Silvio Berlusconi Pays Ex-Wife Veronica Lario €100,000 a Day in Divorce Deal

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will pay his ex-wife Veronica Lario €100,000 (£82,000, $132,000) a day - €3m a month - according to the divorce settlement handed down by a Milan court.

Berlusconi, 76, kept sole possession of the €78m Villa Macherio, just outside Milan, which Lario, 56, claimed for herself after living there for more than 20 years, Corriere della Sera reported.

Berlusconi's business empire also remains untouched.

The settlement was filed at Christmas time to give the ex-couple greater privacy, the paper reported.

Berlusconi and Lario first met in 1980, when she was working as a theatre actress. They married 10 years later. It was Berlusconi's second marriage and the couple has three children - Barbara, 28, Eleonora, 26, and Luigi, 24.

Lario filed for divorce in 2009 as rumours of Berlusconi's bunga-bunga party nights at his other Milan villa of Arcore were starting to grow louder.

Lario played a major role in triggering Italy's prurient interest in her husband's lavish lifestyle and womanising.

In 2007, the usually secretive Lario wrote an open letter to Italian newspaper La Repubblica - which editorial line strongly opposed Berlusconi - demanding public apologies from her husband after he courted a future minister in his government, Mara Carfagna, on national television.

At an Italian TV award ceremony, Berlusconi told former showgirl Carfagna, 37: "If I wasn't married I would marry you straightaway."

Marital failings

Berlusconi complied with Lario's demand and apologised.

However, two years later Lario went public again over Berlusconi's marital failings.

She described as "indecent junk" the reported European Parliament candidacy of a number of showgirls for Berlusconi's party.

She also hit out at her husband for showing up at the 18th birthday party of Noemi Letizia, which led to widespread speculation about his relationship with the girl.

"I was really surprised, since he [Berlusconi] never came to any of his children's 18th birthday parties, despite being invited," Lario said. The divorce filing followed shortly afterwards.

Recently, Berlusconi announced he had found love again - thanks to 28-year-old Francesca Pascale.

"I found myself a fiancée, it is official," Berlusconi told his own television Canale 5.

"Her name is Francesca, she is a beautiful girl. She is beautiful on the outside and even more beautiful on the inside. Her moral foundations are very strong, she loves me and I love her back," Berlusconi said.