Silvio Berlusconi, 85, holds ‘symbolic’ marriage with 32-year-old bride

The couple pledged their devotion in a ‘festival of love’

Silvio Berlusconi and his partner Marta Fascina at their unofficial wedding ceremony (Vittorio Sgarbi)

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has staged a symbolic wedding – swapping rings with a woman 53 years his junior in an unofficial ceremony.

Dubbed a “festival of love”, the lavish union saw the 85-year-old Milanese multibillionaire bursting into song and chuckling behind a three-tiered cake as he took the hand of his 32-year-old bride Marta Fascina.

It marks the third time the ex-PM has made it up the aisle – but the latest coupling wasn’t a marriage in the eyes of the law.

Instead, the pair tied the unratified knot at a rural palace on Saturday.

It’s understood Berlusconi’s adult children were furious at the thought Fascina could lay claim to their father’s £5bn fortune.

The political power couple have been together since 2020, after Berlusconi broke off his relationship with long-term girlfriend Francesca Pascale, 36.

Fascina, an MP in Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia party, is a literature graduate from Calabria, who has been a member of Italy’s lower house since 2018.

She has thousands of followers on her social media accounts, as well as a tattoo bearing Berlusconi’s initials, according to Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.

Berlusconi, who has a tax fraud conviction, is still facing charges related to an underage sex case in Italy.

The former PM was previously convicted of paying for sex with prostitute Karima El Mahroug when she was 17, but this was overturned on appeal – though he has been accused of bribing witnesses to keep silent.

El Mahroug was reportedly an attendee of one of Berlusconi’s infamous “bunga bunga” sex parties held at his private villa.

Berlusconi dropped his bid to become president earlier this year (AP)

Earlier this year, Berlusconi – known to his supporters as Il Cavaliere (the knight) – dropped his bid to become president.

There were protests over the prospect of him winning a seven-year term in a position supposed to provide a kind of moral compass to the nation.

He said he was bowing out to avoid further controversy – in the spirit of “national responsibility” amid the pandemic.

However, at the ceremony at the Villa Gernetto in Lesmo, north of Milan, such cares seemed far away.

Italy’s longest-serving post-war premier was filmed crooning at the piano and posing for photos.

He is said to have told Fascina: “You complete me, I couldn’t live without you, you fill my life.”