While studying law and political science in Lausanne, he devoted considerable time to playing the saxophone and was involved in a car crash which caused him the loss of an eye. He also met his future bride, Sirikit Kitiyakara, the daughter of the Thai ambassador to Paris. Time magazine unfairly accused him of doing little else but “organise a swing band, tinker with cameras, drive fast cars”, though in fact the car he was driving at the time of his accident was a Fiat 500