Ex-PM's comeuppance

SILVIO Berlusconi, the billionaire former Italian prime minister, was forced to issue a grovelling public apology to his wife yesterday after she published an open letter in a leading newspaper scolding him for chatting up other women.

Furious Veronica Lario fired off a letter about her right-wing husband's playboy antics - which was doubly embarrassing as it was splashed across the front page of the left-wing La Repubblica newspaper. The former actress was enraged as she described how her husband had approached several women at a TV awards ceremony and told them: "If I wasn't married I would marry you straight away."

She added in the letter that her husband had also told another woman: "I would follow you anywhere."

The recipients of Mr Berlusconi's remarks were identified as two MPs from his Forza Italia party, Micaela Biancofiore and actress turned politician Mara Carfagna.

In the letter Ms Lario wrote: "These were declarations that I see as damaging to my dignity and affirmations that for his age, political and social role and his family status (two children from his first marriage and three from his second) that cannot be treated as just jokes.

"That is why to my husband and to the public man that he is I am asking for a public apology as I have not received one in private."

Ms Lario, 50, has been married to the 70-year-old media tycoon for more than 20 years and they famously met after he saw her topless on stage during a play in a Milan theatre.

In the letter she also added: "In the course of our relationship I have sought to avoid conjugal conflict even when his behaviour has created reasons for it."

She went on: "This line of conduct has one sole limit, my dignity as a woman, and for the example I have to give to our children who are different in ages and sex.

"Today, for my daughters, who are already adults, the example of a woman capable of defending her dignity in her relationships with men assumes a particular importance. The defence of my dignity as a woman will also help my son never to forget his fundamental values, respect for women, so that he can have a healthy and balanced relationship with them."

Mr Berlusconi's mother-in-law, Flora Bartolini, 76, weighed in to support her daughter. She said: " She was very brave - I mean you have to defend yourself, don't you? Or should you always suffer?" The soap opera enthralled the country, with Italians sounding off on whether they agreed with Ms Lario - and whether they thought Mr Berlusconi would submit to his wife. Late in the day, Italy's richest man did just that.

"Here I am, saying I'm sorry. I was recalcitrant in private, because I am playful but proud, too. Challenged in public, the temptation to give in to you is strong. I can't resist," said Mr Berlusconi, a former cruise ship crooner. "So, I beg you, forgive me and accept this public display of a private pride that gives in to your rage as an act of love - just one of many."

A spokeswoman for Ms Lario said: "She has read Silvio's letter but she will not be making any further comment."

THIS is not the first time Silvio Berlusconi has been in trouble over sexist comments. He once told a United States conference that companies should set up in Italy because the "secretaries we have are so pretty".

In 2003, after rumours that his wife was having an affair, he said he was thinking of introducing her to the "handsome" Danish PM.

In 2005, he said Italy had landed an EU agency because he had used "playboy tactics" to charm Finland's woman president