The Lady Insivible and the Cavaliere: Veronica Lario and Silvio Berlusconi, 30 years of love and scandals

She describes herself as a "country girl", one of those who never dreamed of being "First Lady".

Veronica Lario has yet shared the daily life of one of the most famous (and controversial) figures in Italian public life: Silvio Berlusconi.

In thirty years of relationship, the former actress and the billionaire, appointed president of the Council of Ministers three times, have gone through many media storms.

The fiery temperament of the Cavaliere has long contrasted with the discreet character of his second wife, nicknamed "Lady Invisible".

To discover

• The 3/4 Beckhams, a dream family?

Read alsoSilvio Berlusconi is better, “cautious optimism” from doctors

In video, Obama, Berlusconi, Merkel ..... dunces of a campaign for WaterAid

“Cautious optimism”

No one knows if Veronica Lario, whose divorce from Silvio Berlusconi caused a stir in 2014, is now at the bedside of the politician.

Hospitalized for a lung infection and chronic leukemia, he left intensive care to integrate “a normal care unit”, as indicated by

on Sunday April 16.

It has been more than a decade since the escapades of the Cavaliere got the better of his love affair with Miriam Raffaella Bartolini, alias Veronica Lario.

A pseudonym she would have chosen in tribute to the American actress Veronica Lake, according to

.

The

Magnificent Cuckold

Born on July 19, 1956, the young woman crossed paths with Silvio Berlusconi in 1980. He was one of Milan's most prominent entrepreneurs.

She comes from a modest background.

As a child, little Miriam plays in the streets of a popular neighborhood, and spends her Sundays at her grandmother's, making origami.

His widowed mother works as a cashier.

Years later, Miriam aspires to a great acting career, started “out of love for her fiancé”.

The suitor will soon be ousted.

No one can resist the imperious Cavaliere.

The first time Silvio Berlusconi saw Veronica Lario was, according to him, at the Manzoni theatre, which he had just acquired.

The actress officiates in a vaudeville,

, by Fernand Crommelynck, and appears, for a short scene, with bare breasts.

The entrepreneur hastens to join her in the dressing room to proclaim his love.

For her part, Veronica Lario claims to have met him at a dinner in Milan.

"Already married, he behaved as if he were single," she says.

I'm sure I met him on that occasion, but he doesn't remember it."

These women who have reconciled political life and motherhood

In images, in pictures

See the slideshow05 photos

See the slideshow05 photos

The "Legend of the Great Recluse"

The businessman has been married since 1965 to the very discreet Carla Maria Elvira Dall'Oglio, with whom he had two children, Marina and Pier Silvio.

This does not prevent him from starting a passionate affair with the blue-eyed actress.

Soon, Veronica Lario takes up residence in an apartment offered to her by her lover.

The accommodation is located a few steps from the headquarters of Fininvest, one of the most important financial holding companies in Italy, controlled by the Cavaliere family.

Veronica Lario sometimes suffers from this secret romance.

And then, her acting career is floundering.

She just appears in a few low-budget films.

A cult scene from

(1982), a feature film by Dario Argento, marks the end of his prowess on the big screen.

“It is at this moment that the legend of the great recluse begins,” summarizes Maria Latella in her book

, released in 2004. Understand, the beginning of a secret existence, in the shadow of the spotlight.

“Flowers, garden, house and children”

In 1984, the birth of his daughter Barbara changed everything.

The Cavaliere recognizes his illegitimate daughter, divorces his ex-wife and formalizes his relationship with Veronica Lario.

The couple will give birth to two other children: Eleonora, in 1986, and Luigi, in 1988. In December 1990, he finally unites in Milan.

But four years later, Veronica is disillusioned.

The devouring ambition of Silvio Berlusconi propelled him to the front of the political scene.

The entrepreneur becomes president of the Council of Ministers.

And gradually moves away from the one to whom he devoted an ardent passion.

When the politician exercises his power in Rome, the mother takes refuge in her villa in Milan.

"Flowers, garden, house and children: that's my life," she tells the most insistent journalists.

The main shareholder of the right-wing daily

, she leads a most ordinary existence.

Every day, she accompanies her children to school, cultivates her organic garden, reads Proust and is interested in philosophy.

A "model" of a housewife that Silvio Berlusconi never fails to put forward.

Scandals, Brangelina: the last of the power couples

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

Diamonds and oriental dance

However, behind the scenes, tensions are emerging.

The father of the family is, to say the least, absent.

"It's not just the telephone," Veronica Lario quipped one day.

Sometimes I see it on television.

If she has vowed to stay away from political life, she does not hesitate to contradict the decisions of her husband, sometimes in a public way.

In 2005, she declared herself in favor of the relaxation of the law on assisted procreation, and this, against the advice of the Church and Silvio Berlusconi.

It must be said that Veronica Lario has a hard time overcoming the gaps of the Cavaliere.

She gradually distances herself from this inveterate Don Juan, at the heart of several legal cases.

Silvio Berlusconi will make an attempt to win back his wife, on the occasion of the latter's 50th birthday.

That day, he gave her a diamond necklace, after indulging in an oriental dance, dressed up as a Berber courtier.

“I cried about it,” she confided, moved.

"The cup is full"

But a few months later, in 2007, the Italian made another mistake.

"If I weren't married, I would marry her on the spot," he said of young MP Mara Carfagna, live on television.

Veronica Lario demands a public apology, which she eventually obtains.

However, Silvio Berlusconi does it again.

One Sunday morning, he excuses an emergency meeting on the waste crisis in Naples to leave their home.

The next day, his wife discovers in the press that he went to the birthday party of Noemi Letizia, an 18-year-old naiad.

For Veronica Lario, “the cup is full”.

In May 2009, she filed for divorce, "overwhelmed by the behavior" of her ex-companion.

The effect is immediate: the testimonies of dozens of escort girls who have rubbed shoulders with the Cavaliere invade the newspapers.

In public as in private, the main interested party pins his wife, whom he considers responsible for his fall.

To the point of spreading the rumor of his alleged affair with Massimo Cacciari, the left-wing mayor of Venice.

In May 2010, Silvio Berlusconi was forced by the courts to pay his ex-wife a pension of 300,000 euros per month.

On December 28, 2012, the Milan court rendered a new judgment.

Veronica Lario gets 3 million euros monthly pension.

The couple's divorce was pronounced on February 18, 2014. Since then, the "

" has always kept a low profile.

She has just been seen a few times on the ski slopes, or on the way to school, with her grandson Alessandro.

A little boy whose "Donna Veronica" humorously assures that he is now "the only man in my life".