Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni mentioned on Friday she had separated from her tv journalist associate Andrea Giambruno, who has drawn criticism in current weeks for sexist feedback made on and off air.

“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost 10 years, ends here,” Meloni wrote on her social media accounts. “Our paths have diverged for some time, and the time has come to acknowledge it,” she added.

The couple have a seven-year-old daughter.

Giambruno is the presenter of a information programme transmitted by Mediaset, a part of the MFE media group owned by the heirs of the late Silvio Berlusconi, the previous premier and Meloni ally.

On two days this week, one other Mediaset present broadcast off-air excerpts from Giambruno’s programme displaying him utilizing foul language and showing to make advances to a feminine colleague.

“Why didn’t I meet you before?”, he tells her.

In the second, extra specific recording aired on Thursday, Giambruno is heard boasting about an affair and telling feminine colleagues they will work for him in the event that they participate in group intercourse.

The TV journalist had already been extensively criticised in August for obvious victim-blaming feedback following a gang rape case.

“If you go dancing, you have every right to get drunk – there shouldn’t be any kind of misunderstanding and any kind of problem – but if you avoid getting drunk and losing your senses, you might also avoid running into certain problems and coming across a wolf,” he mentioned throughout his programme.

Meloni had mentioned after that episode that she shouldn’t be judged for feedback made by her associate, and that in future she wouldn’t reply questions on his behaviour.