Veronica Lario
Spouse of the Prime Minister of Italy
In role
8 May 2008 – 10 May 2010
Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi
Preceded byFlavia Franzoni
Succeeded byElsa Antonioli (2011)
In role
11 June 2001 – 17 May 2006
Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi
Preceded byDiana Vincenzi
Succeeded byFlavia Franzoni
In role
11 May 1994 – 15 January 1995
Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi
Preceded byFranca Pilla
Succeeded byDonatella Pasquali Zingone
Personal details
Born (1956-07-19) July 19, 1956
Bologna, Italy
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1990; div. 2010)​
ChildrenBarbara, Eleonora, Luigi
OccupationActress

Veronica Lario (born Miriam Raffaella Bartolini, 19 July 1956) is a former Italian actress and the former wife of ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.[1]

Biography

Born in Bologna, Lario was a stage actress under Enrico Maria Salerno, with whom she had a love affair. She also worked in theatrical plays with well-known actors; Her most famous role is in Tenebrae by horror master Dario Argento. She retired from acting after meeting Silvio Berlusconi.

Married on 15 December 1990, Berlusconi and Lario have three children together: Barbara Berlusconi (1984),[2] Eleonora (1986), and Luigi (1988). In the 1980s, before the birth of their first-born daughter Barbara, Lario terminated an earlier pregnancy with an induced abortion, in order not to give birth to a child affected by significant morbidity.[3]

As the wife of the Italian premier, Veronica Lario chose to maintain a low public profile. She avoided most public events and meetings and she seldom accompanied her husband Silvio Berlusconi at official meetings. On the other hand, she was known to publicly express political opinions contrasting with those of her then-husband (for example, on bioethics or in backing protesters demonstrating against the war in Iraq[4]).

Lario's husband was never shy about mentioning her on public occasions, and he alluded at least once to a supposed affair between her and philosopher and opposition politician Massimo Cacciari.[5]

On 31 January 2007, Lario said her dignity had been damaged by comments Berlusconi reportedly made during the VIP party after a TV awards ceremony broadcast by one of his channels.

"If I weren't married I would marry you immediately," the 70-year-old media mogul told showgirl and future parliamentarian Mara Carfagna, according to reports widely carried in the Italian press. He reportedly told another, "With you, I'd go anywhere."

Lario's letter appeared in La Repubblica, a nationally prominent newspaper. She declared:

I see these statements as damaging my dignity. To both my husband and the public man, I therefore demand a public apology, since I haven't received any privately. I have faced the inevitable contrasts and the more painful moments that a long conjugal relation entails with respect and discretion.

"Now I write to state my reaction," added Lario, saying her husband's comments were "unacceptable" and could not be reduced to mere jokes.

But after a few hours, Silvio Berlusconi responded with a public letter to his wife and apologized for what he had said three days earlier.

In April 2009 she once more published an open letter, criticising her husband for consorting with young ladies[6] and defining his chosen candidates for the European Parliament as "shameless rubbish".

On 3 May 2009 it was reported that she was to file for divorce,[7][8] which under Italian law can only be started after a couple has reached a separation agreement. On 10 May 2010 it was revealed that a separation settlement had been reached, with Berlusconi accepting alimony payments of €3.6 million per year, and allowing her to live in their luxury home near Milan.[9]

In December 2012, a Milan court established that Silvio Berlusconi would be required to pay his ex-wife Veronica Lario €3 million a month (€36 million a year).[10]

In 2015 on 23 June 2015, the Court of Justice of Milan established that Silvio Berlusconi would pay his ex-wife €1.4 million a month.

Finally in 2017, on 16 November, the Court of Appeal of Milan decided that Silvio Berlusconi will not have to pay the €1.4 million per month to his ex-wife, who has been ordered to give back the amounts she received since 2014: approximately €60 million.[11]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Italy court finalises Berlusconi divorce". Reuters. 18 February 2014.
  2. ↑ At this time Silvio Berlusconi was still married to Carla Elvira Lucia Dall'Oglio, from whom he was divorced in 1985.
  3. ↑ Latella, Maria (8 April 2005). "Veronica Berlusconi: quel mio dramma e la scelta di andare a votare" [Veronica Berlusconi: my drama and the choice to go and vote]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  4. ↑ "BBC NEWS | Europe | Berlusconi's wife to divorce him". BBC News. 3 May 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
  5. ↑ While the supposed affair was only mentioned in gossip tabloids, on October 2002, during a press conference with Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Silvio Berlusconi said he ought to introduce his wife to Rasmussen, "the best-looking prime minister in Europe and certainly more handsome than Cacciari". See also the Guardian on this episode.
  6. ↑ Donadio, Rachel (30 April 2009). "Premier's Roving Eye Enrages Wife, but Not His Public". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
  7. ↑ "Berlusconi's wife to divorce him". BBC News. 3 May 2009. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
  8. ↑ "Berlusconi's wife wants to end marriage, reports say - CNN.com". CNN. 3 May 2009. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
  9. ↑ Verenz, Paul (10 May 2010). "Berlusconi's wife to accept €3.5m a year in divorce". Irish Independent.
  10. ↑ Veronica €100,000 per day – Berlusconi keeps the heritage (in Italian). corriere.it.
  11. ↑ "Berlusconi, niente più assegno mensile da 1,4 milioni a Veronica". 16 November 2017.
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