Silvio Berlusconi, who died this Monday at the age of 86, has been a controversial key figure in Italian politics until his last days, who has also always attracted attention for his intense and mediatic romances, in recent years with women much younger than him. .
The leader of Forza Italia and founder of Mediaset has died after a long hospitalization of 45 days due to pneumonia and a form of leukemia. During the morning of this Monday, his closest relatives went to the hospital where he finally died, there his last love was already waiting, Marta Fascina, the girlfriend of the so-called il Cavaliere, who was 53 years younger than him.
His first marriage was at the age of 29 with Carla Elvira Lucia Dall’Oglio. Berlusconi and this Italian geneticist met in May 1964 and began a courtship that only lasted a year, as they soon walked down the aisle. They shared their life for 20 years and as a result of their relationship two children were born: Maria Elvira (1966; better known as Marina) and Pier Silvio (1969). They divorced in 1985.
While still married to Carla Elvira Dall’Oglio, Berlusconi had a daughter with another woman, actress Verónica Lario. The then successful businessman fell madly in love with Lario during her performance in the play The Magnificent Cuckold by Fernand Cromelynk at the Manzoni Theater in Milan. They then began a long relationship that gave them three children: Barbara (1984), Eleonora (1986) and Luigi (1988). They passed through the altar in 1990, their wedding being an important social event in Italy due to the fame of the groom.
The couple divorced in 2009 after notable disputes that reached the press. The cause of the disagreement was the publication of some compromising photographs that showed Berlusconi in an affectionate attitude with Noemi Letizia, at her 18th birthday party. This politician then faced a great controversy over the expensive gifts he had given Letizia and her attendance at that party. The news and their romance was the subject of intense media coverage around the world, and it was even suggested that he go to the Italian Parliament to give details of his relationship with the young woman.
Then the fringes of his second and multimillion-dollar divorce were made public. The Court of Milan ordered Berlusconi to pay in the first instance up to three million euros a month to Verónica Lario, a figure that was reduced to 1.4 million euros. That happened in 2012, but recently the actress has been ordered to return part of that million-dollar sum after a new request from Berlusconi’s lawyers.
Berlusconi has chained a romance with the next one, and for this reason, after the international scandal that invalidated Noemi Letizia to be his first lady, he looked for another very adept to him. Francesca Pascale was the president of her fan club when he met her in Naples in 2011.
This television presenter confessed that she had been in love with him for several years before they started dating, but their love did not last long and that short time together became a new economic drain for him. Despite not being married, Pascale received a payment of 20 million euros and an annual pension of one million as “maintenance”. Last year, Pascale made headlines again for his wedding to Italian singer Paola Turci.
In his vein of splicing one relationship with the next, the Italian weekly Diva and Donna discovered in 2020 the tycoon having fun with the Forza Italia party deputy Marta Antonia Fascina, while his 12-year relationship with Pascale had not yet ended. Then, that fan who spent more than a decade with her idol said: “I am surprised… The only thing I can say is that I will always love my president with infinite goodness.”
Since 2020, the politician had an official relationship with Fascina, who was 53 years his junior. She, another strong supporter of il Cavaliere’s ideas, is a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies for Forza Italia. She served as unofficial first lady in Berlusconi’s latest bid to run for office and also stood by him during his recent health problems.
Another name of a woman to note, who was not his official girlfriend but who definitely had a lot to do with Berlusconi’s public image, is that of Karima El-Mahroug, also known by the nickname Ruby Heartstealer. Her nights at the politician’s house when she was 17 years old were about to take him to prison. Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2013 for prostitution of a minor and abuse of power at first instance, but was acquitted in March 2015.
