Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 86, is hospitalized for medical checks

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been admitted to Milan’s San Raffaele hospital two months after being diagnosed with leukemia and a lung infection.

Berlusconi, 86, who is in a relationship with Forza Italia lawmaker Marta Fascina, 33, was taken to hospital for medical checks, a source said.

The billionaire media mogul was released from the hospital last month after receiving treatment for a lung infection related to chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CML).

Berlusconi’s health has deteriorated markedly in recent years, with open-heart surgery in 2016 and numerous hospital admissions since contracting Covid-19 three years ago.

He entered intensive care in April at the San Raffaele hospital’s cardiac unit after suffering from breathing problems.

While there, Berlusconi, the leader of the right-wing Forza Italia party, was diagnosed with a lung infection and chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare blood cancer characterized by a high number of white blood cells.

Berlusconi has previously overcome prostate cancer, which he described as “a nightmare that lasts for months.”

But it was his battle with Covid in 2020 that he described as the “most dangerous challenge” of his life.

Italy’s three-time prime minister, who has been embroiled in several scandals, most notably surrounding his ‘bunga bunga’ parties, was admitted to hospital with a minor heart problem after collapsing in 2006 and underwent heart surgery. at a US hospital in January 2007.

The former AC Milan owner, who also underwent major heart surgery in 2016 to replace an aortic valve, has had a pacemaker for several years.

He was hospitalized again for a reported urinary tract infection in January 2022.

Berlusconi, who won a seat in Italy’s Senate during the September general election, has stirred controversy in recent months with his criticism of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, putting him at odds with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The billionaire, whose Forza Italia party is part of the ruling government coalition, was accused but acquitted this year of paying starlets and others for “silence and lies” about his notoriously hedonistic evenings, which he has always insisted were fancy dinners.

The verdict was the culmination of a legal battle that began in 2010 when Berlusconi, then prime minister, was accused of abusing his power to protect a young Moroccan nightclub dancer, Karima El-Mahroug.

Berlusconi, who has five children, was temporarily suspended from political office following a 2013 tax fraud conviction, for which he served a community sentence.

But he returned to the political front and was reelected as a senator last year.

The media mogul, who first entered politics in 1994, currently has no role in government.