Here we are: highly anticipated, in a black suit, wedding ring and a ring with a blue stone on her left ring finger, Chiara Ferragni intervenes with a slight delay (compared to what she announced in the stories on Instagram) at Che tempo che fa by Fabio Fazio on the notes of Shallow by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.
He confirms the crisis with the rapper Fedez, for the first time, but does not completely close the door. She is moved, watching the video of her debut and the photos of her with her husband, and talks about the investigations in which she is the protagonist and her future.
Ready to go with a jab from Fazio to Codacons, who had asked to ask a series of questions to the entrepreneur: «I heard that there was anticipation for this conversation – says Fazio – today you are trembling with fear. I am not a magistrate, a court, a priest, this is not a place where you ask questions that someone else wants. I do my job by appealing to article 21 of the constitution. This is an opportunity to be honest. The real problem is how you can be perceived as sincere.”
«I’m shaking a bit – replies Ferragni -, it was a tough period that lasted two and a half months. But my story is small compared to the tragedies happening in the world, I found myself at the center of a wave of hatred. You think someone like me is prepared. But nothing prepares you for violence, it was difficult even for me as I am hyper-prepared.”
Fazio compares Ferragni to Oppenheimer, the inventor of the atomic bomb. “You have built a story on social media that has no equal, you cannot fail to know that it is very dangerous.” But, she specifies, «when things go wrong it’s a nightmare. They praise you and you feel invincible, being criticized is more difficult.”
The host enters on the Pandoro gate crisis and with Fedez. «It all started on December 15, 2023 – she states – the watershed moment of the Antitrust affair, I thought I had carried out operations in good faith, I realized that if some had misunderstood my intentions, things could have been done better».
The host retraces the pandoro gate with the donation to the Regina Margherita Hospital, which had already been made, in the contractual phase, by paying 50 thousand euros. «Charity must be done in a private way – is Ferragni’s opinion – but sometimes even in a public way it can turn on a beacon, create emulation phenomena, in Sanremo I donated my fee to women victims of men’s violence. The same thing during the Covid period, Federico and I donated 50 thousand euros each, if we hadn’t communicated it would have remained at 100 thousand euros.”
Ferragni returns to talk about «communication errors – he explains -, I shouldn’t have tried to be strong and perfect, it’s nice to show imperfections, I looked at models, actresses and singers and said “wow, nothing can affect me”. I have come to have goals but the insecurities are the same ones I carried inside me as a child, they remain with you forever. Having a support group can help you.” Therefore, Fazio urges: «Do commercial and beneficial relationships have to run on parallel tracks?». «Yes – she replies -, there is a regulation. After the Balocco case I made a video to demonstrate my good faith and that video was analysed; some said I did it without makeup on purpose. I inform you that I am returning everything to demonstrate my good faith and I apologize. I don’t want to find myself in this situation again in the future.”
The influencer’s last time on the program (then broadcast on Rai 1) was in 2018 with Fedez and J-Ax, while the first interview with Fabio Fazio dates back to 2017 on Rai 3. In that episode he presented himself for the first the character Ferragni once again. «On social media – she comments – there is actually a small part of my life».
And here are the most awaited questions, those about the marriage with Fedez. «I would like to be a strategist, unfortunately that’s not the case. Followers learn to understand you even by seeing a photo even if many others see something rotten » she says, responding to those who are convinced that the marital crisis is a communication strategy.
Then the reconstruction of the story with the rapper. «Federico is similar to me, we met and it was a bang – he recalls -. We both gave up privacy for the personal story. I will continue to do so. I grew up with this idea. Of course there are negative sides, they are part of the game.”
The crisis is confirmed, for the first time publicly, but not the reasons. “We talk, we are two adults who love each other, it’s not like we’re closing bridges, it’s a period of crisis, but we’ve also had crises in the past, this one is a little stronger…”.
Plans for the future? «Living more in the present. Sometimes I realize that the memory of something I did in the past is more pleasant than the moment I experienced it: we are too little focused on the present. Social media isn’t everything, it’s a beautiful world, but there’s a whole life out there that needs to be lived.”
Ferragni had published a photo on Instagram shortly before going on air with a group of fans.
On Sunday afternoon, Ferragni published a series of Stories in which she says she is “agitated” to the point of crying and trembling with fear. But she, she continues, “is okay because it’s me and I’m real.” Words that recall those she said during her exclusive interview with Corriere a few days ago, when she said: «We are all fragile, we all have our insecurities. I am extremely grateful for my life, but I am not perfect and I don’t even want to appear that way anymore.”
Codacons, meanwhile, wrote a letter to Fabio Fazio, urging him to ask some specific questions to the digital entrepreneur during the interview, in the name of cross-examination.
The Balocco case and the accusations against Chiara Ferragni
As mentioned, Sunday was Ferragni’s first television appearance after the legal proceedings linked to the aforementioned Balocco case, but also to the similar operations carried out for the Dolci Preziosi Easter eggs and the Trudi doll, which according to the Milan prosecutor’s office could be linked by the same criminal plan (a hypothesis that Ferragni denies).
The accusation is of unfair commercial practices, and in particular of misleading advertising linked to charitable activities. According to the prosecution’s hypothesis, consumers would have been led to think that by buying the designer pandoro (and, by extension, also the Easter eggs and the doll marketed under the Ferragni brand) they would have contributed to the donations announced by the entrepreneur, even if, in reality, the latter had already been done. The difference in cost of the products, therefore, would have represented a benefit only for the company and the influencer, not for the charitable causes.
Ferragni maintained from the beginning – also in the interview with Corriere – that he had always acted in good faith, while acknowledging that he had made mistakes. She apologized, and she donated one million euros to the Regina Margherita hospital in Turin. But, at the same time, the entrepreneur explained that she considers the Antitrust fine to be disproportionate (over one million euros): for this reason she has filed two appeals with the TAR of Lazio in which she asks to cancel the provision.
The crisis with Fedez and the rumors of divorce
This was also Ferragni’s first TV interview the day after separation from Fedez. The rapper and entrepreneur left the marital home a few days ago, Ferragni has no longer posted photos with her husband and for days she has only ever shown herself, on her social networks, alone or with her children. A few days ago, the businesswoman declared to Striscia la Notizia: “I have not abandoned Federico and this is not a communication strategy.” Meanwhile, on March 3, he posted images from Rozzano: “I’m back.” Her parents live in the municipality in the Milanese hinterland.
During the interview granted to Corriere, Ferragni did not want to reveal details about his marital situation. «Federico is my husband. And in my opinion, in certain situations of external chaos it is better to keep other things within the couple”, he declared, explaining that for her “the priority is to protect the family and the children”. Fedez himself, pressed by reporters, in recent days has reiterated the need to put the well-being of children at the centre. It is difficult to imagine that the crisis between the two will not emerge today. In the Stories published a few hours before the interview, Ferragni had promised sincerity: «Tonight I won’t be perfect as I always try to be, amen. Perfection is an illusion, I want to be myself with all my fragilities.” Then, as if to reiterate the concept, she reposted the message of a supporter, who privately encouraged her to be herself (“In recent months many have thought that you construct everything you do or say according to strategy. In truth, who he understands you deeply and knows that you are only yourself. It will be enough for you to be that way again tonight.” Accompanying the follower’s words are a handful of emotional emoticons, as a sign of gratitude.
Codacons questions
Codacons, as mentioned, had put pressure on Fabio Fazio before the interview. The host, in January, had said his opinion on the Ferragnez case in a article published on Oggi, stigmatizing the “full of gall” poured on Ferragni and Fedez without thinking about the “load of poisons” on the couple and demonstrating “disinterest in the wounds they cause themselves”. Today, Codacons defines the choice of inviting Ferragni on the broadcast as “very delicate” and suggests that Fazio ask her – among other things – whether the presence of bought followers can be excluded from her social profiles, or to explain why, immediately after the outbreak of the Balocco affair, the posts on Easter eggs, which were also sold for charity and ended up at the center of the Prosecutor’s investigation, were deleted from the influencer’s social profiles.
In recent days, following the announcement of the interview with Che Tempo che fa, the Codacons had already made a first move, with an emergency appeal presented to the TAR of Lazio to ask that viewers be guaranteed “correctness of information during the broadcast”, “preventing the influencer’s intervention from turning into a defense without cross-examination on the scandal of the pandoro-gate». The appeal in question was immediately rejected by the Administrative Court, which deemed it unable to intervene in the absence of a violation already verified. Moreover, it is not one of the functions of the TAR to supervise the conduct of a TV broadcast, which takes place within the times and in the manner desired by its authors.
The consumer association, however, reiterates: «We are certain that in the absence of cross-examination, Ferragni will be able to say what he wants and perhaps continue to classify the serious misconduct carried out by his companies as fake news or simple communication errors, thus deceiving consumers. viewers with the complicity of Fabio Fazio, notoriously inclined to indulge his guests while avoiding any uncomfortable questions.” The final warning from Codacons is clear: «In case of misconduct, if Agcom does not take measures, the TAR may intervene to decide on possible sanctions».
Lucarelli’s comment
Many comments preceded Ferragni’s interview on March 3rd. Journalist Selvaggia Lucarelli – who had raised the Pandoro affair – finds similarities between the statements made by Barbara d’Urso in the lounge of «Domenica in» and those made on social media by Chiara Ferragni, shortly before «Che tempo che fa» , on the Nine, but also in the past, when the Pandoro Gate exploded. «The drama of my lost job. Painful period, luckily there were my sisters, friends, people who loved me. I’m not perfect, my mistake was trusting too much, it was the fault of others who told me what to do. This job was my dream as a girl, I struggled to get here. People are still close to me. My happy thoughts are children. How beautiful the children are”, writes Lucarelli.
March 3, 2024
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