All documents pertaining to her disappeared when Milosevic began his rise to power in the 1980s. Markovic's hatred of the anti-Communist Serbs, or Chetniks, helps explain her animosity toward Serbia's opposition leaders, some of whom draw their inspiration from the Chetnik movement, according to Serb politicians. Markovic's sense of hurt also has led her to read Greek tragedies. Her favorite is Antigone , about a young woman who tries to vindicate the reputation of her beloved brother, who died fighting a tyrant named Creon. Both of Milosevic's parents committed suicide when he was young.
Friends say the bond between the two teen-agers was formed out of loneliness.
Over the years, Markovic began teaching her boyfriend poetry and sharing her Marxist ideas with him. The couple, who married in 1965, are still very close. They talk several times a day by phone. They're always together. They're not alter egos.