Reuters
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday she had separated from her television journalist partner Andrea Giambruno, who has drawn criticism in recent weeks for sexist comments made on and off air.
“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost 10 years, ends here,” Meloni wrote on her social media accounts. “Our paths have diverged for some time, and the time has come to acknowledge it,” she added.
The split comes as the 46-year-old prime minister celebrates her first year in office at the head of a right-wing coalition government that has defended the traditional family as one of its policy hallmarks.
Meloni said she would not be distracted by difficulties in her private life, saying “all those who hoped to weaken me by striking me at home” would have no success.
The couple, who met in a TV studio in 2014, have a 7-year-old daughter.
Giambruno, 42, is the presenter of a news program transmitted by Mediaset, part of the MFE (MFEB.MI) media group owned by the heirs of the late Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister and Meloni ally.
This week, another Mediaset satirical current affairs television show broadcast off-air video excerpts from Giambruno’s program showing him using foul language, touching his groin and appearing to make advances to a female colleague.
“Why didn’t I meet you before?” he tells her.
In the second, more explicit recording aired on Thursday, Giambruno is heard boasting about an affair and telling female colleagues they can work for him if they take part in group sex.
The TV journalist had already been widely criticized in August for apparent victim-blaming comments following a gang rape case.
“If you go dancing, you have every right to get drunk – there shouldn’t be any kind of misunderstanding and any kind of problem – but if you avoid getting drunk and losing your senses, you might also avoid running into certain problems and coming across a wolf,” he said during his program.
Meloni had said after that episode that she should not be judged for comments made by her partner, and that in future she would not answer questions about his behavior.
Giambruno was not immediately available for comment.
Marco Furfaro of the opposition Democratic Party said Giambruno’s comments were “pure chauvinism and sexism…. uncommentable filth.”
