Hong Kong: love at first sight for Maria Sole Tognazzi

BORN TO BE FAMOUS My introduction to the Italian celebrity system took place in a rather daring way, during an afternoon in June 1971. As a “preemie”, I spent a month in an incubator. Nevertheless, the paparazzi managed to get snapshots of my little body attached to the wires and tubes that kept me alive.

My parents (actors Ugo Tognazzi and Franca Bettoja) found a way to get me out of the clinic and escape further public exposure: I was transported in a laundry van from Villa Margherita to my maternal grandparents’ home. Villa Margherita is the Roman clinic in which the offspring of local movie stars are usually born – to name one, Isabella Rossellini (Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini’s daughter).

The clinic was located within the embassy area, bordering my maternal grand­mother’s garden. My parents wrapped me in a white towel and took me in the elevator down to the clinic’s covered parking, where we hopped into a van filled with clothes and dirty laundry. We were home in no time, and managed to avoid the paparazzi that had been camping outside the front and back gates for days.

I must have been a bit of an attraction: my dad was one of the most famous actors in Italy at that time, and my mum, too. But dad was still married to his previous wife and, back then, divorce was not legal.

My brother, Gianmarco, and myself were the two illegitimate children of two movie stars: pretty good subjects for any gossip column. My dad already had two other sons, Ricky and Thomas. In 1972, when divorce became legal, he married my mum. That was when our family officially started.

LIFE OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT Being Ugo Tognazzi’s daughter has not been easy. Especially in a city like Rome, and particularly in those years when he was featured everywhere: cinema, TV, magazines. Shortly after I was born, my dad decided we would be better off if we moved to the countryside. So we settled in Velletri, 50km from the capital, in a beautiful house that is still our family home and Gianmarco has renamed La Tognazza, after our father.