Italian prime minister’s former boyfriend may end up out of love and out of work

Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni and his former partner Andrea Zambruno | X Capture

Andrea Giambruno (42), a journalist and former boyfriend of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, is facing disciplinary action from an order of journalists after the Italian prime minister broke up with him for his sexist comments.

On October 23 (local time), the Italian news agency ANSA reported that the Order of Journalists of Lombardy decided to refer Giambruno, the host of the news show, Il diario del giorno (The Diary of the Day), on Rete 4, part of the Mediaset media company, to a disciplinary committee.

Earlier, Prime Minister Meloni personally announced her breakup with her common-law partner Giambruno on social media. Meloni did not specify the reason, but his sexual harassment controversy was cited as the reason for the parting.

Striscia la notizia (The News Slither), another current affairs program on the Mediaset network, recently released an audio recording of Giambruno telling a female colleague that she could work with him if she participated in group sex. He also made comments admitting to an affair with another colleague at work.

Meloni took to social media the day after the broadcast and announced the split. Mediaset suspended Giambruno from broadcasting following the social controversy.

Local media outlets reported that Giambruno could be expelled if the Order of Journalists of Lombardy deemed his comments to be “workplace harassment.”

Giambruno has been a freelance journalist since 2014. He and Meloni met on the set of a TV program in 2015. They had a daughter in 2016, but the couple never married. When Meloni became the first female prime minister of Italy last October, Giambruno also became the country’s first “first gentleman.”