Here’s something that definitely was not on our bingo card for 2023.
Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, announced on social media on Friday that she is separating from her long-time partner Andrea Giambruno.
You may be thinking, big deal. People split all the time.
Except the reason the couple are parting ways is unexpectedly lewd.
Watch: Phillip Schofield's first interview after affair revealed. Post continues below.
The decision comes after Giambruno, a television presenter for Italian broadcaster Mediaset, was caught making explicit comments to female colleagues behind the scenes of his talk show.
“How do you do, darling?” Giambruno is heard telling one of his female co-workers, in one recording, which was aired by a satirical current affairs TV show on Thursday.
“Do you know that (name redacted) and I are having an affair? All of Mediaset knows it and now you do too,” he continues.
“But we‘re looking for a third person, as we do threesomes. Foursomes too. Would you like to be part of our working group?”
Another recording exposes Giambruno touching his groin, using foul language and asking his female colleague: “Can I touch my balls while I talk to you?”
The comments prompted Meloni to make a statement on her social media, announcing that the two will be going their separate ways.
"My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost 10 years, ends here," Meloni wrote. "Our paths have diverged for some time, and the time has come to acknowledge it."
The two share a daughter together, aged seven.
In her post, the Prime Minister thanked Giambruno for the “wonderful years we spent together, for the difficulties we went through and for giving me the most important thing in my life, our daughter Ginevra".
She added: "All those who sought to weaken me by striking my family should know that even if a water drop can hope to break a rock, a rock will always be a rock while a drop is just water."
Mediaset also released a statement of their own, announcing that Giambruno has been suspended as a presenter while the company investigates the situation.
The scandal occurred just as Meloni celebrated her first year in office as the leader of a right-wing coalition government which cites the protection of traditional Catholic family values as one of its major policies.
Alessandro Zan, an MP from the centre-left Democratic Party, said that after her decision to separate she should "at least leave families who want to stay together in peace".
This isn’t the first time Giambruno has found himself in hot water. A few months ago, the journalist was accused of victim-blaming after he suggested that young women could avoid getting raped if they didn’t get drunk.
"If you go dancing you have every right to get drunk," he said. "But if you avoid getting drunk and losing consciousness, maybe you would also avoid getting into specific problems because that's when you find the wolf."
Giambruno is yet to comment on the recording or Meloni’s statement.
Feature image: AAP.
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