Italian prostitute says she slept with Berlusconi
The prostitute at the centre of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s sex scandal today dismissed his claims that he did not know her, saying they spent a night together followed by an “intimate” breakfast.
Patrizia D’Addario said that the only way he could be confused about her identity was because “there were so many other young women who looked just like me” at the parties he threw at his residence.
Prosecutors in Bari have questioned D’Addario and other women as part of a probe into a local businessman accused of recruiting and paying women to attend parties at the premier’s homes.
The businessman, Giampaolo Tarantini, has said the women were only reimbursed for their travel expenses and has apologised to Mr Berlusconi for causing the scandal.
Mr Berlusconi has said he has never paid for sex and in an interview with gossip magazine Chi, which he owns, said he did not remember D’Addario’s name or what she looked like.
He gave the interview as he battled a mounting scandal that began when his wife, Veronica Lario, a former actress who met Mr Berlusconi while starring topless in the play “The Magnificent Cuckold,” cited his selection of showgirls for European Parliament candidates and his attendance at the birthday party of an 18-year-old model in announcing she was divorcing him.
D’Addario told La Repubblica newspaper that she attended two parties at Mr Berlusconi’s Roman home, including one at which she said there were 20 young women, including two known lesbian prostitutes, who flocked around the premier as if they were at a “harem.”
“Actually, harems are serious things that I know well because I’ve been to Dubai three times,” said D’Addario.
She said she danced with the premier to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” during the party, and that the women dined on smoked beef, pasta with mushrooms, cutlets with potatoes and a yoghurt torte that was “soft, like grandma’s”.
She said she spent that night, November 4, with Mr Berlusconi, when the premier reportedly skipped an appearance at a US-Italy event marking the election of President Barack Obama.
The next morning she said Mr Berlusconi invited her to stay for breakfast. Asked if it took place in the same dining room as the party the night before, D’Addario responded: “No, not in the dining room. It was something more intimate.”
D’Addario has said she recorded her encounter with the premier and has turned the tapes over to Bari prosecutors. Prosecutors have not commented on the claim.
D’Addario denied Mr Berlusconi’s claims she was paid to expose him, saying she came forward on her own only because he had reneged on a promise to help her out with a property problem she was having.
She says she received €1,000 from Tarantini for her attendance at an October 15 party, but was not paid for the November 4 encounter and instead received the promise Mr Berlusconi would intervene in the land dispute.
D’Addario said after she confided in an acquaintance that she had recorded proof of her encounter with the premier, her house was robbed and Mr Berlusconi snubbed her at a Bari campaign appearance, even though she was a candidate with a local party affiliated with his Freedom People’s party.
She said thieves made off with her computer, music CDs, lingerie and designer clothes – including the Versace dress she wore the night of November 4.
