Silvio Berlusconi with Veronica Lario in 2004. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP
Former Italian prime minister had reportedly offered Veronica Lario ?300,000 a month
Three years after Silvio Berlusconi's wife walked out on him over his alleged frolicking with teenage girls, the former Italian prime minister has reportedly been ordered to pay her ?3m a month in a divorce settlement.
The climax of the long-simmering divorce battle ? reported by Italy's Corriere della Sera ? follows Berlusconi's offer of just ?300,000 a month to the former actress Veronica Lario, whom he married in 1990 after divorcing his first wife.
Although Lario had demanded ?43m a year, higher than the ?36m awarded, the judge's ruling is heavily in her favour.
Lario denounced her husband in 2009, saying: "I cannot stay with a man who frequents minors," after he was snapped attending the birthday party of the aspiring TV showgirl Noemi Letizia, then 18.
Lario, who has had three children with Berlusconi, also described his attempt to send female TV starlets to the European parliament as "shameless rubbish" and entertainment fit for "an emperor".
Since their separation, Berlusconi has been engulfed by allegations of sex with prostitutes and his so-called Bunga Bunga parties in Milan. Female guests at the parties have revealed in court that Berlusconi still sends them regular cheques for thousands of euros.
As he hits the campaign trail, Berlusconi has claimed he is in a steady relationship with Francesca Pasquale, a former TV showgirl and member of his political party who is 27, almost 50 years his junior and younger than his oldest daughter.
That claim was challenged this month by Katarina Knezevic, a former Miss Montenegro, who reportedly attended Berlusconi's parties and said Pasquale had been given a contract to appear at Berlusconi's side.
Knezevic, 22, told the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano that she was Berlusconi's true love and would marry him, adding: "I will kill for him and die for him."
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