Nancy Dell'Olio: 'I have boyfriends, but my love for Sven will never die'

One is a highly respected political pioneer – the first black woman to sit in the British Cabinet and only the third woman ever to become leader of the House of Lords.

The other gained international notoriety for her tempestuous love affair with a libidinous England soccer manager and her attention-seeking fashion sense.

But Baroness Amos, recently appointed EU special representative to the African Union, and Nancy Dell'Olio, on-off girlfriend of Sven-Goran Eriksson, have formed a close, if unlikely, friendship.

Controversial: Nancy Dell'olio and Baroness Amos at the event

And this week Lady Amos, 54, stunned a distinguished audience at the Italian Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square by publicly asking Miss Dell'Olio: "What's going on with Sven?"

Miss Dell'Olio, 46, was launching the paperback version of her autobiography My Beautiful Game and had just delivered a rambling speech in her unique Anglo-Italian, entirely devoted to her efforts as an author and charity fundraiser. There was pointedly no mention of the dreaded S-word.

Then the floor was thrown open to questions and Lady Amos, who was sitting in the front row, took the microphone first.

"Nancy, I'd like to ask a question on behalf of magazine readers everywhere," the Labour life peer began, to gasps from the audience which included the Italian ambassador Giancarlo Aragona, his English wife Sandra and Princess Diana's wedding dress designer Elizabeth Emmanuel.

"In your book, you said the love affair with Sven continues. What exactly does that mean?"

Whether Lady Amos's Heat magazine moment arose from mere curiosity, an attempt to help a friend drum up publicity for her book or to give her the opportunity to wax lyrical on one of her favourite subjects – her love life – Miss Dell'Olio didn't hold back.


Love affair: Nancy and Sven's relationship was a very public affair

To embarrassed smirks from some of her audience, the fiery Italian – wearing a purple off-the-shoulder minidress and vertiginous wedge heels – launched into an emotional account of her relations with the current manager of Manchester City.

"When you love someone it's so difficult," she began. "I have boyfriends, yes. But part of Sven will stay with me always and part of me will stay with him. A love like that can never, ever end, even if you have to be apart.

"We're leading separate lives. We need this time. Speaking on the phone every day doesn't make it easy. So it is regretful that we decide to be apart. But as for the future, who knows?"

It's not just Miss Dell'Olio's heart that still bears the marks of the ten-year relationship – through which Eriksson had a string of affairs including Ulrika Jonsson and FA secretary Faria Alam. Nancy still sports short hair after cutting off her locks when they split in late 2006.

Afterwards, Lady Amos told guests she and Miss Dell'Olio had met through "mutual friends" and were "very close".

"As soon as I saw her tonight I told her I was going to ask that question," she said. "It's the one thing everyone wants to know about, so why not? Nancy didn't mind a bit.

"I don't think there's anything odd at all about us being friends. I like football, too, but I support Tottenham and definitely not Manchester City."