The ex-boyfriend of an 18-year-old woman at the heart of an alleged scandal involving Silvio Berlusconi has apologised for having fuelled speculation about a presumed relationship between her and Italy's prime minister.
The Italian daily Corriere della Sera today ran what it said was a letter from Gino Flaminio, in which he said there never could have been a sexual relationship between Noemi Letizia and Berlusconi – "knowing Noemi and her values".
Last week, the left-leaning daily La Repubblica quoted Flaminio as saying the 72-year-old had invited Letizia and several other young women to his Sardinian villa for a week over the new year. Flaminio described what he said were phone calls between Berlusconi and Letizia that he listened in on.
That interview fuelled speculation about a possible relationship between the two, particularly after Berlusconi's wife cited her husband's presence at Letizia's 18th birthday party in announcing a few weeks ago that she was divorcing him.
The conservative prime minister has denied any scandalous relationship and said he knows Letizia's father through decades-old Socialist party circles. He has said he attended the birthday party because he happened to be in Naples that day.
Letizia's father said he would sue La Repubblica and Flaminio for defamation, and Berlusconi's aides have accused centre-left opposition parties of using gossip to try to discredit him and his party before this weekend's EU elections.
Flaminio omitted to say whether he was misquoted by La Repubblica in his letter to Corriere, only that he felt used by people who wanted to hurt Berlusconi.
"I'm sorry for what happened, which I never could have imagined," Flaminio wrote, according to the later publication. "I publicly ask for forgiveness from Noemi and everyone, for the clamour that ensued from our love story, and I hope for a world of good for everyone."
Yesterday, Rome prosecutors seized hundreds of photographs of the new year's party after Berlusconi moved to block their publication. Prosecutors are also investigating the Sardinian photographer who took the shots for alleged violation of privacy laws and fraud, stemming from his efforts to sell the images to magazines, according to news reports today.
* Silvio Berlusconi
* Italy
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/31/noemi-letizia-boyfriend-berlusconi-apology
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