Gina Lollobrigida’s former toyboy husband has promised he will probably be ‘entrance row’ at her funeral – regardless of their marriage being annulled by the Vatican.
Javier Rigau, from Spain, first turn into romantically with the late Italian actress – who handed away on the age of 95 yesterday – in 2006.
Chatting with Spanish newspaper ABC, the Catalan businessman claimed Gina requested to see him earlier than her demise – regardless of the actual fact they had been locked in authorized battles over the previous decade.
He mentioned: ‘It is all very unhappy. Gina had me contacted by means of her son and final Friday we had been capable of say goodbye to every correctly along with her son and grandson.
Gina Lollobrigida and ex-husband Javier Rigau Rifols pictured on the 56th Crimson Cross Ball in 2006. The couple – who had a 34 12 months age hole – introduced their engagement that 12 months
‘From that day I have been staying at a resort a couple of toes away from the clinic.
‘I will keep along with her son and grandson to organise the funeral the place I will probably be within the entrance row.’
In 2006, the late Italian actress introduced she was engaged to boyfriend Javier Rigau, who was 34 years her junior.
However two months later, the display icon referred to as off the nuptials. In November 2010, Gina alleged Javier staged a marriage in an try to get his arms on her fortune.
Gina and Javier’s marriage was annulled by the Vatican in 2019, 9 years after the actress claims her ex staged a pretend wedding ceremony in a bid to steal her fortune
Six years later, she claimed in an Italian fraud and forgery trial that that they had by no means consummated their relationship.
She additionally claimed he tricked her into signing an influence of legal professional doc following years of relationship which Rigau says began once they met at a celebration in Monte Carlo in 1984 when he was 23 and Lollobrigida was 57.
The actress – who starred alongside the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra in her heyday and was typically described as ‘essentially the most lovely girl on the earth – mentioned: ‘Even once we went travelling we slept in separate rooms and we by no means had intimate relations.’
In response, Javier shot again that the very first thing Gina had taught him to say in Italian was: ‘Let’s be collectively. Let’s f***.’
He informed Spanish web site Vanitatis on the time: ‘It is induced me nice ache seeing Gina saying the issues she has in opposition to our marriage.
‘I’ve seen an individual who would not resemble bodily or mentally the one I had at my aspect for years […]
Gina pictured on the peak of her fame within the Nineteen Fifties. The actress handed away on the age of 95 yesterday
Sophia Loren has paid tribute to her bitter rival, Italian actress and artist Gina Lollobrigida , a siren of the silver display, who has died on the age of 95 (pictured, Gina Lollobrigida (proper) alongside Sophia Loren (left) and Yvonne de Carlo in Germany in 1954)
‘If I say how previous she was when she went to mattress with me, I wouldn’t present her in a great mild.’
In 2019, the Vatican formally annulled the couple’s marriage. Nonetheless, ABC printed documentation final 12 months claiming to indicate Rigau and Lollobrigida remained legally married.
She launched authorized motion in Italy in opposition to the Spaniard after a courtroom in Barcelona closed its probe into allegations Rigau tried to swindle his former companion by means of the proxy marriage at a civil ceremony within the Catalan capital.
He insisted in a February 2013 UK newspaper interview: “Gina and I married for love and regardless of every little thing I nonetheless love her very a lot.”
Talking after the Vatican annulment of the wedding, Javier mentioned: “The Pope has seen match to make a Solomonic choice. Thus, listening to solely one of many events and in view of her superior age, he has granted her the waiver to annul the wedding, however recognizing its full validity from the start.”
He has constantly claimed the actress denied information of their wedding ceremony after coming beneath the affect of supervisor Andrea Piazzolla who her household has accused of defrauding Gina.
Gina had been hospitalised for a while on the Rome clinic the place she died after present process an operation in September for a damaged femur.
As soon as referred to as the Mona Lisa of the twentieth century because of her magnificence, Miss Lollobrigida was a legend of Nineteen Fifties and 60s cinema, who later moved away from the movie world to take up pictures and sculpture.
She even made a foray into politics final 12 months, standing within the Italian common election simply after her ninety fifth birthday, although she failed to achieve election to parliament.
Miss Lollobrigida was one of many main stars of Italian post-war cinema on the peak of her fame within the Nineteen Fifties and Sixties
This adopted her unsuccessful bid to face within the European Parliament in 1999, representing Romano Prodi’s centrist Democratici get together.
Often called ‘La Lollo’, on the peak of her fame within the Nineteen Fifties and Sixties Miss Lollobrigida was a global intercourse image and one of many main stars of Italian post-war cinema – rivalled solely by Sophia Loren, with whom she had an ongoing feud.
Main the tributes to Gina, in keeping with Selection, Loren mentioned in an announcement she ‘is deeply shaken and saddened’ by the information of Lollobrigida’s demise.
There was nonetheless some obvious ill-feeling as not too long ago as 2017, with Miss Lollobrigida telling an Italian newspaper that she ‘was not in search of any rivalry in opposition to anybody’, whereas describing herself because the ‘primary’.
The pair had reportedly shared a confrontation, with Miss Loren, now 88, describing herself because the ‘bustier’ of the 2, and Miss Lollobrigida retorting that her rival might ‘play a peasant, however by no means a woman’.
However Miss Lollobrigida dismissed the feud as a PR invention stored alive for many years by Miss Loren’s group.
Paying tribute to Miss Lollobrigida, Italian tradition minister Gennaro Sangiuliano mentioned: ‘Farewell to a diva of the silver display, protagonist of greater than half a century of Italian cinema historical past. Her appeal will stay everlasting.’