“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost ten years, ends here.”
The forlorn lamentation of Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as per her words on social media after her eight-year relationship was brought to an end.
Meloni, has split from her partner, Andrea Giambruno, a television journalist who has made several embarrassing and sexist comments.
Off-air recordings of Giambruno, a presenter on Italy’s Mediaset’s talkshow Diario Del Giorno, made foul remarks and suggestive comments towards a female colleague.
“I thank him for the wonderful years we spent together, for the difficulties we went through and for giving me the most important thing in my life, which is our (seven-year-old) daughter Ginevra,” Meloni wrote. “Our paths have diverged for some time and it is time to acknowledge it.”
In the first off-air clip, Giambruno complains about criticisms of his hairstyle before telling his female colleague: “Why didn’t I meet you before?”
In the second recording, he is heard telling a female colleague that they need another participant on the show. “Let’s have a threesome, even a foursome,” he said.
In September, Meloni defended Giambruno for saying women should “avoid getting drunk” if they want to avoid being raped followed a series of series of high-profile rape cases.
Meloni defended him at the time saying that he had been misinterpreted and that they were similar to what her mother had told her, which was to “keep your eyes peeled and head screwed on”.
Giambruno’s other on-air gaffes include comments denying the climate crisis. “Heat in the summer isn’t big news,” in July amid soaring, record-breaking temperatures in Italy.
The politician, who came to power after her Brothers of Italy party triumphed in general elections, was brought up by a single mother and was estranged from her father.
Meloni met Giambruno in a TV studio after a day of political rallies. He said in an interview that an exhausted Meloni handed him a half-eaten banana, mistaking him for her assistant, before going on set.
He described their meeting as “love at first sight”.
