Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who puts family first, has split from her TV journalist boyfriend after lewd comments in which he grabbed his genital area while suggesting a co-host for a “threesome or foursome”. blocking of his television program led to show.
Meloni took to social media on Friday to announce her split from Andrea Giambruno, who is also the father of her seven-year-old daughter.
“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which has lasted almost ten years, ends here,” Meloni wrote just two days after a video of his lewd behavior during a commercial break of the popular show “Striscia la NOTEIA” on Mediaset went viral.
“I thank him for the great years we spent together, for the difficulties we went through and for giving me the most important thing in my life, our daughter Ginevra.”
Giambruno said through his agent on Friday that he and Mediaset had “agreed” that his show would be suspended following the scandal. He was not in the anchor chair during the recording of the show on Friday afternoon. Mediaset told CNN partner SKY24 that they are “investigating the facts” surrounding Giambruno’s alleged behavior.
In the video, filmed in front of a live audience during a commercial break and posted on the show’s social media accounts and website, Giambruno is seen walking around the set and asking a female co-host if she has a boyfriend. what she says she does and that he asked her earlier.
He then asks her if she wants to have group sex and asks her if he minds if he touches his genital area, which he did while talking to her, according to the video released by the show. The co-host can be seen looking at the desk during his comments.
Mediaset, which was owned by the late politician Silvio Berlusconi, has long been criticized for broadcasting sexist content and frequently publishes behind-the-scenes videos of its popular show.
In Meloni’s social media post, she wrote, “Our paths have been diverging for some time and it’s time to acknowledge it. I will defend what we were, I will defend our friendship, and I will defend at all costs a seven-year-old girl who loves her mother and father the way I could not love mine.”
According to her autobiography, Meloni’s father was a drug addict and spent time in prison. Many of her coalition members, including Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini and Interior Minister Antonio Tajani, as well as her own Brothers of Italy political party, tweeted “hugs” to express their personal pain.
She added: “I have nothing further to say about this” and urged her critics not to try to capitalize on their problems at home.
Giambruno previously embarrassed the prime minister by suggesting that a spate of gang rapes of young women could have been prevented if the girls had avoided alcohol.
“If you go dancing, you have every right to get drunk,” he said on his television show, which Mediaset canceled after a video of his behavior was leaked this week.
“But if you avoid getting drunk and passing out, you might also avoid getting into trouble, because then you’ll find the wolf.”
In response to a question about Giambruno’s comments on violence against women, Meloni said he was “misunderstood.”
“He was misunderstood. I believe in freedom of the press and I don’t tell him what to say,” she said.
Meloni has been widely criticized for her focus on traditional families, despite not marrying Giambruno, and for her focus on restricting the rights of same-sex parents by criminalizing surrogacy and in cities where her political party is in the majority to remove a parent’s name from birth certificates.
Calls, text messages and emails to Meloni’s spokesman and the political party seeking comment were not returned. A text message to Giambruno was not answered. Mediaset’s public affairs office confirmed that its broadcast was suspended but did not give a reason.