A member of the Agnelli family, Elkann was born in New York City, the son of Countess Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen and the American-born Italian writer Alain Elkann. His father is Jewish and his mother is Catholic.
He is the brother of John Elkann, the current chairman of Fiat and the chairman and CEO of Exor, an investment company controlled by the Agnelli family, which owns Juventus F.C. Elkann is a grandson of Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli and Marella Agnelli. He is nephew of Don Carlo Caracciolo, founder of Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso - owner of the newspaper la Repubblica, the Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Elkann is also a stepson of Russian nobleman Count Sergei de Pahlen. Elkann also has a sister, Ginevra Elkann, and five half-siblings by his mother's second marriage (Maria, Pierre, Sophia, Anna, and Tatiana). He is also a great-grandnephew of Ettore Ovazza, of the Ovazza banking family, via his grandmother, Carla Ovazza.[self-published source] On October 7, 2021, he married Portuguese rally racer Joana Lemos.
In 2001, Elkann worked as a personal assistant to Henry Kissinger, subsequently working as marketing associate for Ferrari and Maserati. In 2003, he became Fiat's director of marketing. He coordinated marketing for the Fiat Punto and Fiat 500. Elkann left Fiat in 2005 after being widely reported as having a serious cocaine and heroin addiction, creating Italia Independent, a lifestyle and clothing brand featuring Italian products. In 2007 he founded Independent Ideas, a communication and advertising agency.[citation needed]

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