Italian football great Francesco Totti, 45, went into depression after  he found out that his TV presenter wife Ilary Blasi, 41, was having an affair. Totti split from Blasi this July. The couple met in 2002 and got married three years later. They have three children—Cristian, 17, Chanel, 15 and Isabel, six. “I have lived through a difficult period, first because I stopped playing and then my father died due to Covid-19 (in 2020). I also had a strong Covid for 15 days. However, my wife, when I needed her the most, was not there,” he told Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera.

The Roma star thanked partner Noemi Bocchi, 34, for helping him come out of the dark phase. “It is not true that I was the first to betray. Last September, rumours began to reach me [about Blasi’s affair]. I looked at her cell phone and I saw that there was a third person, who acted as an intermediary between Ilary and another. Here was the evidence [of the affair]. And that led me to depression. I could no longer pretend that nothing was happening. I got out thanks to Noemi,” he said.