ROME, December 28 – RAPSI, Natalya Shmakova. Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has reached a settlement with his ex-wife Veronica Lario who will be paid three million euros a month alimony as the outcome of nearly three years of court proceedings, Corriere della Sera reported on Friday.

The ruling was handed down on Christmas Day, it states that Berlusconi will keep his €78 million villa in Macherio municipality, where his former wife lived for 20 years until 2010.

Berlusconi met Veronica Lario in 1980 and married her in 1990. She was his second wife.

Lario first spoke of her wish to divorce Berlusconi in the summer of 2008 and confessed that she had been thinking about it for the past ten years. She finally announced her decision to file for divorce in May 2009.

In mid-December, Berlusconi, 76, confessed he was dating Francesca, 28, whom he met seven years ago.