The author and longtime columnist Taki Theodoracopulos is a man of many words, both spoken and written.

So much so that it can be challenging to get a word in, even when the question is about him. The Grecian-born raconteur has long been part of jet-set society and has maintained an irascible opinionated voice as a writer, which has often gotten him into serious trouble. After attending boarding school Stateside, he studied at the University of Virginia. A competitive tennis player, polo player and former karate team captain, Theodoracopulos once said his greatest extravagances were “yachts, chalets, mistresses and gambling.”

His new memoir, “The Last Alpha Male,” details his privileged upbringing, intercontinental hobnobbing and romantic conquests, as well as spending three months in prison, his strife against the women’s movement and other hot-button topics. Cofounder of The American Conservative and founder of Taki’s Magazine, the scribe is widely known for his “High Life” column, which ran in The Spectator for nearly half a century.

WWD caught up with the author about his latest book from Gstaad, where he has a home.

WWD: Why did you decide to do the book now?

Taki Theodoracopulos: Why not? I am 89 years old. It’s been 50 years of being a writer and a columnist. It is sort of my ode to femininity not feminism.

WWD: Why femininity and not feminism?

T.T.: Well, there’s a difference, isn’t there? I like femininity. I have nothing against feminism as long as it doesn’t go to extremes, as extreme masculinity tends to do.

WWD: How did you decide what to include?

T.T.: I began wanting to do the whole thing, but it was just too much — too many politics. I have covered lots of wars and they are books to themselves. I decided I will just stick to a light thing. Journalists tend to take themselves extremely seriously and they write these bulls–t books. They always try to justify everything. I’ve read a lot of autobiographies by journalists and one of the few I liked was Stewart Alsop’s one about him dying of cancer, “State of Execution.” It was so good, because it just stuck to his illness. He was a great columnist.

T.T.: What did you think of the book?

WWD: There’s so much in there, and obviously a lot of your views are very controversial.

T.T.: Now anytime anyone believes in anything it’s controversial. The left calls you a fascist. The right calls you a communist. Everybody has to have the same opinion, according to the people who control our culture. I just state my opinions and wrote about my life. I had fun in life and I’m very lucky. I always felt quite happy.

WWD: What are you most proud of?

T.T.: After 47 years as a columnist, never having missed a column in The Spectator nor in the Sunday Times, except for once, when one was killed by an editor. What I am about to tell you is 100 percent true. The editor at the time was away, and the deputy editor at The Spectator killed a column because I called someone a pimp and a child predator. I said to him, “Just run it. I will take responsibility. I will take the lawsuit.” The man who I attacked was Jeffrey Epstein. It was the only column they killed in 47 years. I had it right. I didn’t know him but I had heard stories. I had refused to meet him. He tried to. He went up to a girl to get together. I said, “Absolutely no way.” Then Ghislaine Maxwell approached my wife and I in St. Tropez to say, “Please can you come to a drinks party?” We said, “No, we are leaving.” We weren’t leaving. It was in the mid-’90s. Some typical British editor got scared because everything is potentially libelous. I am rather proud of having never missed a deadline or a column except for that one about Jeffrey Epstein.

WWD: What was working with Boris Johnson as an editor like at The Spectator?

T.T.: It was very nice. I happen to be very pro-Palestinian but not at all antisemitic. I have to say that, because in America, the moment you say anything pro-Palestinian, you’re an antisemite. I’ve been to those camps. I was based there in 1969. I’ve seen the misery of those people. [In 2001] I had written an article defending the Palestinians. Conrad Black, who owned The Spectator and The Telegraph, who is a good friend and we have remained friends, wrote to his own publication [criticizing the column], which was amusing me. [Titled “My Friend Taki Has Gone Too Far,” Black’s two-page retort compared Theodoracopulos’ ‘anti-Israal diatribe’ of being “almost worthy of Goebbels.”] …someone went after me and said I had to go. And Boris said, “If Taki’s fired, I quit.” He stuck by me, and I could never forget that. Boris didn’t have a private income in the way that I did.

Nevertheless, I hold Boris 125,000 percent responsible for the state of England. He had power, 90 percent majority of the people in Parliament. What did he do? He turned left. If you go into government as a Conservative, you govern as a Conservative. You don’t govern like a bloody liberal or a lefty. I liked [Jeremy] Corbyn very much [a member of Parliament, he was expelled from the Labour Party]. He stuck to his principles. Boris went in there and wanted to please the left. I thought he was a clown. As a person, he was great fun and a very nice, intelligent and very well-read person.

I’ll never forget one thing that I’d never seen an editor or prime minister do. Every year we had a big party at The Spectator. Everybody got drunk. Out he came one day. I always kept a car outside to avoid the crush [to leave]. I said to Boris, “Your future mother-in-law is behind you. I won’t mention names.” He threw himself — he’s quite big Boris — he threw himself into the [parked] car, screaming, “Get going.” Boris is lovable but he betrayed his side and he betrayed himself by playing up to the left when he came in. But he is very, very funny.

WWD: How would you describe your political views today?

T.T.: I’m very old now. There is a Greek expression, “I’ve put a lot of salt in my food.” I’m not as anti-Communist as I was. I’m not as pro-right wing. See, I saw the revolution and what the leftists did and I write about it all of the time. They killed all of my father’s workers, who were making minimum to eat and feed their families in Greece. That turned me off Communism. How do you kill somebody who has three children and works for a living in a factory or as a chauffeur? And they did…Liberals in America and England were appalled that someone would be appalled that somebody would be so anti-Communist. I’ve seen it up close. But they never got close because my family protected me. I was very controversial when I started writing with a lot of people but I am much less now.

WWD: Why?

T.T.: The world is much better off now. [Laughs] Everybody hates “The Donald” [Trump]. I don’t mind him. I think he’s hardly a gentleman, but I like what he’s doing. I was at a black-tie dinner party at La Grenouille and the guest of honor was Donald Trump. I’d never met him. I was seated next to a woman, who turned out to be Melania. It was during the bombing of Serbia [in 1999]. We had a small paper called the New York Press. I told her we were very pro-Serbia and against NATO interfering, and we were against the Muslims trying to take over the bloody Balkans. A journalist across the table, whose name I won’t mention — he’s dead now — kept interrupting. I said, “Listen, do you mind not interrupting?” He said, “Hey Taki, weren’t we in school together?” I told him to go eff himself and threatened physical violence. I continued my conversation with this lady and I had no idea who she was. She told me that she was from Slovenia. Afterward, I see this orange thing approach me. He stuck his hand out and said, “Taki, you’re the greatest.” That was the one and only time that I met “The Donald” [laughs]. That was a long time ago. His daughter Ivanka liked my son [John] very much, because I have a very good-looking boy. But they were young. He had his eyes on somebody else.

WWD: People have challenged your views about the women’s liberation movement. Have they changed at all?

T.T.: I don’t follow it that much, I have to tell you. Look, I understand. But women in America were way ahead of women in Italy, Greece and England where there was great condescension. Among the great upper classes of England, where I hung out, when a woman said something, they would say, “Oh yes, yes, yes” and it was “let’s go back to serious business.” I don’t remember my mother having great conversations. My father was very politicized. There were ministers and prime ministers over at the house all the time. But I love women more than anything in the world. I was just telling my wife how in those cross-Atlantic and round-the-world races, women always beat the men. They are much better at navigating and they are far, far stronger at holding on in a certain course. Whereas in day racing, when you need the coffee grinders, muscle and bursts of energy, there’s no comparison. I raced with Gianni Agnelli and we won everything because these guys use coffee grinders [to power manual winches]. Otherwise, in the long run, women are far superior to men. It’s the only other sport along with horse jumping where women compete on an equal level and can beat men. I don’t understand why they haven’t done that in Formula 1 where you need less strength now. In the old days, it was brutal driving Formula 1. Now it’s all automated. I haven’t seen many women breaking into the sport.

WWD: Is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Tender Is the Night” your favorite book?

T.T.: In the study hall [for recalcitrant boys] I was always effing around and the teacher caught me with a book underneath [my desk] and said, “I betcha that’s a dirty book.” I’ll never forget that he said, “Keep reading every night.” I was 13 or 15. Of course, that book informed my life. My friends were talking about their future plans. I said, “Look I’m going to the Riviera. I’m going to find ‘Dick Diver’ and the rest of them.”

WWD: Why did you decide not to mention the attempted rape conviction from October 2023?

T.T.: First of all, I’d written a book for that. Second of all, I thought I got a very raw deal. This woman [Lisa Hilton], who I had met twice in my life and who I never knew, was brought to my chalet [in 2009]. I think this was planned long before. I didn’t take it seriously. I thought they were trying to hurt me as a journalist. I said, “Listen, you don’t need to do all of that. I’m leaving at the end of December.” At the end of 2023, I decided to call it quits. She was brought to my chalet by Andrew Neil [former editor of the Sunday Times]…I was polite obviously. We have appealed now under Swiss law. My lawyer said we can’t lose. Well, I’ve heard that before, but anyways. In front of a small town judge, she started crying in court.

[Reached for comment Friday, Hilton said following his conviction in October 2023, Theodoracopulos’ appeal was heard in the Swiss supreme court in Bern in March and he was once again found guilty. Theodoracopulos disputed that Friday, saying an appeal was in motion. Hilton’s attorney Fanny de Weck at Riselaw in Zurich could not be immediately reached for comment.]

T.T.: I had written many columns about the letters that I write and how I have been caught by two girls. They compared theirs and [found] it was the same one. I’ve done that many times. There’s nothing wrong with writing love letters for god’s sake and I have some good ones. When she asked me, “Can you produce one right here?” I did produce it right there. We were drinking. I gave it to her. Then two days later, I did again and she left. She thanked me profusely. Then 13 years later, suddenly all of this comes out. I didn’t take it seriously. I thought it was a joke and political. I’ve never written a word in defense of myself. I’ve talked to my friends. I just think it’s total bulls–t. I wrote something  that displeased her. This was back in ’97. I write a lot of controversial things but to wait all of those years. I don’t know what the truth is to tell you the truth. What I know is it is very unpleasant. How can you lie like that in court and cry and collapse at will? [Laughs] That is pretty good.

WWD: You said in your memoir that you didn’t lose a single friend when you went to jail for cocaine possession in 1984. Why do you think that?

T.T.: I didn’t. I have good friends. People were very nice. I was wrong and I admitted it. I was caught with coke in my pocket [at Heathrow International Airport] and the arresting officer didn’t ask for a sentence. He told the judge that I had immediately admitted it. They checked my house out. Anyway — it was good for me. I had four months of great [physical] training. I got a good book out of it that got great reviews called “Nothing to Declare.” My liver was reborn. It was very good. That was a long time ago — 40 years.

WWD: What don’t people understand about Princess Diana?

T.T.: I think people do understand Princess Diana. She conned everybody. I’m very much for her and against her husband for the way that he treated her. But Princess Di was no fool. She had never read a book. She was thick as a plank, as she called herself [during a 1987 hospital visit with a child.] But she had female cunning. She was very funny. All of those letters in the book that the publisher chose to show had nothing to do with me. There was no hanky panky at all. She wanted me to introduce to her all of the journalists. They were pro-Prince Charles. They stayed that way because they believe in that f–king thing called monarchy.…She had a plan all along. She couldn’t have been a nicer woman or more charming.

WWD: How do you hope people will remember you?

T.T.: Between you and me, I couldn’t — I usually don’t use swear words in front of ladies — I couldn’t give the proverbial ‘f.’ I really don’t care. Once you’re gone, you’re gone. I just hope that they don’t take it out on my children somehow if they are against my politics.…I have very nice children.