The granddaughter of Benito Mussolini has revealed how her grandmother cheated on the Italian dictator in revenge for his frequent affairs and claimed the incident ultimately strengthened their marriage.
Alessandra Mussolini said in a 20th September interview how she began to piece together the story about her grandmother Rachele’s former lover when she visited her before she died in 1979.
She said: “When I went to say goodbye to my grandmother in the hospital for the last time, she dropped a pendant with two letters engraved on it. One was definitely an R, like Rachele.
“The other was indecipherable, but it could also have been a C. Like Corrado. Corrado Varoli.
“A man who had fascinated my grandmother since she was a teenager. She had seen him pass by on horseback, all elegant, with a whip, and she, who was very poor, had been struck by him. He wanted to marry her. But she had chosen Benito.”
Alessandra went on to say how Rachele won over Benito, despite him insisting he “wasn’t the marrying type”.
But, Alessandra said, her grandmother was heartbroken and “suffered greatly” when she eventually discovered his numerous infamous affairs.
According to her granddaughter, Rachele then got her revenge by sleeping with Corrado, which she says infuriated the notorious leader.
The pair were allegedly caught by Rachele’s sister Augusta, who then told Benito.
Alessandra said: “They were caught by another sister of Rachele, Augusta, who walked into the room with the breakfast tray and found them together.
“The tray fell to the floor, the milk jug shattered into a thousand pieces. And Augusta immediately said she would inform Benito.
“Of course, it is known that Benito showed up screeching his car tyres to find out whether his wife was being unfaithful to him.
“He couldn’t accept that she could desire someone else. In any case, he ordered her to make that man disappear.”
Alessandra said the betrayal was not for revenge but to rebalance the relationship and, in some way, to win her husband back.
She said the act made Rachele unpredictable in her husband’s eyes and reinforced their bond.
After that, Rachele was never with any other man, not even after her husband’s death in 1945, Alessandra said.
She said: “She was never, as in the collective imagination, the submissive woman who stayed home and waited. And that betrayal of love ended up strengthening her bond with her man; because he understood that she wasn’t really at his mercy.”
She added: “Their union was bolstered by a thousand sacrifices, by misfortunes, by revenge. Bolstered by history.”
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below. Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub-Editor: Simona Kitanovska, Agency: Newsflash
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