'I Told the Truth': Berlusconi's Call Girl

Silvio Berlusconi's antics with models and call girls have threatened to derail his government, but the woman at the center of the sex-and-corruption scandal says she's seen it all before. "This is how Italy always works," Patrizia D’Addario tells the Financial Times. The hooker says she came forward to protect herself and recounts how her house was robbed by burglars who stole her underwear and photos from the PM.

D'Addario was set to run for a seat in the European Parliament, supposedly with Berlusconi's blessing, until the PM's wife blasted his taste for women and said she wanted a divorce. D'Addario insists that she did not leak the explicit recordings that have embarrassed Berlusconi, but she has no regrets about coming forward. "I am the only one who told the truth," she says. "If no one speaks, who will change the system?" (More Patrizia D'Addario stories.)