Andrea Giambruno and his partner, Italy’s newly elected prime minister Giorgia Meloni, don’t often see eye to eye when it comes to politics.
On track to become Italy’s first female prime minister, the leader of radical right-wing party Brothers of Italy has stirred the public’s curiosity about her personal life.
The couple started dating after meeting through work eight years ago and have a six-year-old daughter.
Here’s what we know about Italy’s new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her relationship with partner Andrea Giambruno.
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Who is Italy’s new second gentleman, Andrea Giambruno?
Andrea Giambruno and Giorgia Meloni may not be husband and wife, but their lives and careers are nevertheless intertwined.
Giambruno, 41, is a TV journalist working for ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s TV channel, Mediaset. Born in Milan in 1981, he graduated from the Catholic University of Milano with a degree in philosophy before starting his career at Mediaset.
Giambruno has worked on a number of Mediaset productions including talk show Quinta Colonna (Fifth Column) and news and debate programmes Matrix, Mattino 5 (Morning 5) and Stasera Italia (Tonight Italy).
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He currently anchors Studio Aperto (Open Studio), Mediaset’s brand of news programme.
Although his career often sees him in the spotlight, Giambruno is private, even reserved, when it comes to his personal life. He barely has a social media presence and his Instagram is set to private and rarely used.
Inside Giorgia Meloni and Andrea Giambruno’s relationship
Giambruno, who is four years Meloni’s junior, first met his partner eight years ago on the set of Quinta Colonna, where the TV journalist was working at the time.
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According to Corriere, Meloni had arrived at the studio famished having eaten nothing all day. During an ad break the politician, who in 2014 became head of the Brothers of Italy party, snacked on a banana but didn’t have a chance to ditch it before the talk show came back on air.
“I rush over there and snatch it from her hand, even with some enthusiasm, so we don’t catch Meloni with a banana on air,” Giambruno recalled. And although the politician initially mistook him for a studio assistant, their eyes locked for one long second.
From there, Corriere reports, the couple began a close courtship and, on September 16, 2016, their daughter Ginevra was born, dubbed “Italy’s little sister” by the publication. Meloni has praised her partner for being “an eminently present father” and said they split parenting duties equally.
Meloni and Giambruno don’t see eye to eye on politics
Meloni and Giambruno, despite their ostensibly complementary careers, claim to have wildly differing political views.
While Meloni campaigned and became Italy’s prime minister with the slogan “God, country and family”, Giambruno claims “his heart is on the left” and has always voted that way.
“I’m in favour of legalising drugs, even the hard ones,” he told journalist Luca Telese in a 2020 interview. “I would empty the orphanages and give all the babies to rainbow couples.”
Meloni has made it clear throughout her campaign where she stands on LGBTQ rights: “Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology,” she said at a Spanish far-right rally earlier this year.
Additionally, Politico reports Meloni is staunchly anti-drugs and anti-abortion, although “she insists she wouldn’t ban abortion.” Nevertheless, in regions where Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party rules in coalition, access to abortions have been all but wiped out, France24 reports.
Despite these differences, Giambruno says he’s supporting Meloni at all her rallies. “I go to all of her rallies. I like to hide in the law row where she can’t see me.”
Meloni added in an interview with Corriere that she asks her partner not to talk politics at home: “Again with the politics? Please, let’s change the subject!”
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