Italy's flamboyant former premier and billionaire media magnate Silvio Berlusconi turned 80 on Thursday and is spending his birthday at his mansion near Milan in private with his 31-year-old girlfriend Francesca Pascale and his family.
In an interview with his media group's Chi gossip magazine to mark the milestone birthday Berlusconi confirmed that his political career is effectively over.
"I will dedicate more time to the people that I love and that is the way it should be: five children and ten grandchildren have turned me into a patriarch," he said.
Italian media used Thursday's occasion to mull the legacy of the three-time former prime minister, his frequent gaffes, long judicial battles and penchant for unusual headgear.
Leading daily Corriere della Sera commented that Berlusconi had "colonized the imagination of the Italians like no other political leader."
The AC Milan soccer club posted a birthday video for Berlusconi on its website, entitled 'Happy Birthday Mr President' while political allies tweeted greetings under the hashtag #Berlusconi80.
Two out of three voters for Berlusconi's conservative Forza Italia party want him remain its leader, according to a survey published last week by Italian pollster Nando Pagnoncelli.
Berlusconi's political fortunes have waned since being ousted from parliament over a 2013 tax fraud conviction and he has been largely absent from public life since undergoing open heart surgery in June.
The three-times premier is completing rehabilitation at his villa in Arcore after having a heart-valve replaced and may fly to the United States next week for a check-up according to Forza Italia sources.
Berlusconi's US visit could coincide with a preliminary hearing in a legal case on 3 October in which he faces allegations that he bought the silence of up to 21 young women over his sexual antics at so-called 'Bunga Bunga' parties at his villa in Arcore.
Earlier this week, Berlusconi reportedly met his ex-wife Veronica Lario in Milan. Berlusconi is seeking to have his 1.4 million euro monthly alimony payments to the former actress cut in a case that Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation is due to hear in November.
Lario filed for divorce in 2009 after he attended the 18th birthday party of underwear model Noemi Letizia saying Berlusconi had gone too far.
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