all, I was a girl from a place with patriarchal views. Due to the great age difference, I simply excluded the idea of that kind of relationship. Besides, I was – it will not be immodest to say it – appealing and I had more than one gentlemen,” said Jovanka.
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)
