Today, Sunday 28 December, at 4.30pm on Canale 5, appointment with “Verissimo – Le storie”, the most intense interviews conducted this season by Silvia Toffanin. Among the most beautiful interventions we will be able to review that one Sonia Bruganelli which talks about his new book, an autobiography entitled “Only What Remains”.
At Verissimo: the presentation of the new book
Sonia Bruganelli presents her new book to Silvia Toffanin, the autobiography “Only what remains” starting from the relationship with her parents. «My mother influenced me because she was strong… she always made it. Maybe he needed a hug, but he never asked for it,” she says. «I’m understanding that being strong doesn’t mean not asking for help» he says «I’m making sure that my children see it, starting with me». After his mother, he moves on to the relationship with his father, who recently died. «My dad was the soft part, also the one who spoiled… he was the right part that also allowed me to do many things, with a mother who was certainly present, but rigid. It was the counterpart.” Then she talks about a story she never told her father: the voluntary termination of her pregnancy at the age of 24, while she had been engaged to Paolo Bonolis for a year.
A Verissimo: The story of the voluntary termination of pregnancy at 24 years old
«I think back to the people we were in those times and I see that we found ourselves faced with an immense test, without being ready» he writes in the book «You can understand everything, but the pain remains». «I find myself not knowing how to deal with this thing, how to manage it. Among other things, I knew that Paolo was coming from a separation”, he explains to Silvia Toffanin. «And we choose this path, because I wasn’t able to do it alone: I repeat, there is no judgement», she justifies by talking about freedom of choice, of the fact that everyone can and must choose based on what they really want. «In my case I had my mother who told me “don’t worry, in case we’re here”» he explains, «But I didn’t want a child, I wanted a fairy tale, I wanted a child of a shared project and that wasn’t the case. I chose not to want a child alone and to continue investing in our history.” Then he moves on to something that is never talked about much: the difficulties of the body. «I was physically strong, because even physically it is something that affects you. At the time I didn’t know that there are griefs that you carry forward.” «My mother said: “If you choose not to have this child, then you must also have the strength to forget and not make that person feel guilty or blame them”. I knew I could do it, because I was in love” she says. «Then as time passed I made a run to get that child back», he says, «He had become a target» and «he was becoming obsessive. I looked around and saw prams, pregnant women…”. “He had children, at Christmas he went to his children and I was left there”, she says sadly, explaining that the ivg had occurred in November, shortly before Christmas.
A Verissimo: depression and anorexia
She also talks about depression, a trip to New York and the panic attacks that accompanied her for a long time after the birth of her daughter Silvia. «Today they passed, precisely because I wanted to understand and recover my head. I went to a cognitive-behavioral psychologist and in a year I managed to destroy them. The few times I get anxious, I now recognize it” he explains “I have learned not to fight it, but to ride this wave”. In the book Bruganelli also recounts “the most painful period of my life”: that of eating disorders, of anorexia, coinciding with the moment of the strongest panic attacks. The one for the body had become an obsession. Then one day her son Davide said to her, seeing “mum, you’re dying”. «It was the awareness that he saw it, that I couldn’t hide this thing. I said to myself: here too you failed to be a good mother, because she is afraid that you will die”, she says. “And then little by little I started eating again”, also thanks to the help of the medicines. He also confides in Toffanin the difficulty in understanding that he suffered from anorexia at 39 years old, when he already had children: he was not young, which is the case history known to most. Yet, this is not the case: everyone, at any age, can suffer from eating disorders. Regarding criticism of excess luxury, he says: «I don’t deny anything. I like to dress well, I like bags, I like shoes. Then when I saw that I was that person there, for me it was a beautiful mask.”
To Verissimo: the separation from Paolo Bonolis
She gets completely naked and also returns to the separation from Paolo Bonolis. «First there were the little kids, I thought something would go better. It was a change in me” she tells Toffanin “I hadn’t allowed myself to admit many things.” She was so tired, she explains «At a certain point I couldn’t take it anymore, I had to stop. I sacrificed marriage and what could have been the bond, because for me the important thing was to be a living mother, roll up my sleeves and do it myself.” «These are not things you can explain, it is you who are in a condition, in a place… where you are no longer yourself», she says «I went into analysis. Paolo never did it.” «If the other person remains stuck in that emotional state, we no longer find each other» as a couple, «Then we find each other every day as fathers and mothers.
I am a hundred thousand times better, and so is he.”
A Verissimo: the book “Only what remains”
«I hope you like this book because in addition to my life, there are 7 books by writers: Annie Ernaux, Sandro Veronesi, Teresa Ciabatti, Concita De Gregorio, Roberto Cotroneo, Michele Trevi». These are the authors from whom Bruganelli starts to talk about himself: «I recognized myself and by talking about those books I talk about the human being». On Tuesday 21 November “Only What Remains” was released in all bookstores.
Who is Sonia Bruganelli
Sonia Bruganelli was born in Rome on 20 February 1974 and today she is 51 years old. From a very young age she made her way into the world of entertainment: posing for photo novels and working as an image girl in the most popular nightclubs. While juggling between photographic sets and evenings, he continued his studies in Communication Sciences with determination, graduating. Thanks to her work as a model and TV face, she met Paolo Bonolis during Tira e Molla, a cult show on Canale 5. He was already a leading presenter, she was a young up-and-comer involved in a TV promotion. Thirty-six years old for him, twenty-three for her.
Career
After graduating and meeting Bonolis, Sonia launched herself into the world of entrepreneurship. She founded Adele Virgy, a children’s clothing brand inspired by her children’s drawings. In 2005 she created her agency SDL 2005, which also specializes in casting for her husband’s programmes, such as Ciao Darwin and Avanti unaltro!. His career also includes a web TV, SDL TV, with exclusive content behind the scenes of Bonolis’ programs and with a personal space: Sonia’s books, where he interviews fiction and non-fiction authors. In 2021 she made her debut as a commentator on Big Brother VIP, a role she also held in the following edition of 2022. Cesara Buonamici then took her place, while Sonia continued with new experiences on TV, until arriving on stage as a dancer on Dancing with the Stars.
The children
The bond between Sonia and Paolo became official in 1997, and the wedding arrived in 2002. From their union three children are born: Silvia, now twenty years old, born with a serious heart disease; Davide, 18 and Adele, 14. Bonolis has two other children, Stefano and Martina, born from a previous relationship with Diane Zoeller. Silvia’s illness was discovered in the eighth month of pregnancy. Immediately after birth, the little girl underwent heart surgery. Complications are not long in coming. «He had motor damage and always had difficulty moving his limbs. His damage is due to the hypoxia he had seven days after the operation” explained Bruganelli in an interview with Verissimo. «The evening before she had this heart attack, I saw her gray, in intensive care: the doctors said she was fine. Then, the illness occurred during a shift change between doctors.”
Silvia’s illness
Sonia has spoken several times about the difficulties she had when she discovered she had a daughter born with health problems, in several interviews she drew attention to those families who have to live with a disabled child, their difficulties and the often insufficient assistance. Silvia is now 19 years old and has achieved a form of independence which represents an immense source of pride for her parents. «I saw her so small with all those tubes and I was afraid to even touch her, to breastfeed her. And then I felt guilty about it.” Now Silvia is well, and for mum and dad to see her so tenacious and self-sufficient is a great source of pride.
His son Davide, footballer
Among Sonia and Paolo’s children, Davide, now twenty years old, is the one who has stood out the most: he plays football in the Primavera della Triestina, cultivating the dream of becoming a professional footballer.
The separation from Paolo Bonolis
In 2023 the couple announced their separation, with mature and profound words. «We are separated but more united than ever. We will continue to be so for our family, for each other. The feeling is strong, but it is no longer what brought us together,” Bonolis told Vanity Fair. Sonia had anticipated it: «We are parents, we will continue to go on holidays together, we will maintain the same dynamics. This is the news. There are no third parties or lovers involved.” Paolo admitted that he was immediately affected by the decision, even if he understood it.
«How can you expect a person to do what they no longer want, to feel what they no longer feel, to be what they no longer are?». It wasn’t easy to accept it: “But right.” And he also confessed that he had wondered about the mistakes he had made, “and she certainly did too.”
The relationship with Angelo Madonia
Today, Sonia is romantically linked to Angelo Madonia, dancer and former teacher of Dancing with the Stars. During his participation in the program, Bruganelli had explicitly asked not to dance as a couple with him; for this reason his teacher was Carlo Aloia. The relationship with Madonia is going swimmingly: «A mature, true love. He is younger than me, but from experience, he is older. He has two daughters from two different mothers, he lived in China, he knows that my children come first”, he told Corriere della Sera. Sonia has learned that the greatest courage is also to show oneself vulnerable:
“True strength is knowing how to say ‘I can’t do it’, showing one’s fragility and getting help.”
Madonia, in an interview with Ciao Maschio with Nunzia De Girolamo, explained her farewell to Dancing with the Stars as follows: «After nine weeks of full work and full marks, only one topic that concerned my private life was examined and targeted. And as a professional, as someone called to play that role there in the program, it was right instead to put the talent and the work I was doing for this talent in the foreground (Federica Pellegrini, ed.)” he told Nunzia De Girolamo during an episode of “Ciao Maschio” a few months ago, to explain the reason for his farewell to Dancing with the Stars.
Last updated: Sunday 28 December 2025, 7.39pm
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