Berlusconi model's "boyfriend" says romance was staged

The scandal around Silvio Berlusconi continues to get better and better. Yesterday, the "boyfriend" of aspiring model Noemi Letizia, whose murky relationship with the Italian Prime Minister set off his wife's divorce proceedings in the first place, claimed that their "relationship" was staged for the public on the orders of persons unknown: 

Domenico Cozzolino said his supposed relationship with Noemi Letizia was organised after the prime minister attended her birthday party in April.

"I believe someone put her up to it," the reality TV contestant, 21, told the magazine, Diva e Donna[...]

Photographs showing Mr Cozzolino and Ms Letizia kissing on the seafront in Naples were published shortly afterwards in Chi magazine, owned by the Berlusconi family's financial holding company, Fininvest.

The 21-year-old said he had not spoken to Ms Letizia since 7 June.

"They wanted to send me away because I know too much," he said, adding that he had "not told the whole truth, just part of it".

If true, that's a lot of effort to go through to disguise a prediliction for younger women that so many Italian politicians already knew about.

VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images