'I was defrauded', Gina Lollobrigida tells court

(ANSA) - Rome, February 1 - Italian movie icon Gina Lollobrigida testified in court on Monday in relation to the alleged fraudulent marriage contracted by her former fiancé, Spanish property entrepreneur Francisco Javier Rigau, in 2012.
    Rigau, 46, is accused of marrying the 88-year-old actress by proxy in Barcelona without her knowledge or consent, allegedly in order to inherit her estate after her death. "I was defrauded. I met Mr Francisco Rigau in 2004 at a charity party in Montecarlo and we went out together for a bit and then in 2006 we decided to get married," Lollobrigida told the court.
    "I trusted him," she continued, adding that she had been going through a "difficult period" and wanted to start a "new page". "Then I realised I was making a mistake, I reconsidered, I called Rigau and told him I no longer wanted to do anything," the diva said. "For a long time he tried to make me change my mind," she continued.
    "Then, in 2012, he took me to a notary saying I had to sign a document needed to file a lawsuit against a Spanish lawyer who I thought was responsible for media attacks against me...On that occasion he never spoke of marriage, otherwise I would have torn up the document in front of him," Lollobrigida concluded. Lollobrigida, better known to Italians as 'La Lollo', long vied with fellow Italian bombshell Sophia Loren and French sex kitten Brigitte Bardot for the title of the world's sexiest woman.
    In 1955 she starred in a film called La Donna Piu Bella del Mondo (The World's Most Beautiful Woman), which became her signature movie.
    The daughter of a furniture manufacturer from a mountain village outside Rome, she has made over 60 films including some during the 1990s.
    Since retiring from cinema Lollobrigida has tried her hand as a photographer, sculptor, photojournalist and a fashion and cosmetics executive.
    The diva was divorced in 1971 after a 22-year marriage to a Yugoslav doctor, by whom she had a son.