Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced on Friday that she had separated from her television journalist boyfriend, Andrea Giambruno, who had been under fire in recent weeks for making sexist statements on the broadcast. “My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost 10 years, ends here,” she wrote on Facebook. “Our paths have diverged for some time, and the time has come to acknowledge it,” she added. The couple has a daughter.
Meloni stated after that episode that she should not be criticized for her partner’s words
Giambruno hosts a news program on Mediaset, which is owned by the heirs of the late Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister and Meloni ally. Another Mediaset show aired off-air excerpts from Giambruno’s show this week, showing him using obscene language and making approaches to a female coworker. “Why didn’t I meet you before?” he asks. Giambruno is heard boasting about an affair and promising female colleagues they may work for him if they participate in group sex in the second, more graphic recording, which aired on Thursday.
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 stated after that episode that she should not be criticized for her partner’s words and that she would not answer inquiries regarding his behavior in the future.