Paolo Bonolis: «The separation from Sonia Bruganelli? I went through it, it wasn’t easy. I spoke to Freddie Mercury, he hit on me: I was cute”

They called her Pinocchietto.
«I was more of a nose than a child, that’s how it was toned down in the family. My mother still teases me. Fantastic to see a 93-year-old attacking a 63-year-old.”

He stuttered.
“At home it was enough cause for derision. If I went to my father (“If-if-if- hear pa-pa-pa-papa…”)he cut it short: “Ahò, write, what shall we do first”. No, I wasn’t ashamed at all. Then she passed. If I’m nervous zagajo even today, but I don’t care much about it.” Unmistakable Paolo Bonolis.

Did he court his classmates?
“At school we were all boys, when I graduated they admitted girls too.”

He launched himself anyway.
«I tried to be seductive, sometimes the answer was a yes, sometimes a no. At that age it wasn’t the girl who pushed, she was the hormone.”

Christine, 26 years old, French.
«My first physical relationship. A record, I think. A subliminal relationship, I would say.”

Huh?
«Don’t you get it? So, in physics there is Planck’s law, on the shortest possible measurement of time. Do you understand now? My performance is in the yearbooks.”

To make an impression he boasted of being a journalist.
“I used political methods, the deception of the word.”

Does he tell a lot of lies?
«The ones that are needed. Anyone lies. We all interpret as best we can what others would like us to do. Lies serve to smooth out edges, the important thing is not to hurt anyone.”

She accompanied a friend to the RAI audition, they took her.
«They asked me: “Can you sing?” “No”. “Dance?”. “No”. “Recite?” “No”. “Whistle?”. “No”. “Good, you’re perfect.” I still remember the director, Leone Mancini, nice, he had divergent eyes like sole.”

And his friend?
“He’s an insurer.”

It presented «3,2,1… contact!», a program for children. It hosted Vasco Rossi.
«Nice, shady. Upset? I was more so.”

With his first earnings he bought a red six-horsepower Dyane. Was it a dream?
«No, I needed a car. Nice French change. Convertible. Vaguely tilting but a Xamamine was enough.”

His first marriage to Diane ended due to his betrayal, which he confessed.
“I realized I had done something stupid and I said it, it wasn’t digested, I understand her intemperance.”

Regretful?
“Yes, but what’s done, boss.”

Does he cheat often?
«No, but if it were I wouldn’t come and say it here. I find that the beauty of a relationship lies in the perseverance of renunciation. We are all mischievous and honest at the same time.”

He announced: «I will marry Laura Freddi». But no.
“You see it? She is wrong. Happens. We need to stay as quiet as possible, not make predictions. We are many missing Pythias.”

But you were happy.
«I am always happy, before, during and after. Just don’t there is think”.

He took her around in beat-up cars, he told us.
«I had those. If she preferred to walk, all she had to do was say so.”

His real wife is Luca Laurenti, with whom he has been with since 1991. It lasts between you.
“Oh God, I would have found her prettier as a wife.”

Have you ever argued?
“No. We separated professionally for three years, I went to Rai, he remained with Costanzo. I never argue with anyone. We get along very well with Luca, he is special, very intelligent, disenchanted, serene. He lives in a quantum phase different from ours.”

How do you do it?
“We accept each other as we are and we like our diversity, neither of us pretends to change the other.”

Holidays together?
«In Formentera».

At the nudist beach?
“Yes. He took off his costume, but I didn’t, okay?

Is friendship a simpler feeling than love?
«It is a form of love that has unlimited boundaries. Love, on the other hand, asks for boundaries, but it must not seem like a prison. Today it is seen more as a limit rather than a horizon.”

Do you have friends among your colleagues?
«But yes, of course. Carlo Conti, Antonella Clerici. I’m happy to have a chat with others if I meet them. But I’m reserved. And I don’t like worldliness.”

Do you still hang out with those from the old days?
“Yes”.

And what do they do?
«Massimo is a broker, another as well, yet another is an entrepreneur in Spain. I love him very much. We chat, we play padel.”

Is he good with the racket?
“Very. But what can I tell myself? I want to win, but I calmly accept losing. But only at the end. Otherwise, what are you playing?”.

Sanremo 2005 ?
«I hosted Mike Tyson. During the advertising, the then general manager Flavio Cattaneo protested his presence. I replied: “He’s already arrived, if he doesn’t want it, she’ll tell him, I’m not going”.

He did an encore in 2009. Will there be a hat trick?
“At the moment we can’t see the circumstance.”

What will you do next year?
«I’m staying at Mediaset. I promised Pier Silvio that I would do another season of Next one and I am a person of my word.”

In an interview he described himself as follows: “I’m a good cynic.”
«Cynicism is like cholesterol. There is the bad one, which leads to indifference. And the good one, which combines lightness. I like to give kindness. I would like to recognize more of them around. I am touched”.

And that Mediaset manager who nicknamed “the penumbra”? Has he made peace with us?
“Never heard from again.”

You are sarcastic, biting, mocking your interlocutor.
«People understand that I play and don’t get offended. I like to joke about defects and weaknesses, it makes them less so, in fact they become peculiarities.”

Did Silvio Berlusconi seriously ask you to be his spokesperson?
“Yes. I replied: “President, I didn’t even vote for you.” He was nice, he laughed a lot.”

At 25, in London, he met Freddie Mercury who tried. He replied: “I love your music, I think it’s fantastic, but we have different hormonal horizons.” «We chatted. And then each took his own path. But I was cute, you know?”.

Sonia Bruganelli revealed that, to woo her, she boasted of crazy riches.
«I didn’t boast, I always considered myself fortunately rich. If I wanted to go on a trip, I could go. If I wanted to change the car, I could buy a new one.”

He pretended to own a boat.
«It belonged to friends. But if it bothered her so much, why did she come here? Life is about bait. You don’t just catch fish with a hook.”

In the interview above Vanity Fair, with whom, in June 2023, you announced that your marriage was over, you said: «We are separated but more united than ever». It is still so?
“Certain. We have three children, we need harmony… how do you say it? Parental, that’s it.”

Decision made or suffered?
«I suffered it, sharing it. How can you expect a person to do what he no longer wants, to feel what he no longer feels, to be what he no longer is.”

Did it bother you to accept it?
“For me it wasn’t easy, but it was right.”

Did he ask himself what he did wrong with Sonia?
“Certain. And she certainly did too.”

He also said: “Love transforms, I hope to find it again as soon as possible.”
«Now I feel great like this. I am full of friends, I have five children, two grandchildren and a third who will be born in July. If it happens, it will happen. And if it doesn’t happen, as they say in Rome, fat.”

You look around?
«Always, before crossing!».

April 24, 2024

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