The wedding between Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida and her longtime Spanish boyfriend has been called off, news reports in Italy and Spain said Wednesday.
Lollobrigida, 79, had been scheduled to marry Javier Rigau y Rafols, 45, of Barcelona, Spain, on Jan. 27 in Rome. The couple, who met at a party in Monte Carlo, Monaco, had been dating for 22 years.
“Javier is desperate. Ever since we have announced this wedding, he has been tormented with lies and slander,” Lollobrigida was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.
“He can’t take it anymore,” Lollobrigida was quoted as saying. “For now there is no wedding and that’s it.”
Lollobrigida, who was traveling in the United States, couldn’t be reached for comment. It would have been her second marriage.
The wedding between Lollobrigida, once dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, and a man 34 years her junior had attracted the attention of gossip magazines and some TV shows in Spain and Italy.
In a statement sent through the office of his lawyer Javier Saavedra, Rigau said he “will always love and respect” Lollobrigida, Spain’s Hola magazine reported.
Rigau denounced what he said was “constant,” “unfounded” and “unlawful” media interference in his private life, and said he planned legal action, according to Hola. His lawyers in Spain were unavailable for comment Wednesday, a national holiday.
Lollobrigida also said she planned legal action against media outlets in both countries, without specifying what action that might be, ANSA reported.
The couple were set to wed in New York last month, but moved the wedding to January in Rome.
Lollobrigida began making movies in Italy just after the end of World War II. Her screen credits include “The World’s Most Beautiful Woman,” “Come September,” “Trapeze,” “Bread, Love and Dreams” and “Never So Few.”
In recent years, she has returned to art, first with photography and then with sculpture.