Packing her belongings in verdant Austin, Texas, 50-year old Danae Stratou knows that these are her last moments of peace before returning to Greece to be with her beloved Yanis Varoufakis, in a world surrounded by all his new admirers and the press.

Her husband, the flamboyant new Greek Finance Minister, is already a household name in Greece and beyond, with even details such as the color of his shirt prompting a social media frenzy.

“I totally agree with his positions and ideology,” says Yanis Varoufakis’ wife

As the woman behind the most-talked about man in Europe, this month, at least, the beautiful artist’s resume has also circulated around the Internet, following the Varoufakis’ media “tsunami” that has overwhelmed the political scene. “The sudden exposure to publicity isn’t easy and I’m not used to it,” she tells Proto Thema.

Nonetheless, the artist hails from “old money” in Greece, as her father’s relatives founded the Peiraiki Patraiki textile works in western Greece, by far the largest in the country for decades. In a typically modern Greek fashion, the industrial concern went bankrupt, the families of the owners remained wealthy.

Danae chose to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Eleni Potaga-Stratou, a sculptor, has works hosted in galleries around the world.

Art is a very important part of Danae’s identity. She met Varoufakis at a private event where it was love at first sight. Soon after their meeting they journeyed together to several countries with disputed borders. The dividing lines they visited included Palestine, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Kosovo, Belfast, Cyprus, Kashmir and the US-Mexico border. Stratou produced the installation CUT: 7 dividing lines, while Varoufakis wrote a political-economic account of  these divisions, entitled “The Globalizing Wall.”

Varoufakis’ meeting with Danae, a mother of two from a previous marriage with George Momferatos (the son of a newspaper publisher assassinated by the ultra-leftist 17N terror gang), coincided with the break-up of Yanis’ first marriage, from which he has a daughter called Xenia, and who lives in Australia with her mother. Of this, he wrote in his blog:

Life took a nasty turn, personally, well before the global economic crisis of 2008 and Greece’s implosion in 2009. The year was 2005. In that August my extremely young daughter, Xenia, was taken away by… Australia. For reasons that I now recognise as legitimate, her mother decided to take Xenia to Sydney and make a home for her there, permanently. Xenia’s loss left me in a state of shock (she has been living since then in Sydney, thus guaranteeing the longevity of my relationship with Sydney).

As luck would then have it for the noted game theorist, few months later he was “… saved from near oblivion by Danae Stratou, with whom, ever since, we have been sharing life, work and a myriad of projects. An artistic-cum-political project called CUT- 7 dividing lines brought us together. That project evolved into another one called The Globalising Wall. The latest project to come out of this fortunate (for us) union is called www.vitalspace.org. Above all else, we are having fun doing the things that matter (to us). Moreover, as the years go by, and Xenia grows into an autonomous person, the pieces of my life that were so violently separated in 2005 are coming together.

Speaking of her life with Varoufakis over the last two and a half years, Stratou says that each of them worked in their own fields. “At this point in time, I am discussing a permanent work that could possibly featured at the Austin Museum of Modern Art,” she says. “Throughout our time, each of us have expressed themselves in their own field, but there was always respect and support for each other. It was mutual. That’s how it has always been with Yanis.”

Independence has always been a strong characteristic of Danae. The middle of five sisters, she was the tomboy of the family and her father Phaedon’s favorite as she helped him fix the family cars or do mechanics on their boats. Nonetheless, it was her mother’s world of art that fascinated her. Love and art are an integral part of the Varoufakis’ couple. “From the start of our relationship we supported each other and gave priority when one person’s job was more demanding than that of the other,” she says.

On one of their trips from around the world

“I will never leave my work behind because I breathe through it and it is a part of who I am,” she says. Regarding the increased publicity that Varoufakis’ ministerial obligations have placed on their personal life, Stratou states that up until now their different worlds have never collided even though she is the artistic heiress of industrialist family and he is a left-wing economist. “It’s something that we discussed a while back and made a conscious common decision. With Yanis, we are totally in compatibility in our own world, in our common plight that we have chartered over the last decade. I totally agree with his positions and ideology,” she says.

“We were always on the same wave length, even before we met. Perhaps this helped me become more conscious about certain matters,” she says. Asked about what it is like to live with such an intelligent man, she says: “We both have strong personalities, so I can say we are never bored of each other.”

She is optimistic about the next chapter of their life together in Athens. “It is the start of a new age and I’m very optimistic,” she says. “In contrast to the feelings that I felt with the previous government when we didn’t have real democracy, I feel that the current government is run by ordinary people who want to keep their word. Suddenly, the government is working for us to make our hope real.”

She refuses to answer questions about her husband’s political meetings or thsoe that make her feel uncomfortable, such as questions concerning her husband’s fashion sense or how she feels that her husband has suddenly acquired many female admirers – known in Greece as “Varoufitses”. She neither responds or jokes about it, prefering instead to sidetrack. “I admire Yanis for all he does, for his energy and dynamism. I also admire Alexis Tsipras. It’s amazing how they’ve managed to work so fast, so decisively, so effectively, with a clean, united sweep,” she says, adding that she hopes that they succeed. “They believe and support what they’re doing and that’s important,” she says.

Independence and personal expression are part of Danae Stratou’s character

Danae Stratou, with her industrialist father Phaedon and her mother, Eleni Potaga, the famous sculptress

Varoufakis father, chemistry professor Georgios Varoufakis, lived in Cairo with the love of his life, biochemist Eleni. They were married for 55 years and produced two children – Yanis – and Trisevgeni, a judge. At 90 years old, he is still a keen daily swimmer. The elder Varoufakis also served as the president of Greece’s largest steel mill.