Silvio Berlusconi

He tied the knot with Carla Elvira Dall’Oglio in 1965. The couple was blessed with two children. Meanwhile, in 1980, he develop a romantic alliance with actress Veronica Lario with whom he fathered three children.

In 1985, he divorced his first wife and five years later, married his long time sweetheart, Lario. However, this marriage too failed as Lario filed a divorce.

Born in a middle class family to Luigi Berlusconi and Rosa Bossi, Silvio Berlusconi was the first of the three children of the couple. He has a younger sister and brother. His father was a bank employee and his mother was a homemaker.

Academically, he completed his basic education from Salesian college before enrolling himself at the Universita Statale in Milan for a degree in Law. He graduated from the same in 1961 with honours.

During his days at the university, he developed a knack for playing bass and became proficient at it. He started performing as a cruise ship crooner.

He began his career in construction industry, his first notable assignment being erecting 4000 residential apartments building in Milan in late 1960s.

Making a fortune out of real estate, he jumped into the world of media by setting up a small cable television company, ‘Telemilano’ in 1973. What distinguished his channel from the rest is that he used the same to introduce Italy to foreign shows.

His business in media earned fruitful results as he went on to buy two more channels and relocated the station to the central of Milan. He then climbed the success ladder further by founding his first media group, Fininvest in 1978. The company owned a string of local TV stations across the country.

Two years later, i.e. in 1980, he founded Italy's first private national network, Canale 5. In the subsequent years to come, he bought two more private national networks, Italia 1 in 1982 and Rete 4 in 1984, thus creating the first commercial TV Empire.

After political turmoil in Italy in 1985, due to the legal complications, Berlusconi's three channels were not allowed to broadcast news and political commentary. The matter was sorted out in 1990 by the Mammi Law, which elevated the status of channels to full national TV channels.

For his role in Italy’s politics, he was conferred with many honors and decorations from various countries, some of which include, Italy’s Knight of the Order of Merit for Labour, Holy See’s Knight of the Order of Pius IX, Poland’s Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit and Latvia’s Grand Officer of the Order of the Three Stars

Furthermore, he received Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania and Knight Grand Cross of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George

He is the proud recipient of Al-Fateh Medal of Libya and was made Member 1st Class of the Order of Abdulaziz al Saud by Saudi Arabia. Additionally, he was Honorary Companion of Honour of the National Order of Merit by Malta.