Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s divorce promises to be a messy affair. Besides being Prime Minister, Berlusconi is Italy’s wealthiest person with an approximate $10 billion fortune in television, newspapers and publishing.

Besides the divorce, the 73-year-old Berlusconi faces two corruption trials after the immunity law his political party passed last year was ruled unconstitutional.

Berlusconi’s wife, Veronica Lario, has waited since May for an offer from Berlusconi to settle the divorce privately, but none has been tendered. Lario is now expected to file a separazione con addebito. That is the first step in a long divorce process in which she will blame the failed marriage on Berlusconi. Italian divorces normally take three to seven years. 

Lario announced that she wanted the divorce in May after Berlusconi attended the birthday party of an 18-year-old model and gave her a diamond and gold necklace. At that time, Lario said that Berlusconi “frequents minors.”

A contested divorce will likely force Berlusconi to discuss his relationships with starlets, showgirls and prostitutes.

Although there have been reports that Lario is seeking 20% of Berlusconi’s wealth, her real aim is to have the three children that she had with Berlusconi treated equally with the two he had before he met her. Berlusconi, on the other hand, wants to split his wealth equally between the two families.

Berlusconi’s older children are in their 40’s and actively involved in his business. The younger ones are in their 20’s and desiring to take larger roles.

In the backdrop to this are the corruption trials. Without immunity as Prime Minister protecting him, Berlusconi’s allies are trying to pass a law that would drop from 10 years to 6 years the time that prosecutors have to convict a person. Terrorism and illegal immigration would be excepted from the new law. This would let Berlusconi off the hook if enacted. Of course, it would also end prosecution on about 100,000 criminal cases. Beyond that, it would add further pressure to the notoriously slow Italian justice system.