Paola Ferrari is the undisputed queen of female sports journalism. She was the first and Corriere della Sera remembers it with extreme pleasure. «I was the first to do what was then imitated by others. I’m someone who always wants to break down barriers, having paved the way is a source of pride. Now I expect my colleagues to conquer other positions, but I was the first to be there on the sidelines: Nils Liedholm made me bring hot tea…”.
Paola Ferrari, the confession: «I have a tumor on my face but I’m not afraid to have surgery»
The violent mother
But before becoming a journalist there is a violent childhood to tell. «My mother had a strong breakdown and she began to be very violent. She tried to kill me at least three times, the first by drowning me. She also attacked my sick grandmother and gave her scissors on her arms.” And then there was an absent father. «My father – the Novantesimo minutio journalist tells Corsera again – was disinterested: it was as if what was happening at home didn’t concern him, later I discovered that he had an extramarital affair from which a son was born, who died at 45. Today dad is 94 years old and I take care of him. I can’t go to visit my mother at the cemetery.” Now after having lived through that childhood “I’m not afraid of anything, the violence gave me the strength to go against adversity: the aggression that I sometimes express is the result of that”.
The beginnings on TV
But life gave her something else. From a close-up on television, she was among the guests in the studio together with a friend of hers, Enzo Tortora noticed her. Paola Ferrari was 16 years old at the time. «A second father. He came looking for me all over Busto Arsizio and said that she wanted to take me to Rai, he was about to leave Portobello.” As a switchboard operator in the world of football, first on Telenova, then on Telelombardia. There Sandro Mazzola and Tito Stagno noticed her and brought her to Rai: «They told me that I was never banal in my work».
The husband
Thanks to Alba Parietti she met what is now her husband: Marco De Benedetti. But no love at first sight, at least on her part. She was her “husband” instead… «After four months she asked me to marry him. He worked hard to win me over, also helped by his mother Mita, who was a friend of Alba and then also became my friend. She kept him informed of the lunches I attended and he stopped by for the coffee…” More difficult to become friends with the “father-in-law”. Because «at the beginning he thought I was one of many, that I would leave quickly. When he realized that I could stay he wasn’t very nice, he threw more digs at me.” They have been married for 28 years. Never a crisis, never a skid. «They often attribute me to having boyfriends – Paola Ferrari continues to tell Corriere della Sera – in reality we are very close with Marco. He too is coveted: the other night at dinner there was someone who was aiming for him. If she wants I’ll lend it to her for a year, but then I’ll take it back!’
Clashes with colleagues
In the past there was Silvio Berlusconi’s court. A platonic love. «During a dinner in the house in via Rovani with Montanelli, he took the fake mother-of-pearl clip out of my hair. “My woman must not wear anything fake,” she said. I was hurt, I decided not to see him again”
To her colleague Michela Proietti she defines herself as a sanguine, someone who says what she thinks. It also happened with Diletta Leotta: «she is very good and she brings advertising revenue. But if you ask me if I would like my daughter Virginia to be like her, then I answer no. . Ennobling the nude with feminism seems petty to me: once upon a time we didn’t want to look beautiful but good, now they want to be beautiful first and foremost, it’s a step backwards.” Paola also had a clash with Melissa Satta who called her a “rosicona”. «I was sorry: when I commented on her gesture of taking off her jacket during the broadcast, it was against the male jokes that followed. She thought I was mad at her. I’m not envious, rather I was envied…”.
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