Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's estranged wife believes her dignity has been besmirched in the fallout from a scandal that began with her suggestions that her husband had an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old model. “What is true is that I have always loved him and planned my life in function of my marriage and my family,” she said in a front-page letter published in Thursday's edition of Corriere della Sera, Italy's leading newspaper. Veronica Lario announced in May that she had hired a lawyer to begin separation and divorce proceedings. “In these weeks I have watched in silence, without reacting through the media, as my person, my dignity and my marital history has been brutally besmirched,” she wrote. “What is certain is that there has been nothing near the truth (said) about my relationship,” she said. She gave no details, but there have been published reports suggesting marital infidelities on her part. In the meantime, paparazzi have besieged her.
