Multi-millionaire socialite Regina Gonçalves, 88, escapes former chauffeur who kept her 'locked up in captivity for more than a year'

A socialite from Brazil is back enjoying the limelight just months after escaping her former driver who allegedly kept her in captivity for a year and a half inside her Rio de Janeiro beachfront apartment.

Regina Gonçalves revealed last week to Folha de São Paulo newspaper how she slipped past José Chaves and fled through the back door exit of her Copacabana residence on January 2.

The 88-year-old had spent time at her brother's home, which is also located in the same lively neighborhood, as she recovered from the traumatic experience, before she returned to her apartment last week.

'I got up, picked up my bag and walked out the back door,' Gonçalves recalled without shedding detail on her bizarre escape. 'He wanted to follow, but I walked faster than him.' 

The multi-millionaire said she ordered a taxi on the corner of Fernando Mendes Street and made her getaway.

Chaves, 53, hasn't been arrested and has to remain 250 feet away from Gonçalves, according to a restriction order. But he remains in control of her assets. 

Gonçalves was married to Nestor Gonçalves, the owner of Copag, a card-making company.

The high-profiled couple did not have any children and Regina inherited his fortune, which is currently valued at $500 million.

 Regina Gonçalves poses with journalist Narcisa Tamborindeguy at a get together at her home in Rio de Janeiro on Friday. The 88-year-old claims she was held captive by her former driver for more than a year at  her residence before she fled from him in January

Gonçalves with her former driver José Chaves, who she accuses of holding her captive at her residence in the Rio de Janeiro seaside neighborhood of Copacabana. The 88-year-old said Chaves took her $1.9 million jewelry collection and left her without money 

Gonçalves' building in Copacabana, the high-end neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro

Regina was known for hosting the Brazilian elite for parties at her home which were suddenly cut off before May 2022 when the Rio de Janeiro Public Minintry received an anonymous report indicating she was missing, according to TV Globo news magazine show Fantastico.

Neighbors and friend had become increasingly worried that Regina was not responding to their calls and messages and that Chaves communicated on her behalf, claiming that she was ill. 

Fantastico gained access to a court record that showed that Regina and Chaves had formed a legal union in 2021. 

However, Regina denied that she married Chaves because she and Nestor had promised each other that they would never wed another person if they died before the other.

'He was never my husband, he was a chauffeur,' she confirmed in her sit down with Folha de São Paulo. 'I am the widow of the great businessman Nestor Gonçalves.'

Regina said she first hired Chaves in 2011 after he was recommended by friends in the state of Minas Gerais and because she held reservations about hiring an unknown professional driver in Rio.

Diário do Rio online news portal reported that Regina wed Chaves before he allegedly began plotting on stealing her fortune.

Her family claims that Chaves subjected her to psychological and domestic violence and threatened her.  

Regina Gonçalves claims she never married her former driver because she is 'the widow of the great businessman Nestor Gonçalves'

Friends and family say Regina Gonçalves was exposed to psychological abuse by her former driver, José Chaves, after she hired him in 2011 

Gonçalves was married to Nestor Gonçalves, the owner of Copag, a card-making company. The high-profiled couple did not have any children and Regina inherited his fortune, which is currently valued at $500 million

In a video entered in court, Regina and Chaves agreed that they would assume guardianship and legal representation over the other person in the event either of them became mentally incapable, granting them the power.

But friends and family believe that Regina was coerced into the agreement after Chaves allegedly drugged her. 

Regina's nephew Álvaro O'Hara told Metropóles news that he noticed Chaves placed her on medication in 2013 while living at her mansion in São Conrado, the southern Rio de Janeiro seaside neighborhood.

He found some bottles at her home and shared them with a friend, who informed him that the medication contained substances used to produce 'Good night, Cinderella,' a drug that criminals used to impair their victims' attention span.

O'Hara would later discover the Chaves was illegally identifying himself as Regina's heir and told the late Rio socialite Bertha Mendes, who advised him to destroy the legal documents. 

He then confronted Chaves, who found out through Mendes that O'Hara had suspicions and allegledy tried to kill him three times, the last attempt coming in 2017.  

'When I arrived at the mansion, I was approached by a guy armed with a silencer on his revolver,' O'Hara said. 'The only reason I wasn't killed was because one of the condominium security guards thought the movement was strange, passed by on a motorcycle, honked the horn, pressed the bell and the guy ran away scared.'

O'Hara added that Regina gave him a note in which she was crying for help, but one of Chaves' henchmen followed him to a local police station when he attempted to file a report.

'My aunt lived coerced, oppressed and humiliated in private prison. She suffered all types of psychological and physical violence,' O'Hara said.

Chaves allegedly sold a mansion owned by Regina in São Conrado, the seaside southern Rio de Janeiro neighborhood, below market value. He is said to have also cleared out several safes containing the $1.9 million jewelry collection that Nestor had gifted her.

'I knew all her jewelry. Everything disappeared,' her friend and stylist Álvaro O'Hara told TV Globo news magazine Fantastico. 'She had Ruby Riviera. She disappeared everything. Van Cleef, Bulgari, Cartier, valuable pieces, diamonds, chocolate, gold, rare things. There's nothing left, nothing.'

Regina met with friends and family members at her apartment Friday.

'It was an exciting moment and at the same time of discovery,' O'Hara said.

UOL news reporter Narcisa Tamborindeguy was among those who were invited to the socialite's get together and shared a photo of her and Regina on Instagram.

'With my wonderful friend Regina Gonçalves!!! Free, light and loose!!!' Tamborindeguy commented.