ANPThe Italian Prime Minister Meloni and her ex-partner Giambruno
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 13:50
Heleen D’Haens
Italy correspondent
Heleen D’Haens
Italy correspondent
Italian Prime Minister Meloni leaves her partner, TV journalist Andrea Giambruno, because of alleged sexual misconduct by him towards his colleagues. “We had been growing apart for a while, now is the time to act on that,” writes Meloni on X. The two were not married, but had been together for ten years. They have a seven-year-old daughter.
Giambruno, who presents a news program at TV empire Mediaset, has come under controversy in recent days after video images and audio recordings emerged in which he makes advances to female colleagues and makes sexual comments.
“You are such an intelligent woman, why haven’t we met before?” he says in the images, winking at his colleague Viviana Guglielmi. In audio recordings, he can be heard asking female colleagues behind the scenes “if he can touch his business” while he talks to them. “You’re already doing it,” one of the women replies.
He then tells the women that he is having an affair with a colleague and asks if they are up for a threesome. “Do you want to be part of our group of colleagues? You have to give something in return,” says Giambruno. “We do foursomes”, he continues. “In other words, we’re having sex.”
Victim blaming
Giambruno has previously come under controversy after he blamed the victim for a rape in his program last summer. “If you avoid getting drunk and losing your senses, you also avoid getting into trouble. Then you don’t run into wolves,” he said.
The presenter himself felt that his words had been misinterpreted at the time. He now denies any guilt. “What did I say, guys? Oh well, we laugh and we joke,” he responded to the recent audio recordings.
Political consequences
Meloni and Giambruno met ten years ago at Mediaset TV recordings. In an interview, Giambruno described how the politician gave him a half-eaten banana at the time because she thought he was her assistant. He called it “love at first sight”.
“I will always defend what we have been, our friendship, and I will defend at any cost a 7-year-old girl who loves her mother and father,” the Italian Prime Minister said in her statement on X.
Yet the matter is particularly painful for the Italian Prime Minister. Her right-wing party Fratelli d’Italia promotes conservative family values.
Statements of support
However, it is unlikely that the issue will have political consequences for Meloni. When her partner previously received negative press, it had no impact on her popularity. Italians tend to sharply separate personal life from career.
“A big hug Giorgia, you have my friendship and my support. Continue with your head held high,” coalition member and political rival Matteo Salvini wrote on social media. Left-wing opposition politicians also expressed their support.
Meloni herself does not intend to be politically damaged by her ex’s bad publicity. She ends her tweet with “Ps. To all who hoped to weaken me: know that though a drop may hope to hew a stone, the stone always remains stone, and the drop but water.”
2023-10-20 11:50:12
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