Francesca Pascale, 28, who is younger than some of the 77-year-old former prime minister's children, has made no secret of the fact that she is determined³ to formalise their engagement and get married at the earliest opportunity.

 

In an interview with the Italian edition of Vanity Fair last year, she claimed that she had fallen for the media tycoon⁴ when she was a teenager, offering him her telephone number at a party rally.

 

"I chased him, I wooed him - I did everything. All he had to do was say 'yes'," she said.

 

There is fevered speculation⁵ in Italy about when the wedding might be, and whether the happy couple might decide to start a family - notwithstanding Mr Berlusconi's advanced age and the fact that a baby would complicate⁶ the division of the ex-premier's huge personal fortune and extensive business empire.

 

He already has five grown-up children from two marriages - Miss Pascale would be his third wife if they decide to tie the knot（结婚）.

 

The divorce between Mr Berlusconi and Veronica Lario, 57, whom he married in 1990, was handed down by a court in Monza in northern Italy.

 

The former actress, who first caught the politician's eye in 1980 when she appeared topless in a stage performance of a play called The Magnificent Cuckold, announced that she was leaving him in 2009 after he attended the 18th birthday party of an aspiring⁷ lingerie model, amid questions as to the nature of their relationship.

 

Miss Lario said she could no longer bear to be married to a man who "consorted⁸ with minors".

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