Ania Goledzinowska, a former TV showgirl and ex-girlfriend of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s nephew, has revealed that she underwent 25 exorcisms over a period of six years after allegedly being possessed by the devil — a chapter of her life she claims began after her brush with Italy’s infamous “bunga bunga” party scene.
As reported by Times UK, Goledzinowska, now 41, recounted chilling details of her possession during a Vatican-affiliated conference of exorcists earlier this year. Once a familiar face on Berlusconi’s television networks, Goledzinowska shot to fame in the 2000s, even singing “Happy Birthday” to Berlusconi after jumping out of a birthday cake clad in a bikini. Her glamorous life, however, soon spiraled into scandal, substance abuse, and a terrifying descent into what she and several Catholic exorcists believe was demonic possession.
Her past includes a relationship with Berlusconi’s nephew, Paolo Enrico Beretta, and visits to the prime minister’s Milan villa — the site of the notorious bunga bunga gatherings. Though Goledzinowska denies participating in the illicit activities that became the subject of national controversy, she admits to being swept up in the scandal after leaked wiretaps revealed conversations with Karima El Mahroug, better known as Ruby the Heart-Stealer, a central figure in Berlusconi’s legal troubles.
Following the fallout, Goledzinowska left Milan for Medjugorje, a famed Bosnian pilgrimage site where she sought refuge in a religious community. It was there, she says, that her ordeal with the demonic began. “I remember everything. It was like being a prisoner in a glass jar while someone else used my body,” she told Times UK.
According to Father Antonio Mattatelli, a Vatican-appointed exorcist who led many of the rituals, Goledzinowska exhibited all the signs of classical possession — speaking in tongues, levitating, violent outbursts, and issuing blasphemies in a male voice. “When we prayed, she would enter a trance and lash out violently. People had to hold her down to stop her from punching or biting me,” he said.
She was also evaluated by psychologists, who found no evidence of schizophrenia or other psychiatric conditions during the episodes. The late Father Gabriele Amorth, one of the most renowned exorcists in the Catholic Church, also confirmed her possession before his death in 2016.
Goledzinowska attributes the possession not only to her past life in Milan but possibly to a malicious rite performed against her — a supernatural attempt, she believes, to drag her back into her former lifestyle just as she began working with a charity promoting chastity among youth.
Her story is set to be published later this year in a memoir titled Face to Face with the Devil — A True Story. Mattatelli, who has witnessed hundreds of exorcisms, calls her case “textbook” and likens its intensity to that portrayed in the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. “That film is about as close to the truth as Hollywood gets,” he said.
