London
(ANI):
The
tragic
romance
between
Leonardo
DiCaprio
and
Kate
Winslet
in
Hollywood
blockbuster
Titanic
was
inspired
from
a
true
story
of
love
and
self
sacrifice
that
took
place
on
the
doomed
1912
ship,
according
to
a
relative
of
a
survivor.
Joanna
Wood
said
her
great
aunt,
Roberta
Maioni,
was
a
maid
who
fell
in
love
with
a
young
steward
who
sacrificed
himself
for
her
as
the
ship
sank.
After
the
ship
struck
an
iceberg
on
the
evening
of
April
14,
1912,
Wood
said
that
the
man
gave
up
his
lifejacket
and
place
on
a
lifeboat
for
21-year-old
Maioni.
As
he
helped
her
on
to
the
lifeboat
he
gave
her
his
White
Star
Line
badge
to
remember
him
by.
Maioni
and
her
employer,
Countess
Lucy
Rothes,
were
among
those
rescued
by
a
nearby
ship,
Carpathia,
and
they
travelled
on
to
New
York.
"The
crew
member
who
gave
the
White
Star
badge
to
Roberta
also
gave
her
his
lifejacket
and
put
her
in
the
lifeboat.
There's
a
direct
link
between
Roberta's
story
and
the
film.
I
think
they
used
it
as
the
inspiration
for
the
film," the
Daily
Express
quoted
Wood,
as
saying.
Wood,
from
Totnes,
Devon,
said
her
great
aunt
never
forgot
her
short-lived
romance
aboard
the
Titanic.
She
said
that
the
events,
when
more
than
1,500
people
died,
shaped
her
life.
Maioni's
story
was
published
in
a
newspaper
in
the
1920s,
which
Wood
believes
may
have
helped
inspire
the
fictional
storyline
in
the
film,
although
other
affairs
have
been
suggested
as
the
source.