‘It’s always been my problem’: Wiretaps reveal Berlusconi regrets his charm attracts women

Silvio Berlusconi, apparently, doesn’t like the power his charm has over women as they keep falling in love with the former Italian prime minister. It appears to be the 78-year-old politician’s Achilles heel, according to wiretaps made public.

“This [Berlusconi’s charms] has always been my problem, women that fall in love. It’s something that has pursued me my whole life,” Berlusconi says in the wiretapped conversation, which has recently been published in the Italian press.

The transcripts of numerous conversations between the Italian ex-PM and Gianpaolo Tarantini, a businessman accused of procuring escort girls and starlets for Berlusconi notorious parties, covered the everyday life of the ‘Cavaliere’ back in 2008-2009, when Berlusconi was serving his third term as prime minister.

The wiretaps were made public in a trial in the southern city of Bari. Hundreds of pages of phone transcripts are part of evidence in a case against Tarantini, who along with seven others is being accused of taking part in an alleged prostitution ring.

Berlusconi himself stands accused of bribing his friend to lie about the supposed sex parties.
The men allegedly discussed which girls were to be sent to the ex PM’s parties. Tarantini once promised to “send you [Berlusconi] a little angel” who would help with his back pain.

“This evening I have two girls,” Berlusconi tells Tarantini, mentioning a “very sweet” girl from Naples and a 21-year-old Brazilian woman.

The tape shows the tastes of the ex-premier seemed to vary – he once requested a pair of Cuban singers and a woman he believed sang at the Vatican.

READ MORE: Berlusconi sentenced to 7 years in prostitution case

The “Knight”, however, didn’t appear to relish an upcoming meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which forced him to turn down a dinner invitation.

“Unfortunately I have a bilateral with [Angela] Merkel,” he told Tarantini.

In June 2013, the former prime minister was sentenced to seven years by a court in Milan for paying an underage Moroccan teen for sex. He was further sentenced for abuse of office after he intervened to get a former nightclub dancer, Karima El Mahroug, released from police custody after she was arrested on suspicion of theft.

Last July, a Milan appeals court cleared Berlusconi of paying for sex with an underage prostitute during sex parties, saying there was no proof that the politician knew the girl was 17 at the time.

Berlusconi and El Mahroug, popularized by the Italian media as "Ruby the Heartstealer," deny having had sex with each other.