Ex-Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, 86, is in intensive care after suffering heart problems
- The 86-year-old media mogul was discharged from hospital only last week
- Former PM has been embroiled in scandals including ‘bunga bunga’ parties
- Berlusconi has battled several health issues including cancer and Covid-19
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who dominated the political stage for decades, is in intensive care after suffering heart problems, his spokesman has confirmed.
The 86-year-old media mogul, who has been in and out of hospital in recent years, is in Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital where he routinely receives care.
Italian news agency Ansa said the Forza Italia party leader was admitted this morning and his condition was ‘stable’.
Berlusconi, who is in a relationship with 33-year-old Forza Italia MP Marta Fascina, has suffered repeated bouts of illness since contracting Covid in 2020 and spent four days in the same hospital last month before being discharged on March 30.
The three-time prime minister, who first entered politics in 1994, also had major heart surgery in 2016 and has overcome prostate cancer, which he described as ‘a nightmare lasting months’.
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, 86, is in intensive care after suffering heart problems
The media tycoon is in a relationship with 33-year-old Marta Fascina who is 53 years younger than him
Berlusconi (pictured in 1980) has suffered repeated bouts of illness in recent years after contracting Covid in 2020
In a tweet on March 31, after he returned home from hospital, Berlusconi thanked ‘all those who wanted to send a thought or sign of affection in these days’.
He said he was already back at work ‘ready and determined to commit myself as I’ve always done to the country I love.’
Berlusconi, who won a seat in Italy’s Senate during general elections in September, has stirred controversy in recent months with his criticism of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenksy, putting him at odds with Italian PM Giorgia Meloni.
The billionaire, whose Forza Italia party is part of a government coalition, is famed for having been embroiled in sex scandals, most notably for throwing erotic ‘bunga bunga’ parties at his villa during his time in office.
He was accused – but acquitted this year – of paying young starlets and others for ‘silence and lies’ about his notoriously hedonistic soirees, which he has always insisted were elegant dinners.
The verdict was the culmination of a legal battle which began in 2010 when Berlusconi – then prime minister – was accused of abusing his power to protect a young Moroccan nightclub dancer, Karima El-Mahroug.
Known by her stage name ‘Ruby the Heart Stealer’, she had been detained by police for theft, but was released after Berlusconi claimed she was the niece of then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Berlusconi was charged with paying for sex with El-Mahroug in 2010 when she was just 17.
The three-time prime minister is being treated in the intensive care unit of Milan’s San Raffaele hospital (pictured)
Berlusconi won a seat in Italy’s Senate during general elections in September following years of scandals
In a tweet on March 31, after he returned home from hospital, Berlusconi thanked ‘all those who wanted to send a thought or sign of affection in these days’.
He was initially found guilty, but acquitted in 2014 after an appeals court found there was no proof he knew El-Mahroug was a minor.
Berlusconi, who has five children, was temporarily banned from political office after a conviction for tax fraud in 2013, for which he served a community sentence.
He then returned to the political front lines and was re-elected as a senator last year. He does not currently have a role in government.
Aside from his return to public office after numerous scandals, the media mogul has also battled a string of health issues in the past two decades.
In late 2006 he was admitted to hospital with a minor heart problem after fainting, and underwent heart surgery in a US hospital in January 2007.
He has had a pacemaker for years and underwent heart surgery again to replace an aortic valve in 2016.
Despite all his previous ailments, he described his battle with coronavirus last September as the ‘most dangerous challenge’ of his life.
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