Veronica Lario, the estranged wife of Silvio Berlusconi, is reported to be demanding €43 million (£39 million) a year, or just over three and a half million euros a month, in maintenance as part of their divorce settlement.
Mr Berlusconi, 73, has contested this as "exorbitant" and is offering between €200,000 and €300,000 a month instead, Corriere della Sera said. It said that the sum demanded by Ms Lario was "to enable her to keep up the style of life she has enjoyed until now". Maria Cristina Morelli, Ms Lario's lawyer, declined to comment.
Ms Lario, 53, a former actress, announced in May that she was divorcing Mr Berlusconi, saying that she could no longer remain with a man "who frequents minors", an apparent reference to Mr Berlusconi's friendship with Noemi Letizia, an aspiring actress and model whose 18th birthday party he attended in a Naples suburb at the end of April, giving her a gold and diamond necklace. Ms Lario said that he was "not a well man", later adding that he suffered from sex addiction.
Mr Berlusconi has denied that he had any liaison with Ms Letizia or any underage girl, but has failed to explain how and when he met her. Ms Lario also accused her husband of “shamelessly trashy” behaviour in choosing attractive showgirls as candidates for European parliamentary elections. She has expressed left-leaning views that differ sharply from her husband’s on issues from the Iraq war to bioethics.
In January 2007 she published an open letter in La Repubblica demanding a public apology after Mr Berlusconi openly flirted with showgirls and praised the beauty of Mara Carfagna, a former topless model who he later appointed as his Minister for Equal Opportunities.
The Noemi Letizia affair unleashed a tidal wave of disclosures about Mr Berlusconi's private life, including the allegation that women were paid to attend his parties and in some cases to go to bed with him. This week Patrizia D'Addario, a former escort girl from Bari, published a memoir in which she describes in graphic detail the night she spent with the Prime Minister at his Rome residence last year. He maintains that he did not know she was a prostitute.
Mr Berlusconi's hopes of a consensual divorce settlement were dashed this month when Ms Lario demanded a share of his fortune by filing divorce papers blaming the Italian premier "entirely" for the split, setting the scene for a messy court battle. Divorce court officials in Milan said at the time they had yet to receive such papers, but the reports have not been denied either by Mr Berlusconi or by his wife.
At stake is Mr Berlusconi's wealth, estimated at between €5 billion and €8 billion (£4.5 billion to £7 billion). He is known to have wanted to avoid a court battle over the division of his legacy between his three children by Ms Lario and his two by his first wife, Carla Dall’Oglio.
Mr Berlusconi has two children by his first marriage, Marina, 43, and Piersilvio, 40, and three by Ms Lario, Barbara, 25, Eleonora, 24 and Luigi, 21. He is understood to want to divide his legacy equally between his two families. Ms Lario however is said to be demanding that the Berlusconi fortune be split equally between all five children.
Under Italian law couples can divorce after three years of separation. Ms Lario’s decision to take her husband to court as the guilty party means that he could be forced to explain his alleged relationships with other women including models, showgirls and "escorts".
Lawyers for Mr Berlusconi are expected to argue that Marina and Piersilvio are senior managers in his business empire and deserve to benefit more since they have contributed to its growth. Mr Berlusconi’s business empire embraces construction, television, football, insurance, advertising and publishing as well as villas and other properties in Milan, Sardinia, Bermuda, Britain and the United States.
Ms Lario’s three children are all members of the board of Fininvest, Mr Berlusconi’s holding company, with a 7 per cent stake each. Mr Berlusconi holds 60 per cent, and the rest is divided equally between Marina and Piersilvio. Ms Lario has no stake in the companies but owns a villa at Macherio, outside Milan, where she has long led a separate life.
She met Mr Berlusconi 30 years ago when he saw her perform topless in a play in Milan called The Magnificent Cuckold. Mr Berlusconi has insisted that Ms Lario should apologise to him and not the other way around, saying that she been misled by press reports. “I am indignant,” Mr Berlusconi said after she demanded a divorce. “Veronica has fallen into a trap.”
The divorce has added to the pressures on Mr Berlusconi at a time when he is engulfed by corruption allegations and sex scandals. He is trying to push through Parliament a bill shortening criminal trial lengths, which he claims is part of a much needed judicial reform.
Critics however say it is transparently designed to halt corruption trials in which he is a defendant, after a decision in October by Italy's constitutional court to overturn a law granting him immunity from prosecution. According to Il Giornale, the Berlusconi family newspaper, he also faces impending charges over alleged past links with the Mafia, based on evidence from Mafia "pentiti", or supergrasses.
Mr Berlusconi repeatedly claims that he is the victim of persecution by leftwing magistrates and judges. However a survey by the IPSOS polling organisation in La Repubblica today said that 65 per cent had faith in the magistrates and the judicial system, and 51 per cent were opposed to Mr Berlusconi's attempts to shorten trials, with 35 per cent in favour. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the former President, said that Mr Berlusconi's sustained attacks on the independent judiciary were "undermining Italy's institutions".
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