Giorgia Meloni, the far-right prime minister of Italy, has broken up with her partner, Andrea Giambruno, a journalist who has made many demeaning and sexist statements on TV.
Meloni announced the end of his almost decade-long relationship with Andrea Giambruno in a social media post. This came two days after it was revealed that Giambruno, a presenter on Mediaset's news talk show Diario Del Giorno, had made lewd and provocative remarks to a female colleague on off-air recordings.
The couple have a seven-year-old daughter. "I thank him for the wonderful years we spent together, for the difficulties we went through, and for giving me the most important thing in my life, which is our daughter, Ginevra," Meloni said as a caption in an Instagram photo. "Our paths have diverged for some time and it is time to acknowledge it."
Meloni took power in October after her Brothers of Italy party won the general elections.
Controversial Remarks
According to the Guardian, in the first behind-the-scenes clip, which was shown on another program produced by Mediaset, Giambruno vents his frustrations over the comments others have made about his hairdo before asking his female coworker, "Why didn't I meet you before?"
In the second tape, Giambruno can be heard bragging about an affair and promising female coworkers jobs in exchange for group sex, as reported by Sky News.
He is also heard informing a female coworker, "Let's have a threesome, even a foursome," he remarked as he proposed the idea.
Meloni came to Giambruno's defense in September after the latter said that women should refrain from getting intoxicated in order to reduce their risk of being raped.
After a string of high-profile rape cases, he expressed these thoughts on the topic during an on-air conversation. Meloni said at the time that his statements had been misunderstood and that although they were hasty, they were comparable to what her mother had advised her, which was to "keep your eyes peeled and head screwed on."
Meloni did not have a relationship with her father and was raised by a single mother. Her mother and father are no longer in contact with each other.
Other on-air embarrassing mistakes made by Giambruno include dismissing the existence of a climate problem in his statements. When temperatures in Italy reached unprecedented levels in July, he said that "heat in the summer isn't big news."
Following a day of political protests, Meloni saw Giambruno in the studio of Mediaset, where she was scheduled to appear on a program. Before they went on set, he said in an interview that an exhausted Meloni had given him a banana that had been partially eaten because she had mistaken him for her assistant.
He said it was "love at first sight" when they met.
