Veronica Gentili announces pregnancy on Le Iene, expecting a girl two years after father's death

The announcement

Veronica Gentili, 44, revealed that she is pregnant during the Thursday, 5 November episode of Le Iene, the programme she has presented on Italia 1 since 2003. She interrupted the segments to tell viewers about a part of her private life she usually keeps to herself, while the colleagues in the studio appeared unaware of what was coming. Visibly moved, she said her body would soon speak for her, since she could no longer hide the pregnancy.

“I am pregnant, I am expecting a girl.”

She described the news as something beautiful that has made her very happy, arriving two years after a painful loss. Her words reached the audience live, without any prior notice in the studio.

Two years after her father's death

Gentili said she lost her father about two years earlier, while she was working on the programme. That day she was due to host an episode, but she took a plane home instead. Il Fatto Quotidiano names him as Giuseppe. She told viewers that she wished she could have shared the pregnancy with him, and that the loss had changed how she spent that period of her life.

“About two years ago I lost my father. That day I should have hosted a show on this programme, instead I took a plane and went home.”

The presenter spoke of moments when everything else suddenly loses its importance, and said the new pregnancy had come as a surprise after that grief.

Partner, name debate and earlier announcements

Fanpage reports that the baby is with her partner of 12 years, a screenwriter and university lecturer about 10 years older than her, and that this is the couple's first child. The same outlet says rumours had circulated in the weeks before 5 November, and that loose-cut outfits she wore on the programme had fed speculation. Fanpage adds that she wanted to choose the moment and manner of the announcement herself. On air, Gentili said the choice of name is a heated debate with the father of the child, and that she would win it in the end. Il Fatto Quotidiano recalls that Ilary Blasi announced her third pregnancy on 27 September 2015, during the first episode of a Le Iene season she co-hosted with Teo Mammucari.

What comes next

Gentili said viewers will see her bump grow in the studio over the coming months, and that she plans to keep presenting the programme for as long as she is able. She admitted that the word mother still frightens her a little, because she has not yet fully become used to the idea. Her closing remarks linked the joy to the absence of her father, and she said she likes to imagine that he already knows.

“But I like to think that, somewhere, he already knows and is smiling at me, so moved this evening.”