'Berlusconi's wife wants a divorce'
Updated on 03 May 2009
The wife of Italy's flamboyant Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is seeking a divorce, according to reports.
Veronica Lario, 52, was quoted as saying: "I have been forced to take this step. I don't want to add anything else."
In a two-line statement, the 72-year-old prime minister said: "This is a personal matter that saddens me. That is private, and it seems appropriate not to talk about it."
Last week Veronica, who two years ago demanded a public apology from her husband for flirting with younger women, said his party's choice of female candidates for the European elections was a "shamelessly trashy" process.
She also accused him of going to the Naples birthday bash of an 18-year-old woman, the daughter of a political acquaintance, but not attending the coming-of-age parties of his own children.
Berlusconi, a 72-year-old media tycoon, told reporters he was sorry his wife had apparently believed "what she read in the papers", blaming a campaign against him "hyped by the leftist press".
Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party has reportedly been considering a number of former actresses and television showgirls as possible candidates in the June European elections.
His wife said last week: "What's happening today behind a front of bodily curves and female beauty is grave.
"Some have written that it is all part of entertainment for the emperor. I agree."
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