Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (you know, that really smiley guy opposite Obama in the G20 yearbook photo) boasted a few days ago that he was the most popular politician on the planet.
But his own wife has laid waste to that claim -- and filed for divorce.
Berlusconi, the self-proclaimed "Jesus Christ of Italian politics" said his approval rating reached at a whopping 75 percent. Of course, no one could independently verify the numbers. As Berlusconi said, "these are independent surveys, but they are not promptly punished."
An actual survey by La Repubblica poll last month had the conservative PM's support at 56 percent, Reuters reported. That puts him below President Obama or Brazilian President Luiz Inacio, the most popular politician on Earth.
Still, Berlusconi's numbers weren't bad for a guy so politically tone-deaf as to think a good Obama joke involves referencing the African-American's remarkable tan, or, to tell people living in tents who just lost everything in an earthquake to "treat the experience as a camping holiday."
Now the Italian Jesus has one high profile detractor: His wife, Veronica Lario, 52, wants a divorce, it was reported today.
Less than a week ago, Lario, wrote an open letter to an Italian newspaper criticizing her man because his coalition "planned to nominate a slate of attractive, young women for elections to the European parliament, " The New York Times reported.
"Shamelessly trashy," she said.
After news reports placed the 72-year-old Berlusconi at a young model's 18th birthday party, Lario ended the marriage.
"He never attended the 18th birthday parties of his own children, even if he was invited," she said.
“I’d like to close the curtain on our married life,” Lario told La Repubblica.
