“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost ten years, ends here.” Giorgia Meloni posted that line on a Friday in October 2023, two days after a video of her partner’s crude behavior went viral in Italy.
The clip came from Giambruno’s own workplace. Satirical program Striscia la Notizia, which airs in prime time on Mediaset, had published backstage footage shot during a commercial break in front of a live audience. Giambruno, a television presenter, is seen walking around the set and asking a female co-host whether she has a boyfriend. She says she does. Then he asks whether she would like to take part in group sex and touches his groin as he talks. The co-host looks down at the desk.
A second batch aired later in the week. DW reported that Striscia la Notizia broadcast the clips over two nights, Tuesday and Thursday. In one, Giambruno tells a woman off camera that he and a colleague “are looking for a third person” and says they do “threesomes. Foursomes too.”
The announcement
Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, did not mention the scandal. She wrote that “our paths have diverged for some time, and the time has come to acknowledge it.” She thanked Giambruno for “the splendid years” and for their daughter, Ginevra, then seven. The two were never married.
She also wrote that she would defend, “at all costs, a seven-year-old girl who loves her mother and loves her father, as I was unable to love mine.” CNN noted that, according to her autobiography, Meloni’s father was a drug addict who spent time in prison. DW added that she was raised by a single mother. She aimed one line at critics: she blasted “all those who hoped to weaken me by hitting me at home,” and she asked that nobody use her private troubles for gain.
Giambruno said through his agent that he and Mediaset had agreed to suspend his show. He was absent from the Friday afternoon taping. Mediaset told a CNN affiliate it was investigating the facts. The network was once owned by the late Silvio Berlusconi, and his Forza Italia party is a junior partner in Meloni’s government. It has long been criticized for sexist content.
Not his first controversy
Giambruno had embarrassed the prime minister before. On his show he suggested that a spate of gang rapes might have been avoided if the young women had not been drinking. “If you go dancing you are fully entitled to get drunk,” he said, “but if you avoid getting drunk and losing consciousness, perhaps you’d also avoid getting into trouble.” Asked about it, Meloni said he had been “misunderstood.”
After the split, Meloni’s coalition allies, including Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani, tweeted “hugs” in support. CNN also pointed out that she has been criticized for stressing traditional families while not marrying Giambruno herself. Her post ended with a short line: she had nothing else to say.
Sources
- Giorgia Meloni, Italian prime minister, splits from partner after his sexist TV comments | CNN
- Italy's Meloni leaves partner after sexist comments scandal
