Jovanka Broz

Jovanka Budisavljević Broz (Serbian Cyrillic: Јованка Будисављевић Броз) (born December 7, 1924) is the former First Lady of Yugoslavia and the widow of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito. They were married from 1952 until his death in 1980. She now lives in Belgrade, Serbia.

As an immediate witness and insider of the entire turbulent epoch in the history of the Balkans, she is still the subject of immense regional media interest. For her part, Jovanka maintains an extremely low-key existence and rarely gives interviews. Most think her secluded lifestyle comes as a consequence of the enormous trouble she went through following her husband's death, when all of her property was nationalized and she was placed under house arrest.

She was reported to be living in relative poverty as of 2006, after a government inquiry found that her house in Dedinje, a suburb (next to the Royal Palace) of Belgrade, had received no maintenance since her arrest. Efforts are now being made to improve her living conditions.

Jovanka Broz (née Budisavljević) is of Serbian ethnicity. She held the rank of major in the Yugoslav People's Army.

Early life

Born into a peasant family to father Milan and mother Milica, Jovanka Budisavljević grew up with two brothers, Maksim and Pero, and two sisters, Zora and Nada. Jovanka was very young when their mother died and their father remarried, meaning that much of her childhood was spent with a stepmother.

World War II broke out when she was...
Read More