My dad’s sex scandals make me bitter: Berlusconi’s daughter

ROME - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s daughter was left “embittered” by the numerous sex scandals that have embroiled her father, according to excerpts of a magazine interview published Tuesday.

The 26-year-old Barbara Berlusconi made the remarks in an interview with the Italian edition of Vanity Fair magazine which will go on sale Wednesday.

“Those are events (the scandals) that have left me embittered. And I find it difficult to reply serenely,” she said, referring to questions about the scandals.

“I would want female readers to try being in my shoes,” Barbara Berlusconi told Vanity Fair.

“It is obvious that I don’t agree with a certain type of conduct, but I also have to believe the truth as told by my father,” she added.

Barbara Berlusconi’s mother, the premier’s second wife, Veronica Lario, in May 2009 announced she was divorcing her billionaire-turned-politician husband, following reports linking him to an 18-year-old lingerie model.

Lario, who also has two other children with Berlusconi, subsequently accused the premier of “consorting with underage women”, a charge which the premier has denied.

In June 2009, a self-described escort, Patrizia D’Addario, alleged she spent the night with Berlusconi at his residence in Rome. The claim prompted Berlusconi to say that he was “no saint”, but he denied ever paying for sex.

Last October, the 74-year-old Berlusconi was linked to a Moroccan go-go dancer on whose behalf the premier admitted intervening earlier this year when the woman, then still a 17-year-old, was being held by police in connection with theft.