Silvio Berlusconi: Ex-Wife To Get £82k A Day

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been ordered to pay his ex-wife maintenance of 100,000 euros (£82,000) a day as part of their divorce settlement.

Mr Berlusconi, 76, will be able to keep the family home, said to be worth 78 million euros (£64m), and the daily figure he will pay to Veronica Lario amounts to more than 36 million euros (£29m) a year.

However, it was not immediately clear how long the terms lasted.

The decision was made by a judge in Milan just before Christmas and details have now been revealed.

The ruling said the money would allow Ms Lario, the mother of Mr Berlusconi's three children, to "live in the manner that she was accustomed to during her marriage" and it also noted she was "without a home as part of the settlement".

Ms Lario began proceedings against Mr Berlusconi three years ago after it emerged he had attended the 18th birthday party of lingerie model Noemi Letizia - which sparked fury from his then wife who accused him of never attending birthday parties of their own children.

As a result, she said that she could "no longer live with a man who associates with minors" and she instructed lawyers to begin divorce proceedings against her husband, who is one of the world's richest men with a personal fortune estimated to be around seven billion euros.

Initially Ms Lario, 55, had wanted to keep the family home at Macherio and also 300,000 euros (£245,000) a month in maintenance but after two years of legal wrangling she has settled for an increase in the financial settlement and to leaving the house which was also home to their three children Barbara, 27, Eleonora, 25 and Luigi, 21.

Ms Lario has spent 19 of the last 30 years at Macherio near Milan and she met Mr Berlusconi in the early 1980s, while he was still married to his first wife Carla Dall Oglio, when she performed topless in a play called The Magnificent Cuckold.

There had been some suggestion she also wanted a 'slice' of his extensive business empire Fininvest but it is understood that is not part of the settlement and remains in his hands although Mr Berlusconi is said to have ensured the three children as well as his two from his first marriage are covered.

Initially Ms Lario had threatened to "make things messy" for Mr Berlusconi in what many believed was a reference to his relationship with Miss Letizia who it later emerged had been among dozens of women invited to parties he hosted at his home on the island of Sardinia.

According to reports in the Italian media, the settlement authorised by judge Gloria Servetti was reached with both parties agreeing not to blame each other for the split.

The relationship had been strained since 2007 after Mr Berlusconi was spotted telling TV star Mara Carfagna, who later went on to serve in his Cabinet, that he would marry her if he was not already married.

Ms Lario was furious and demanded a public apology which she got from Mr Berlusconi with a grovelling sorry published on the front page of all Italian newspapers and reported extensively on TV.

Maria Morelli, Ms Lario's lawyer, was unavailable for comment at her Milan office and Mr Berlusconi's legal team who negotiated the settlement, Ippolita Ghedini and Cristina Rossello, could also not be reached.

Mr Berlusconi is currently on trial accused of having underage sex with a prostitute and he has also thrown his hat into the ring for the general election which takes place in February.

He also recently confirmed he is seeing former TV showgirl Francesca Pascale, 27, who he described as ''beautiful on the inside and beautiful on the outside".