The scandal broke out when Flavia Borzone said on a set: “Elettra, let me meet dad.” The request was addressed to Elettra Lamborghini, granddaughter of the founder of the luxury car firm and daughter of her heir. It was in 2019. Flavia, born in 1988, claims to be the result of a relationship between Tonino Lamborghini and the Neapolitan opera singer Rosalba Colosimo, a story they maintain together and which has cost them a defamation lawsuit whose preliminary hearing took place in November 2022. The process took a turn just seven days ago, when Borzone’s defense informed the Bologna Court that it has genetic proof of her story: a private detective obtained a straw from which Elettra Lamborghini drank and the comparison of DNA proves they are sisters.
Tonino Lamborghini’s lawyer believes that the court will not accept the DNA test obtained by Borzone, arguing that there was no consent on the part of Elettra and that it cannot be presented incidentally in this process but rather a new one should be opened. However, Gian Maria Romanello, Flavia’s lawyer, gives the reply in a telephone conversation with La Vanguardia: “It is very different to appropriate a belonging than to take it when it has been abandoned. This is what is called ‘res nullius’ in Latin. And this is the case. The straw was left without an owner, it is an abandoned thing and in that sense it is perfectly usable in court: in the balance the right to privacy will weigh less than the right of defense. That is, if Tonino Lamborghini sued his client, he must prioritize the possibility of proving that Flavia is not lying.
Questioned by the defense of Borzone and his mother, Lamborghini did not deny that he had had relations with Colosimo and even admitted that he had had unprotected sex, but he pointed out that the burden of proof rests with the person suing, that is, Borzone is the one. He must prove that he is her father. Naturally, he will never volunteer for a DNA check.
Romanello explains to this newspaper that the presentation of this DNA test will accompany a demand for recognition of paternity and if the court accepts the test, it will ask Lamborghini to offer itself to take a test. We will see what happens when the time comes, the date of which Romanello prefers not to reveal yet “due to defense strategy.” It would be the fourth lawsuit with his clients as protagonists: Lamborghini’s lawsuit for defamation, whose sentence to pay the businessman 30,000 euros is being appealed, another to deny the paternity of Mr. Borzone that was substantiated in Naples in his favor and the criminal hearing that will begin this next month of March. If justice finally rules in favor of Flavia Borzone and Rosalba Colosimo, she will be able to change her surname and will have the right to claim her share of an inheritance that is now estimated to be close to one billion euros. Flavia and Rosalba are prohibited from giving interviews due to an order issued in 2021.
