“The separation from Sonia Bruganelli? I suffered it, it wasn’t easy. I spoke to Freddie Mercury, he hit on me: I was cute.” Paolo Bonolis, a presenter with a 45-year career behind him between Rai and Mediaset, tells his story on the pages of Corriere della Sera. A conversation between past memories, a look at your love life and one at the future.
The interview starts from the marriage with Sonia Bruganelli, whose end they announced together in an interview in Vanity Fair in June 2023. “We are separated but more united than ever,” they said. It is still so?
“Certain. We have three children, we need harmony… how do you say it? Parenting, 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? For me it wasn’t easy, but right. If I asked myself what did he do wrong with Sonia? Certain. And she certainly did too.”
Bonolis also said that “love transforms, I hope to find it again as soon as possible”. Now what is his relationship status?
“I’m fine 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.”
His first marriage to Diane, however, ended in betrayal:
“I realized I had done something stupid and I said it, it wasn’t digested, I understand her intemperance”.
And then, at the beginning of the nineties, the relationship with the showgirl Laura Freddi, with whom he reveals he was happy.
“I’m always happy, before, during and after. Just don’t think about it.”
Then there is his colleague Luca Laurenti, with whom he has been an artistic partner since 1991:
“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.”
Returning to his youth, he talks about when at 25 he met the Queen singer Freddie Mercury, who tried. Bonolis replied: “I love your music, I think it’s fantastic, but we have different hormonal horizons.” Today he remembers:
“We chatted. And then everyone went their own way. But I was cute, you know?”.
While his name is being mentioned as host of the next Sanremo Festival, Bonolis announces that he will remain at Mediaset:
“I promised Pier Silvio that I would do another season of Avanti un Altro and I am a person of my word”.
Tags: Paolo Bonolis Freddie Mercury suffered separation Sonia Bruganelli staying Mediaset
