Ninety years as a free woman
Sandra Milo, pseudonym of Salvatrice Elena Greco, was born in Tunis on 11 March 1933 and therefore on Saturday 11 March she will be 90 years old, worn splendidly. She is still very active and perky. A long career as an actress (she took part in Fellini’s film, 8½, in 1963, which won two Oscars), and a television presenter. A free woman, with a very intense life, made up of ups and downs, great successes, and profound moments of darkness. But she has always been reborn, strong and with that fake ditzy air.
Four marriages, three children
In her life, she was married four times and had three children. Her first husband was Cesare Rodighiero, when she was only 15 years old. She became pregnant, but the baby died at birth due to premature birth. The couple separated after only 21 days of the wedding, obtaining the annulment of the Sacra Rota. Later the actress got married to Moris Ergas, from whom she had her daughter Debora. She then married a third time with Ottavio De Lollis (in the photo), father of her two children Ciro and Azzurra. Finally, in 1990 she married the Cuban Jorge Ordoñez. even if, as she declared in an interview with Vanity Fair, that relationship has never been true: it would have been just a gimmick to get people talking.
The great love for Fellini
The great love of his life. A 17-year passion despite Federico Fellini being married to Giulietta Masino. In the two masterpieces of the master from Rimini – 8½ (1963), two Academy Awards and Juliet of the spirits (1965) – Sandrocchia (as she was affectionately nicknamed by the director) starred in the role of an ironic and uninhibited femme fatale who, in addition to embodying the director’s erotic imagery, is often contrasted with his wives, more humble and more bourgeois mentality. Sandra declared that Fellini was the absolute love of her life. She then stated that at the beginning she was very much in love with him, while he only felt a great attraction. «But then at a certain point, he too realized that he loved me and, after 17 years, he told me that he understood that I was the woman in his life. It was with me that he would have wanted to end his days. But I said no. Because I was scared.”
The Miracle of the Blue Daughter
Interviewed by «Diva e Donna», she told of the healing of the third child Maria Azzurra, born prematurely in the seventh month of gestation, who seemed to die at birth, but came back to life. The Catholic Church recognized the authenticity of the miracle during the beatification process of Sister Maria Pia Mastena, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Face. This is the story: «The baby was born cyanotic and devoid of cardiac and muscular activity. The gynecologist draws up the certificate of the child’s death. I was desperate when the most faithful Sister Costantina took the baby, she wrapped her in the white blanket I had brought with me and ran away. She went to pray to Mother Maria Pia Mastena, founder of the order, and shortly after the baby made her first cry. Sister Costantina was supposed to take the baby to the mortuary, but she placed her in an incubator in the nursery. She gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and supplied her with oxygen: at the same time, she invoked her Foundress. Soon, the little girl gave a start, then she let out a breath and began to cry. Subsequent tests showed that the long period without oxygen to the brain had in no way affected her normal development ».
That scream, Ciroooo
Sandra Milo involuntarily entered the history of Italian television also for a phone prank in bad taste, against her: on January 8, 1990, during the afternoon broadcast “Love is a wonderful thing” that the actress anonymous phone call from a female voice, live, told Sandra that her son Ciro was hospitalized in serious condition following a car accident. Milo couldn’t hold back the tears and she ran desperately from the studio, screaming Cirooo. The news of the accident was false, but the screams of the shocked presenter were taken up by broadcasts such as Blob, Strip the news and Target. And it became a catchphrase. Sandra later said: “It was discovered that the call was made by a woman who worked in Via del Corso… Everyone denied it…. I’ve never been able to hate her, I’ve tried to understand her desire to be a protagonist for once” .
The clandestine relationship with Bettino Craxi
Sandra Milo was linked to the Italian Socialist Party since the 1960s, and was very close to Pietro Nenni. In the eighties she Sandra she was the lover of Bettino Craxi, then leader of the PSI. She Said of him: «He was very shy but sexually I was crazy about him. Bettino was intelligent, cultured, curious but also of a shyness that few knew. I was initially conquered more by his offspring than by his physique. He also spoke to me in bed, during lovemaking. And I, sexually, was crazy about him. The story lasted about a couple of years “in secret”, in the mid-eighties. Then it closed because Sandra Milo feared the jealousy of her husband, Ottavio De Lollis, particularly jealous and abusive.
Protagonist on television
Sandra Milo has never felt the weight of the years. And so in 2010, at the age of 77, she took part in the reality show “The Island of the famous”, reaching the semifinals and challenging climatic and food problems. From then she-until today-she has always been present on tv. In the summer of 2019, on Rai 1, you held a column dedicated to the mail of the heart in the program «Io e te», hosted by Pierluigi Diaco, with Valeria Graci. In 2020, alongside Paolo Ruffini, she was a commentator and judge in the sixth episode of the program «La pupa e il gecchio – E vice versa», on Italia 1. In the summer of 2020, however, she returned to Rai as a correspondent for the program «Estate live» conducted by Andrea Delogu and Marcello Masi.
The good girls
Never a title was then spot on. Three aged and very funny protagonists. In the first edition of “The good girls” on Sky, Sandra Milo, Mara Maionchi and Orietta Berti traveled the world with their minibus between chatter and laughter. In this second edition, Marisa Laurito replaced Orietta Berti. Milo is the oldest of the three bad girls. But she is certainly not the most “calm”.
The economic problems
Sandra Milo vented years ago to «Verissimo» with Silvia Toffanin: «I work, I work but I don’t earn anything because everything goes to the Revenue Agency. They confiscated everything from me. I could make an extreme gesture. In this period I seriously thought about suicide, maybe it’s useful for something, it would be a shock to change the laws. Maybe this is the last television interview I’ll release, I want to retire from the scene, I can’t take it anymore». The payment in installments has in fact stopped the blocking of current accounts due to his debt to the tax authorities of around 800 thousand euros. After some time, at the age of 87, she revealed that she was working hard to help her family in difficulty at a time of very strong economic crisis. She revealed to the weekly «Nuovo»: «I need to work to support my children, Azzurra and Ciro, who are unemployed. He also has a child, my 7-year-old nephew Flavio, and my daughter-in-law Vanessa is also out of work. So I, who am lucky enough to be healthy, have to work to help them. And then, if I have to do something, I don’t think about it too much: it’s the thought that tires me».
Boyfriend”
In 2019 Sandra Milo caused a lot of talk when she showed up in Venice with a man almost half her age, the entrepreneur Alessandro Rorato. A restaurateur from Treviso, 37 years her junior. He declared: «Ours is a relationship that has yet to grow. Let’s say that something is starting between us, what we will know over time. I love it like crazy, and it fascinates me ». At the end of 2019, in the program «Storie Italiane» she was the actress who clarified: «I love Alessandro infinitely, but what more could you ask for from a partner at my age? Yes, I consider him a companion, we confide in each other every day, I like him because he’s a hard worker, he has a great sense of responsibility!”.