Wearing custom Dior, Italian influencer and businesswoman Chiara Ferragni looked like a certified princess as she walked down the aisle to officially marry the father of her son – Italian rap superstar Fedez.
It was 2018. The couple had spent their rehearsal dinner in a castle in Noto, and would go on to celebrate their nuptials with a #Ferragnez-branded carnival.
The wedding weekend is estimated to have cost £704,000 (approx. $1.4 million), but, of course, Italy’s answer to Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales could only have the best.
If only the best wasn’t built on a lie.
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Seven years on, it appears the seemingly perfect life the former couple were intent on projecting to their combined following of 42.5 million has come crumbling down.
Rumours of a split were rumbling in Italian media for months before Fedez – whose real name is Federico Leonardo Lucia – confirmed they had broken up in April 2024.
Almost a year later, Ferragni has dropped a bombshell nobody saw coming: the father of her children had been allegedly cheating on her since 2017, the same year they got engaged.
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What happened between Chiara Ferragni and Fedez?
Ferragni, 37, and Fedez, 35, first met in 2015. At the time, both were with other people, but they would ultimately go on to start dating in late 2016.
By 2018, they had welcomed their now-six-year-old son, Leone, and by 2021, they had been married for three years, and had welcomed a second child, now-three-year-old daughter Vittoria.
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After months of speculation, Fedez confirmed the separation in a television interview with Rai2’s Francesca Fagnani in April 2024, where he referred to Ferragni as his wife, but clarified to Fagnani that he uses that term “only legally”.
Fedez, who first rose to fame in 2013 with his debut album Sig. Brainwash – L’arte di accontentare, emphasised to Fagnani that, as the mother of his children, Ferragni is still the “most important woman” in his life.
He also, however, said the split was not caused by cheating, rather, it stemmed from a series of problems that had snowballed over the years.
We now know that was not the whole truth – but we’ll come back to this.
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“[Ferragni] and I have gone through many difficult moments, such as my illness,” Fedez, who shared he had been diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour in 2022, told Fagnani.
“They have been three very complicated years and unfortunately we didn’t hold up.”
Fedez’s health battle – which saw him “undergo a long path” to recovery and also be rushed to hospital with severe internal bleeding in September 2023 – was only, however, one of the problems he was referring to.
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How Pandoro-gate factored into Chiara Ferragni and Fedez’s split
While Fedez said at the time he couldn’t divulge when, exactly, the couple split, he did reveal how Pandoro-gate was the final blow to a relationship that was already in crisis.
”I find out about this thing here when it comes out. I also have a foundation, I have always done charity work in a certain way, losing money,” he said.
“You discover that a deal is managed in this way, and you ask yourself: how is it possible? The fact that I took the s–t without guilt is there, the thing that hurt me was having to answer for something I didn’t do.
“I would have handled it another way. But I’m sorry that everyone sees the bad faith. I am sure, however, that there is no bad faith. She then decided to take all the responsibility.”
So what, exactly, is Pandoro-gate?
You may remember headlines circling around Ferragni in December 2023, when she issued an apology over a partnership she embarked on in November 2022.
Ferragni, as part of a campaign with Balocco, designed limited edition Pandoro Pink Christmas cakes – a twist on a classic Italian treat, similar to Panettone, that is gifted and eaten at Christmastime – and those cakes were marketed as a charitable venture, with proceeds from the sales said to be donated to a children’s hospital in Turin, Italy.
Officials, however, realised the alleged revenue generated from the cakes and how much the hospital ended up being paid didn’t add up.
More than a year later, following an investigation, Ferragni was fined €1 million (approx. $1.6 million) for false advertising.
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”My mistake was in good faith… Unfortunately you can make mistakes, I am sorry I did it and I realise I could have guarded better,” Ferragni said in an apology issued on social media.
“In the coming days, I will speak with Queen Margaret to understand how the hospital will use the money donated by me and I will periodically tell you updates.
“My mistake remains but I want to make sure that something constructive and positive can be generated from this mistake.”
The lede Fedez well and truly buried in his tell-all interview with Francesca Fagnani
In Fedez’s eyes, his split from Ferragni may not have been caused by cheating, but Ferragni alleged in late January 2025 that infidelity, on his part, was present in their relationship.
Ferragni claimed to her 28.7 million followers over four Instagram Stories that Fedez had been unfaithful to her for the entirety of their marriage, seeming to confirm rumours started after Italian paparazzo Fabrizio Corona named Fedez’s alleged long-term mistress, seemingly in cooperation with the rapper.
“For months, I chose to stay silent to protect myself and my family from two situations that have deeply affected me… but I can’t keep quiet anymore,” Ferragni wrote in a statement, translated to English from Italian.
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Ferragni alleged Fedez – who has not publicly commented on Ferragni’s statement and allegations – had been cheating on her since 2017, which is the same year Fedez proposed to her with a classic round diamond ring.
The social media and reality television star – who rose to fame thanks to her fashion blog The Blonde Salad – claimed Fedez confessed to his alleged seven-year-long affair in a phone call with her on Christmas Eve.
“He also told me, ‘I thought about not getting married a few days before the wedding, but then I didn’t know how to back out publicly’,” she alleged.
Ferragni also claimed that, in March 2022, while she was looking after their two children and supporting him as he underwent surgery for his rare pancreatic tumour, he was allegedly texting his affair partner.
Fedez’s alleged infidelity and specific details of his affair being released publicly was Ferragni’s final straw, she said.
”Details such as his call to his lover before going up to the altar telling her that a confirmation from her would be enough to leave everything,” she wrote.
“Or finding out about his messages to her before being operated on while he was in bed, holding my hand.”
“I felt sick when I realised everything I had lived was a complete lie, but I suffered in silence,” Ferragni continued
“I stayed quiet because I wanted to move forward without focusing on the pain I had been through.
“And because I have two children who will one day hear everything their parents say about each other – and certain things will hurt them. But deciding – together with his friend [Corona] – to make even more details public, probably as revenge for his mistress’ unrequited love, was truly a low blow.”
Ferragni said her relationship with her estranged husband was real, to her, and emphasised the former couple had not been in an open relationship.
Chiara Ferragni to stand trial for Pandoro-gate
Within days of issuing her statement addressing her relationship with Fedez, Ferragni was dealt another blow – Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a summons to Ferragni’s lawyers for September 23, which is when the influencer is set to stand trial for aggravated fraud charges, which she denies.
Italy’s Antitrust Authority has accused Ferragni and confectionery company Balocco of running a misleading campaign while selling the Pink Christmas pandori at more than double their original cost, though Ferragni’s lawyers insist she has “committed no crime”.
Per Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Ferragni’s lawyers Giuseppe Iannaccone and Marcello Bana said, “We remain firmly convinced that this matter has no criminal relevance and that every controversial profile has already been addressed and resolved before the Competition and Market Authority.”
“The discussion with the prosecutors did not have the desired outcome and the Public Prosecutor’s Office preferred to defer any decision to the trial judge despite the evident absence of conduct constituting a criminal offence and the lack of the conditions for proceeding,” their statement continued.
“Our defendant’s innocence will certainly be ascertained in court, which we will face calmly”.
“I sincerely believed that it was not necessary to hold a trial to prove that I never cheated anyone,” Ferragni said in a statement addressing the summons.
“I will unfortunately have to live with this accusation, which I consider deeply unfair, for some time yet, but I am ready to fight with even greater determination to prove my absolute innocence.”
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