A German starlet said in an interview published on Friday that was pregnant by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but later told a popular blogger she had suffered a miscarriage. Asked by investigative daily Il Fatto Quotidiano about the rumour that Berlusconi could be the father of her baby, 38-year-old television actress Sabina Began reportedly answered: "It's simple, I only went to bed with him."
But the Dagospia website later on Friday said it had received a text message from Began saying: "I lost the baby last night. I beg you to help me so that no-one talks about this any more. I have made a lot of mistakes." The 75-year-old Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini meanwhile said the interview with Began was "totally disconnected from reality".
He said the interview was "colourful, ironic, typically summery". Began, known as "Queen Bee" for her role in organising some of Berlusconi's raunchy dinner parties, also said in the Fatto Quotidiano interview that Berlusconi was "very depressed" and keen to get back into politics.
"For him politics is a way of recharging his batteries," she said. Began's name has been linked in the Italian press to parties hosted by Berlusconi at his residences in Sardinia and Rome, where bevies of young women performed strip shows which he has defined as "burlesque contests".