From 15 m² to the spotlight: the love story of Aleksandar Milić Mili and Nina
A decade‑younger wife, wartime hardship and a dramatic New Year’s gamble: how Aleksandar Milić Mili built a private life that reads like a film.
Aleksandar Milić Mili, renowned composer, producer and a judge on the singing competition Zvezde Granda, has for years lived a settled family life with his wife Nina and their children, Mia Jovana and Markus Simeon. Their relationship, the kind that often reads like a movie script, has survived poverty, illness and a dramatic rise to fame.
How a New Year’s gamble changed everything
The couple’s story began while Nina was studying in Italy and had heard about Mili’s extravagant former residence on Dedinje — a 3,000-square-metre property described as a former Chinese residence with a 250-square-metre bedroom, fireplace, park and security. Fate, however, intervened: at the moment they were supposed to meet, Mili had just moved into a modest 15-square-metre studio.
Remembering that early period, Mili said, “From the moment I saw her, I knew she would be my wife one day. She was returning to Italy the next day, so I told my friends to call me as soon as she landed in Serbia.” Their relationship crystallised during the New Year celebrations leading into 2004, when Mili took a bold approach.
He recounted the next exchange: “I asked her whether she had a boyfriend, and when she said ‘yes’ I replied: ‘Look, here’s the plan — tomorrow morning you will call him and tell him it’s not happening. Around noon I’ll come for you and from then on we never parted!’” The tactic worked and the two soon became inseparable.
Mili’s path to success was not linear. His family fled Osijek during the wars of the 1990s; he lived with his sister and composed hits on a guitar with only three strings. In 1992 he faced a serious illness that nearly cost him his life. In his own words: “I spent the whole of 1992 fighting the illness, I collapsed four or five times and it was a question whether I would survive. But I managed to pull through.”
Now, more than 16 years into their marriage, Mili praises Nina’s steady counsel: “I trust Nina’s word more than my own. That is probably where the ‘shoemaker’ jokes come from! The advantage of our marriage is that because of my work we have a chance to miss each other, and that kills monotony,” he told reporters. The pair remain regarded as one of the most harmonious couples on the regional music scene.
Photo: press material from the event
