Gaia Cecilia Metella Servadio^[1] (13 September 1938 – 20 August 2021) was an Italian writer.^[2]

Servadio was born in Padua, the daughter of industrial chemist^[3] Luxardo Servadio and wife Bianca Prinzi.^[4] Her father was Jewish and her mother was Sicilian and Catholic.^[5] She received a bachelor's degree from London's Camberwell School of Art.^[4]

Her first novel Tanto gentile e tanto onesta, aka Melinda, was published in 1967 by Feltrinelli in Italy and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK, and was "a runaway success".^[4]

Servadio was married to the British art historian William Mostyn-Owen c. 1961–1989, and they had three children, Owen (b. 1962), Allegra (b. 1964) and Orlando (b. 1973).^[6] In 1968, they were living in "23 rooms or so" of one wing of Aberuchill Castle, Perthshire, Scotland.^[7]

Their daughter Allegra, an art teacher, was the first wife of the politician Boris Johnson.^[8] Their son Orlando is an artist and a painter.^[9]

Servadio lived in Belgravia, London.^[10] Following her divorce from Mostyn-Owen, in 1995 Servadio married Hugh Robert Myddelton, of Chirk Castle in Wales, another former Etonian.^[11] In 2001 their surname was changed to Myddelton Biddulph, and they became Hugh Robert Myddelton Biddulph and Gaia Servadio Myddelton Biddulph.^[12] They remained married until her death.^[13] She died on 20 August 2021.^[14][15]