Berlusconi’s wife seeks £38m-a-year divorce deal

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, is putting a very high price on her humiliation. She is said to be seeking a maintenance deal that would dwarf some of the world's most high profile divorce settlements. According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, she wants £38m a year - or £3.2m a month - on top of a lump sum of £50m she's already received.

Compare that with what Heather Mills received last year after she split with Sir Paul McCartney: approximately £24m in a one-off payment, plus £35,000 a year to pay for their daughter's nanny.

But then McCartney is a mere pauper compared with Berlusconi: the former Beatle's wealth was accepted by the judge to be about £450m - though Heather Mills claimed it was closer to £800m. Berlusconi, on the other hand, is thought to have amassed a £5.6bn fortune from his media and banking activities.

And he has no intention of throwing it away, according to the Corriere. He says he's prepared to pay his wife £180,000 a month, which could be increased to £270,000 in special circumstances. And he's ready to let her keep their house at Macherio, near Milan. But £3.2m a month is not on.

Whether Lario holds out for her record-breaking - make that ball-breaking - demand could depend on how much angrier she becomes over her wayward husband's behaviour. The publication this week of call girl Patrizia D'Addario's memoir, with its revelations of the 73-year-old PM's bedroom stamina, will not have improved Veronica's humour.

However, Lario has always appeared most angry about his friendship with the wannabe teenage model, Noemi Letizia. When Lario learned that her husband had attended her 18th birthday party and given her an expensive necklace as a gift she was quoted as saying that she could no longer remain with a man who "frequented minors" .

But while Berlusconi has barely attempted to deny sleeping with D'Addario - though he claims her cannot actually remember her - he has vehemently denied having an inappropriate relationship with Noemi Letizia.