Nov 26, 2009 12:16 PM
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Tue Feb 9
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Some people. Just because Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi reportedly fawned over a teenage lingerie model his wife wants a divorce, $300,000 a month and tens of millions up front.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports today, via the BBC, that the money has already changed hands. Berlusconi and Veronica Lario had been together married since 1990 (they've been together since 1980), and have three children (all in their 20s) together.
All this unpleasantness began because Berlusconi, who is 73 and the prime minister of an actual country, decided to go to the birthday party of Noemi Letizia, the daughter of a business associate. He gave her a necklace and a signed picture of himself (please do not try the latter as a gift yourself). "It was a lovely surprise to see the man I call Papi (daddy) at my party," she told various newspapers.
Lario was less warm in her message to the media. She told Italian wire ANSA that news of his party-attending "really surprised me because he has never come to the 18th birthday parties of any of our children despite being invited."
Berlusconi, who's fortune is estimated at around $13bn, also tried to get hot models and stars to run for elected office. Today's he's probably thankful that Italians don't have Thanksgiving and he doesn't have to sit down with his soon-to-be-ex wife and kids for perhaps the most awkward meal ever. Especially as an escort is about to publish a book detailing alleged trysts she had with the PM.
Send an email to Ravi Somaiya, the author of this post, at ravi@gawker.com.
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