After 17 years of marriage, the famed Italian player Francesco Totti and his TV presenter wife Ilary Blasi divorced amid rumours that he was having an affair.
After first getting acquainted in 2002, the Rome power couple—dubbed Italy’s Posh and Becks—have three children together.
The presenter was allegedly cheated on by the legendary footballer with 34-year-old florist and ardent Roma supporter Noemi Bocchi, according to reports that broke the news of their split in Italy.
Online rumours also claim that Blasi has been having a relationship with an unidentified Italian businessman whom she meets while filming Big Brother.
Due to his 250 goals and cult-like popularity in the Italian city, Totti, 45, who spent his entire 25-year career with Roma, holds the record for both the most appearances and goals for the team.
Model turned broadcaster Blasi, called the Queen of Rome, has voiced a Simpsons character and presented the Italian versions of Top of the Pops and Survivor.
Bocchi, a graduate in business and banking from the exclusive LUMSA university in Rome, is less well known.
According to reports, she and Mario Caucci, the owner of Roman club Tivoli in the second division, had two children together.
In a statement she issued last night, Blasi declared: “After 20 years of marriage and three great children, my marriage to Francesco is gone.
But the divorce proceedings will remain a private affair, and I won’t be saying anything else.
“I ask everyone to refrain from speculating and, more importantly, to respect the privacy of my family,” he said.
In his own statement to Ansa, Totti added: “I tried to overcome the crisis in my marriage, but today I realize that the painful but necessary option of separation must be chosen.
“Our children will always come first in my life; that is why I have spoken and done everything I have in recent months to safeguard them.
“I will always respect my wife and be close to Ilary as we raise our three wonderful children.”
I have the utmost faith that our privacy will be respected, especially for the peace of our children.
The A-list couple was forced to deny in February that they were about to call it quits after months of rumours swirled around them.
To dispel the rumours, Totti attacked the “false news,” while Blasi shared a video of their family dining out together.
In a famous Rome wedding that was televised in Italy, the football player wed the former Miss Italia contestant in 2005.
Before they met, Totti had won his solitary Serie A title, and he would later assist Italy in winning the 2006 World Cup.
They have two daughters, Chanel, 15, and Isabel, 6, as well as a boy, Cristian, who was born later that year.
Despite the fact that Francesco had already made his club debut at that age, Cristian is currently a member of the Roma academy and is attempting to follow in his father’s footstep.
After Blasi purchased a hairless cat during lockdown, Totti admitted he almost ended their relationship in 2020.
On Instagram Live, he said to his former teammate Christian Vieri, “I was unhappy with my wife because she purchased a hairless cat and called it Donna Paola.”
“It is boiling.” It insists on spending the night between our legs on our bed. She’s a very loving cat, yet she almost made us fight.
Ilary was insistent that we shouldn’t get a cat, and I disagreed. She eventually brought it home because she is the one who decides everything in their household.
We went days without speaking, but eventually I started to love the cat too.