Former premier Silvio Berlusconi apologised to his wife on Wednesday after she gave him a media dressing-down for flirting with other women.
Yielding to her demands for a public apology, the 70-year-old centre-right opposition chief issued a statement asking his wife, a former actress who goes by her stage name Veronica Lario, to forgive him and assuring her of his love.
"I treasure your dignity in my heart even when a lighthearted joke, a gallant remark or a momentary trifle comes out of my mouth.
"I beg you to forgive me and take this public testimony of private pride which yields to your wrath as if it were an act of love - one amongst many," said Berlusconi, who signed off his letter to her with: "A big kiss, Silvio".
Lario refused to comment on the apology, with her secretary telling ANSA that "she prefers to remain silent".
Readers of top daily La Repubblica were astonished on Wednesday morning to find an angry letter from Lario to her husband splashed across the front page.
Lario referred to comments Berlusconi reportedly made to several young and glamourous showgirls during a gala dinner given after a top TV award ceremony last week.
"My husband made remarks I find unacceptable: 'If I weren't already married, I'd marry you straight away' and 'I'd go anywhere with you'.
"These statements undermine my dignity and, given the age, political role and family situation of the person who said them, cannot be written off as playful comments.
"I am asking for a public apology, given that I haven't received a private one," Lario said in the letter, which was all the more embarrassing for Berlusconi since it appeared in the country's leading left-wing daily.
The public spat dominated the Italian media, with announcements from TV current affairs shows that they were ditching their scheduled programmes to focus on the incident.
Berlusconi admitted in his response that his marriage was undergoing a period of "trouble and turbulence" but told his wife that it was "sure to end in sweetness, like all true love stories".
Born Miriam Raffaela Bartolini, Lario is Berlusconi's second wife and, at 50, is 20 years his junior. Smitten after seeing her perform topless in a Milan theatre play called The Magnificent Cuckold, Berlusconi left his first wife for her.
They have now been together for 27 years and have three children: two daughters, aged 22 and 20, and a son, aged 18.
Despite being the wife of one of Italy's best-known public figures, Lario has always kept a very low profile.
She said in her letter that she did not like breaking this "reserve" and was doing so partly to protect her dignity as a woman but also to set an example for her children.
The youthful-looking Berlusconi, who has admitted to a face lift and a hair transplant, has always cultivated a playboy image and been linked by the gutter press to many beautiful women.
Several dailies noted the attention he paid to the ladies present at the Thursday night post-award dinner.
La Repubblica said in a Saturday article that women were "one of Berlusconi's passions".
The daily quoted Venezuelan model and showgirl Aida Yespica as telling Berlusconi, "I'd go on a desert island with you", and the billionaire media mogul's gallant riposte: "I'd go anywhere with you".
It said he also complimented Mara Carfagna, a striking ex-showgirl whom he made an MP with his Forza Italia party.
MPs DEBATE LARIO'S REACTION.
Lario's complaints about her husband's behaviour also sparked a political debate, with both centre-left and opposition women lawmakers praising her actions.
Equal Opportunities Minister Barbara Pollastrini said Lario's letter was an "act of sincerity, an expression of dignity", while hard-left MP Katia Bellillo described it as a "political letter in support of women".
Senator and actress Franca Rame, the wife of Nobel prize winner Dario Fo, said that "if Berlusconi were my husband, I'd slap him... the next step is sure to be divorce".
Forza Italia lawmaker Jole Santelli said that the Berlusconis now seemed "more human as a couple".
But most male politicians took a different view. Former reform minister and Berlusconi ally Roberto Calderoli blasted Lario for turning "absolutely private affairs" into a "public spectacle", and La Repubblica for publishing her letter.
Centre-left Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari, who is a friend of Lario, commented: "If I were her, I would have sent my husband packing in private... I can't understand why the row has to end up in the papers".
"When it gets to the point of talking through papers and public letters, it's clear the relationship is over," added Cacciari, whose name was once linked by gossip to Lario's.
Berlusconi famously alluded to this gossip back in 2002. Praising the good looks of Danish Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the then premier said: "I think I'll introduce him to my wife, because he's much better-looking than Cacciari".
It is not the first time that Berlusconi's comments about women have landed him in trouble.
He sparked tensions with Finland in 2005 by saying he used "playboy tactics" on Finnish President Tarja Halonen to persuade her to make Italy the site of an EU food agency.
On another occasion, Berlusconi astonished American journalists by urging Wall Street businessmen to invest in Italy because the country had "gorgeous secretaries".
By a strange coincidence, on the same day that La Repubblica published Veronica Berlusconi's letter, another daily, Corriere della Sera, published excerpts from a recent interview with her husband in which he poured praise on her.
"Veronica is a special woman. It was total passion. When we met, she made me lose my head. She is a wonderful mother and she has never made me look bad," the opposition leader told the magazine A.
"She is also indulgent," he added.
