Italy PM Giorgia Meloni Announces Separation From Jurno Partner Over Sexist Remarks

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Bhubaneswar: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday (Oct 20) announced her separation from her longtime beau and television journalist partner Andrea Giambruno, who was recently criticised for his sexist comments both on and off air.

“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost ten years, ends here. I thank him for the splendid 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 wrote on X and Facebook.

“Our paths have diverged for some time, and the time has come to acknowledge it. I will defend what we were, I will defend our friendship, and I will defend, at all costs, a seven-year-old girl who loves her mother and loves her father, as I was unable to love mine. I have nothing else to say about this,” she added.

Meloni met Giambruno in 2015 when he was working as a writer for a TV show on which she appeared. They are parents to a seven-year-old daughter.

Giambruno, who hosts the “Diario del giorno” (Daily diary) programme on the Rete 4 commercial station, came under flak for blaming the survivor of a gang rape in Sicilian capital Palermo. “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 in his programme.

His remarks prompted an angry response.

In an explicit recording aired on Thursday, Giambruno was also heard boasting about an affair and telling female colleagues they can work for him if they take part in group sex.