Following in the footsteps of Silvio Berlusconi's wife Veronica Lario, another politician's spouse bared her soul in the Italian press on Wednesday.
Livia Aymonino wrote an open letter to national daily La Repubblica about her husband Silvio Sircana, a close aide of Premier Romano Prodi who is now government spokesman.
Whereas Lario wrote to the same daily to publicly scold her husband for flirting with other women, Aymonino's letter was in firm support of her husband, who has been dragged into a prostitute photo scandal.
"I have nothing to forgive my husband... I have sincere, strong and loyal trust in Silvio and I hope his trust in me is equally strong," Aymonino said.
In a dignified and measured letter, Aymonino said she and her husband had been "deeply hurt by the mud-slinging and lies".
"We are defenceless people in a perverse tale where the injured party is the guilty one, without appeal and without the possibility of escape, only submission - fattened lambs to be sacrificed in the name of a scoop, false morality and political warfare," she said.
"We lead a quiet life and we know a lot about each other but without expecting to know everything or completely own the other person... This life and trust have been thrown onto the scrap heap in the past few days," said the mother of two.
"But I am not afraid of evil tittle-tattle because I am not afraid of what does not exist. I am the wife of Silvio Sircana but, above all, I am Livia Aymonino, with my own life, convictions and thoughts and my work and family," she said.
Last week, Italian dailies published a paparazzo photo of Sircana driving along a street worked by transsexual prostitutes.
The grainy photo, taken last September, showed Sircana in his car apparently stopped next to a scantily clad transsexual.
Sircana, who was promoted from Prodi spokesman to government spokesman last month, described the incident as a "moment of stupid curiosity".
He stressed that the "presumed transsexual" did not get into his car and that no-one had attempted to blackmail him over the photo.
Rumours of the photo's existence had been rife for a week before its publication as the media reported on a widening probe into a VIP vice and extortion ring run by arrested paparazzo Fabrizio Corona.
Several government supporters said the photo was non-existent and accused pro-opposition media of fabricating the story in order to blacken Sircana's name.
The photographer who took the photo also briefly denied its existence and publicly apologised to Sircana.
As the row rumbled on, Sircana reportedly considered resigning but agreed to stay on after Prodi pressed him to remain.
Sircana defended that decision after the photo's publication.
"I took a stupid, summer evening detour but why should I have to quit over it?... You can't crucify someone for such foolishness," he said.
The aide, who was briefly hospitalised amid the stress caused by what he termed the "media pillorying", said the solidarity expressed by politicians of all stripes had convinced him that his "credibility as spokesman" had not been lost.
Meanwhile, a second probe into Corona's alleged extortion ring was opened in Rome on Wednesday.
BERLUSCONI'S WIFE WAS FIRST TO USE PRESS TACTIC.
Livia Aymonino's public defence of her husband came almost two months after Veronica Lario, the wife of former premier and opposition chief Berlusconi, wrote to La Repubblica to rebuke her husband for his roving eye.
Lario, an ex-actress who goes by her stage name, stunned Italians by discarding her famed reserve and demanding a public apology from her 70-year-old media mogul husband for belittling her with his flirting.
The ensuing public exchange between Lario and Berlusconi held the country in thrall, with Berlusconi duly apologising to his wife of 27 years via another letter faxed to the Italian press.
