You might want to pity the plight of Veronica Lario, the estranged wife of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former prime minister. Per the terms of a just-reached divorce settlement between the couple, Lario will have only $132,000 to live on.
Every day of the year.
Such are the lifestyles of the rich and famous. In the annals of mega dissolutions, it didn’t take commentators long after the ink had dried on Lario and Berlusconi’s divorce agreement to fully appreciate the sheer magnitude of its terms.
Those terms are a bit more understandable if Berlusconi’s personal worth is recognized. The ex-prime minister, who has again returned to politics in advance of Italy’s upcoming elections next February, is a billionaire with a marked taste for a high-profile, extravagant and controversial lifestyle.
Take the Berlusconi estate, for example. Its estimated worth comes in at north of $100 million. Unfortunately for Lario, and despite the fact that she raised the couple’s three children there, Berlusconi gets to keep that property
Still, with a spousal support payment of more than $4 million each month, Lario can likely find other digs.
The couple was married in 1990. Their marriage has been centrally marked by tabloid pieces in recent years that have focused upon Berlusconi’s liaisons with other women, some of them many decades younger than the 76-year-old politician and business mogul.
Lario went so far at one point as to take out an open letter in a national newspaper demanding an apology from her husband for compromising her dignity as a woman.
Source: Reuters, “Berlusconi to pay 36 million euros a year divorce settlement: press,” Dec. 28, 2012
