Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday that she had split up with her partner Andrea Giambruno, a television journalist who has come under fire recently for making sexist remarks.
Last month, Meloni told reporters that Giambruno’s comments should not be used to condemn her and that she would refrain from commenting on his actions going forward.
The division occurs as the 46-year-old prime leader commemorates her first anniversary leading a right-wing coalition administration that has made upholding the traditional family one of its guiding principles.
“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost 10 years, ends here,” Meloni penned on her social media pages. It’s time to admit that our paths have parted for a while, she remarked.
Meloni asserted that she would not be sidetracked by problems in her personal life and predicted that “all those who hoped to weaken me by striking me at home” would fail.
The couple’s daughter is seven years old and they were introduced at a TV studio in 2014.
Giambruno, 42, is the host of a news program that is broadcast by Mediaset, a division of the MFE (MFEB.MI) media conglomerate owned by the late Silvio Berlusconi, a former prime minister and ally of Meloni.
This week, off-air video clips from Giambruno’s program were aired on another Mediaset satirical current events television program. The clips showed him using obscene language, stroking his groin, and seemingly making attempts toward a female coworker.
He says to her, “Why didn’t I meet you before?”
Following a case of gang rape, the TV journalist received harsh criticism in August for remarks seen by many as victim-blaming.
Giambruno was unavailable for comment right away. Giambruno’s remarks, according to Marco Furfaro of the opposition Democratic Party, were “pure chauvinism and sexism…. uncommentable filth
