Over the past weekend, it returned to the air Very truethe Mediaset program led by Silvia Toffanin. Guests also included Lino Banfi. The Apulian actor, born in 1936, was greeted with thunderous applause from the audience and the presenter. First of all, he spoke about the celebrations for his 88th birthday: “At the registry office they marked me as July 11, but in reality I was born on the 9th and so I celebrate twice. Like princes,” Banfi began.
Then he spoke about his friendship with Pope Francis: “Needless to say, I was expecting a call, something, but I didn’t dare say anything. On the 11th, in the afternoon, I see a phone call from an ‘unknown’ person, when it’s like that I usually never answer. They call me back, I don’t answer again. After half an hour I get a voice message and I hear the Pope’s voice. For a moment, I thought it was Massimo Lopez (the impersonator, ed.). He told me that I was celebrating 2-3 times, then the good wishes, the prayers. I was a bit left like that.. to have confirmation I called that number again and they passed it back to me. It was him.. thank you Holiness!”.
The “Grandfather of Italy” later announced that he will become a great-grandfather. In fact, granddaughter Virginia is expecting a baby. Born in 1993, the firstborn of Rosanna Banfi and Fabio Leoni is expecting her first child with her husband Gianluca De Marco. A very complex pregnancy, as she herself said, also a guest of Toffanin in the Canale 5 lounge. “I have just entered the sixth month, I am expecting a baby girl – she said -. For me becoming a mother was not easy. 3 years ago I discovered that I had early menopause”.
So the explanation: “I was taking the birth control pill, then I stopped taking it and my period didn’t come back. I started doing tests and looking into it. There we discovered this hormonal thing, in short.. I didn’t produce anything. It was a moment of panic, we were completely ignorant about it. The luck was this meeting with Doctor Arianna Pacchiarotti, while we were doing nails. I was chatting with the beautician about this, she intervened and said to me: ‘I take care of this, if you want to come to me sometime, we’ll talk about it properly’. I was able to take the gametes from the donation. It wasn’t easy. During the first year I did a lot of tests, some very invasive ones.”
Virginia also said: “Luckily there is science. We were able to do everything close to home, in Rome. Today psychologically I am fine, on the third attempt it went well. Now we are sure of everything, yesterday I also did the morphology scan and at the beginning of January he will be born”. Banfi has made an explicit request, it is an “edict”, a “contract” read right in the Canale 5 studio: “Public declaration in the fullness of our mental faculties”he read jokingly. With his usual irony, Banfi then asked his granddaughter if she could attend the birth. She agreed.
Finally the comedian wanted to conclude like this: “I’m thinking about something… In this Italy that is in such a mess, with family difficulties, then wars that are spreading more and more... This broadcast today is a little bit of hope for many people. I’m happy.”
“Virginia, you were brave, good, profound and truly thank you for sharing something very personal because you are certainly an example,” Toffanin said before greeting the guests.