Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is now in the process of getting a divorce from his wife of many years, former actress Veronica Lario. The procedures were initiated by Lario, who blamed Berlusconi entirely for the failure of the marriage. Not only that, but she is so determined to have him pay for the humiliation he forced upon her, as is therefore asking $5.3 million for “maintenance” – each month, as Bloomberg informs.

Lario is determined not to give up her demand without putting a proper fight, therefore she has already hinted to the Italian media that, should her husband and his team of legal representatives not grant her her request, she would make the divorce a very “messy” affair. She did not say, though, what exactly she meant by that. Be that as it may, attorneys worldwide are reportedly shocked by the amount she’s asking as settlement saying that, if she gets said amount, her divorce becomes the most “lucrative” in history.

“Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s wife Veronica Lario, filing for divorce with a request for damages, may have asked for payments higher than those sought by Princess Diana when she divorced Britain’s Prince Charles in 1996, a marital law expert said. […] Lario, the prime minister’s second wife, announced her separation from Berlusconi in May after publicly chastising him for consorting with minors. Under Italian law, a couple must be legally separated for three years before they can divorce,” the aforementioned publication writes, citing reports in the Italian media.

With Forbes estimating Berlusconi’s fortune to be somewhere around $6.5 billion, Lario presumably thought her demand was not that high to begin with, it is being said. However, attorneys for the Prime Minister argue that the amount is ridiculous, because it has no imaginable justification. An allowance of more than $3 million a year would not make sense. Also, having it spreading in the media will certainly hinder a mutual separation on good terms, they say.

The amount “is too high and doesn’t sound credible, even if it takes into account other factors such as children, in addition to Lario’s standard of living during the marriage,” Berlusconi’s lawyers tell the media. A spokesperson for Lario was not immediately available for comment at the time of writing.