Photo Gallery Berlusconi and His Women
Berlusconi's wife Veronica Lario lambasted the Italian prime minister's lineup of starlets and showgirls as candidates for the upcoming European Parliamentary elections in an open letter to La Repubblica, calling them "hussies in the service of power" and warning her husband's "impudence" and "shamelessness" in their selection served to offend and discredit women as a whole.
"I'm indignant," Berlusconi told the press after reading of his wife's divorce plans in the Sunday papers. "These are private, very private things, that don't belong in the press," the media tycoon told journalists
Former glamor model and Berlusconi-appointed Minister for Equality Mara Carfagna received a marriage proposal from Berlusconi during a TV show in 2007, a joke that prompted Lario's first public salvo against her husband.
"Silvio wounded my pride," Lario wrote in her first open letter in Rome's daily La Repubblica at the time. Berlusconi issued an emotional apology ...
... but did not scale back his advances on women. He even flirted with an emergency doctor during a visit of the L'Aquila earthquake region. "I'd like to be resucitated by you," Berlusconi reportedly told Fabiola Carrieri during a tour of emergency medical facilities.
The Berlusconis in Russia's Sotschi seaside resort in 2005.
Berlusconi's attentiveness toward Letizia was in stark contrast to his behaviour with his own children, Lario said. He missed all their three children's 18th birthdays, even though he was invited, she said.
"I can't be with a man who is involved with minors," Lario said Sunday, announcing the end of the Berlusconi union.
Berlusconi and Lario attending the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. This week, the Vatican issued a statement warning that a politician's moral values should influence the way voters view him.
Best friends: Prime Minister Berlusconi and former US President George W. Bush
Lario with children Luigi und Barbara
Berlusconi with former showgirl and glamor model Mara Carfagna, who has been minister for equality under Berlusconi since 2008.
During 29 years spent as Berlusconi's partner, Lario has steered clear of political controversy. More recently, she has made occasional critical comments about the US-led invasion of Iraq. She has also backed more liberal laws in Italy than her husband, on issues such as artificial insemination.
Berlusconi with his mother Rosa, who died on Feb. 3, 2008, aged 97.
One of the lads: Berlusconi at last month's G-20 meeting in London with US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev
