‘I’ve never paid for sex – it’s all in the chase’
The 72-year-old billionaire gave his first direct response to the claims in an interview with gossip magazine Chi. Previously, he had dismissed as “garbage” and a smear campaign reports that an acquaintance of his had paid at least three women to attend parties at his residences.
“I have never paid a woman,” Berlusconi said in the article. “I never understood what the satisfaction is when you are missing the pleasure of conquest.”
Berlusconi said thatPatrizia D’Addario, the model at the centre of the claims, was “very well paid” to make the allegations, which have prompted an investigation in the southern city of Bari into the local businessman accused of recruiting and paying the women. “Someone gave a very precise and extremely well paid mission to this Ms D’Addario,” Berlusconi charges in the interview.
Asked whether he was aware that D’Addario worked as an elite escort, he replied: “If I suspected someone of such a thing, I would keep her thousands of kilometres away.”
D’Addario denied she had been paid to mount a scandal.
“I deny that this was the case.
“If Mr Berlusconi has the slightest proof backing his claims he must present them to legal authorities,” she said yesterday.
“If this is not the case, he should not be making such claims.”
Berlusconi has been on the defensive ever since his wife announced several weeks ago she was divorcing him, citing his selection of young starlets and showgirls for European Parliament elections and his presence at the birthday party of an 18-year-old model in Naples.
Berlusconi has insisted there was nothing scandalous in his relationship with Noemi Letizia, whom he has said was the daughter of an old friend from political circles. He said he went to the party because he happened to be in Naples that day.
In the interview with Chi, Berlusconi was quoted as saying that he was “sad, but serene” over the end of his relationship with his wife, Veronica Lario.
“It was a very painful wound. I don’t know if time will be able to cure it,” he was quoted as saying in the interview provided in advance by Chi.
As the Letizia scandal began to abate, D’Addario told Italian media she was paid about £900 (€1,058) to attend a party at Berlusconi’s Rome home.
This was followed by similar claims by two other women and reports that D’Addario had given over to Bari prosecutors audio and video tapes proving the allegations.
Giampaolo Tarantini, the man accused in the Bari probe of favouring prostitution, has said he merely reimbursed the women for their travel and expenses. He said Berlusconi did not know the expenses were paid.
Despite the scandals and criticism in local and international media, Berlusconi has kept his popularity intact, with his centre-right forces emerging victorious from EU elections earlier this month and a spate of local and provincial run-offs.
According to results on Tuesday, Berlusconi’s Freedom People’s party snatched a half-dozen provinces from the centre-left in voting on Sunday and Monday, including the important provinces of Milan and Venice.
Berlusconi was guarded about entrepreneur Tarantini: “I met him last summer in Sardinia and he was introduced as the head of a company who was serious and respected. Today he is at the centre of a probe and should benefit like others from the presumption of innocence.”
Early this month, Italian authorities seized hundreds of photos taken at Berlusconi’s Sardinian villa.
Some of the pictures were published in a Spanish paper and showed Berlusconi in his garden alongside topless women and a naked man.
Berlusconi is also under investigation for allegedly misusing his official plane to fly personal guests, including a flamenco dancer and a well-known singer, to his villa.
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