Francesca Pascale, the 28-year-old girlfriend of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said in a recent sit-down interview with the Italian edition of Vanity Fair that she relentlessly courted the 76-year-old billionaire, whom she hopes will propose to her in the near future.
"The norm has been that I always make the first move," Pascale said in the article that was published Wednesday. "I sought him out, I courted him, I made him fall in love and I made him my boyfriend. Practically I've done everything: he only has to say 'yes.'"
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"He completely rejected me," Pascale added, regarding her initial volley with the former prime minister. "But mine is an unending courtship. It's still going on today. Even when he gave me the ring, it's not like he made a declaration of love."
Referring to Berlusconi as "B," Pascale recounted the two years of pain and jealousy following Berlusconi's 2010 divorce from his wife, actress Veronica Lario, during which time the virile 76-year-old threw lavish parties where he reportedly entertained multiple young, attractive women,
the New York Daily News noted.
"It was a period of diffidence, of disillusion, he was incapable of showing true love for a woman," Pascale said. "For him that emotion didn't exist anymore. And in his eyes, I was a dreamer. It wasn't an easy time for me. And I never went to those dinners, because I wouldn't have been able to control myself."
In at least one such "bunga bunga" party, as they were called, Berlusconi apparently had a relationship with 17-year-old Karima El Mahroug, a Moroccan-born nightclub dancer and apparent prostitute.
Berlusconi was subsequently
convicted in June of paying for sex with the underage prostitute and abusing his power. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from holding future public office.
The former prime minister is appealing the court's decision. Both Berlusconi and El Mahroug denied having sexual relations with one another.
Pascale said she initially met Berlusconi in 2006 while working for his political party, though she told Vanity Fair that she had set her sights on him years before that, when she was just 18.
When she shared her desire for Berlusconi with her mother years earlier, the 28-year-old said her mother was not pleased.
"At home my mother said, 'We admire him as well, but he could be your father,'" Pascale said.
Pascale said that out of respect for his marriage, she waited until Berlusconi was divorced from his wife before she spent any time alone with the politician.
"He told me: 'Don't even talk about it, you're too young, I can't give you the future you deserve,'" Pascale told Vanity Fair.
Recently Pascale posted on twitter "for richer and poorer, until death do we part," prompting wedding speculation, but no engagement has been announced.
As for his past indiscretions, Pascale told Vanity Fair, "My president isn't a saint, but he is absolutely unable to treat women like objects."
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