Silvio Berlusconi ‘should attend sex addiction clinic’

Members of Silvio Berlusconi's inner circle are urging the Italian prime minister to seek treatment for sex addiction, according to the author of a book to be published in Italy this week. Maria Latella claims Berlusconi's confidants are hoping that his wife Veronica Lario will not divorce him, but instead that the couple will separate for a while before Lario returns "to her husband's side to help him find himself again".

In the meantime, says Latella, they would like the prime minister to visit "one of those clinics specialising in curing sex dependence".

Latella's book, The Veronica Trend, is an updated biography of the 52-year-old former actress who had been married to Berlusconi for nearly 20 years when she announced earlier this year that she wanted a divorce.

The book contains an interview Lario gave Latella soon after she learned that her husband had given a €6,000 necklace as an 18th birthday present to the aspiring lingerie model Noemi Letizia.

Lario told how her husband hid the truth that he was planning to attend the girl's birthday party, telling her only: "You know, I have to go down to Naples. I have an important summit on rubbish disposal early tomorrow morning."

Said Lario: "It was the latest lie. So it was time for me to find some respect for myself."

When Latella suggested to Lario that she might try to patch things up with her husband, by telling him how upset she was, Lario responded: "I couldn't because he would tell me the umpteenth lie and this time I could not bear it. I think I have no other choice but divorce.

"What upsets me," Lario went on, "is that a man like Silvio could have betrayed himself. He has done so much, but today people talk only about things which overshadow who he really was." ·