Luxottica heir Leonardo Del Vecchio visits ex-partner in hospital as custody fight intensifies, lawyers file defamation complaint

Custody dispute and court order

The legal battle between Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, heir to the Luxottica eyewear empire, and his former partner Sara Soldati, a model and former "Grande Fratello" contestant, centers on their one-year-old daughter. Soldati filed a complaint for child abduction after Del Vecchio took the child to Corsica on a yacht without her knowledge, according to her lawyer Annamaria Bernardini de Pace, who said the child was "in Corsica without the mother and without the nanny, who was fired on the spot." Soldati later filed a second complaint for private violence after she was allowed to see the child for only a few minutes in the presence of several people. Del Vecchio's lawyers called the reconstruction "completely unfounded" and said he had always respected agreements. On July 27, Milan civil court judge Valentina Maderna ruled that the "prolonged absence of the child represented a serious prejudice" and ordered Del Vecchio to hand over the child to the mother immediately. The court limited the father's contact to a daily five-minute video call at 6 p.m. and appointed lawyer Alessandro Simone as a special curator to protect the child's interests. The handover took place on July 28 at 5:30 p.m. at Porto Cervo, Sardinia, after some uncertainty: the mother had indicated Porto Cervo, while Del Vecchio initially preferred to return directly to Milan.

Hospitalizations and the San Raffaele visit

Soldati experienced three hospitalizations in quick succession: the first on July 22 while in Montecarlo, the second on July 28 in Sardinia (the same evening she received the child), and the third on July 31, when she was admitted urgently to the San Raffaele hospital in Milan. She was placed in the hospital's "area solventi," with no official reason disclosed. Del Vecchio arrived at the hospital on August 1 carrying a bouquet of flowers and spent about 30 minutes inside. Speaking to reporters afterward, he said:

I came first of all to see how the mother of my daughter was, given that I haven't known where she is for days. She traveled without my knowledge and has been staying in a hospital room since last night. Sara was hospitalized, I don't know for what. They have a home, the child was entrusted to the mother, and I don't understand why she has to keep a child in a hospital room for two days. I tried to ask her to let me take the child home, even with the grandmother, as she preferred.

He added that he was happy both were well but unhappy to have seen the child in a hospital, stating "this is not a place for children."

Lawyers file criminal complaint

Later on August 1, Del Vecchio's legal team, Domenico Aiello and Daniela Missaglia, filed a criminal complaint against Soldati and her lawyer Bernardini de Pace for false statements, defamation, and slander. In a statement, they accused Bernardini de Pace of spreading "falsehoods and insults" with the "sole purpose of extorting higher sums." They denied any agreement had been reached for the child to stay with the maternal grandmother in a Milan apartment, as Bernardini de Pace had claimed. Instead, they said the child had been on a light carrier in a hospital room since the previous night. The lawyers also alleged that the child had traveled from Olbia to Milan without documents on the afternoon of July 31. They stated that Soldati and her defenders would answer for "gravely slanderous and defamatory content" and for allowing the child to spend the night in a hospital.

The colleague continues to spread lies in the media, deluding herself that they will magically turn into truth. She wrote in formal correspondence, even to the curator appointed by the Court, that the child was safe and cared for in an apartment in Milan, while on the contrary she was on a light carrier from the previous night in a hospital room.

Timeline of events

The next court hearing on custody is scheduled for August 10.