TV: Patrizia Caselli has died at the age of 66
An actress, presenter and singer, Caselli has made her mark on television with cult programmes and high-profile relationships, whilst also battling a tough fight against cancer
The entertainment world is in mourning. Patrizia Caselli, an actress, TV presenter, showgirl and singer, has died at the age of 66. The news was announced overnight via her Facebook profiles.
Caselli, born in Udine on 13 May 1960, had been ill for some time: in June 2024, in an interview with *Corriere della Sera*, she revealed that she had “stage three cancer. It scares me”. A familiar face on television in the 1980s and 1990s, Caselli had begun her career at a very young age, working in advertising and cinema, and also collaborating with Nanni Loy. She then made a name for herself on private television channels – Antennatre and Telealtomilanese – as a showgirl and presenter, often alongside Walter Chiari, with whom she had a long-term relationship that lasted until 1987. During the same period, she also tried her hand at music, recording several singles, and at theatre, appearing in *Hai mai provato con l’acqua calda?* with Chiari and Ivana Monti, and in the revival of *Mi è caduta una ragazza nel piatto* with Domenico Modugno. Her debut on Rai came in 1987 with the Rai2 summer variety show Bella d’estate, once again alongside Chiari. This was followed by an appearance on *Chi tiriamo in ballo?* and, in 1988, her solo hosting of *Master 88*. In 1989–1990, she was at the helm, alongside *b*Luciano Rispoli*
From 1991, Caselli became the face of the afternoon current affairs programme *Detto tra noi*, co-presented with Piero Vigorelli: the show ran for three series until 1994, when it was renamed *La vita in diretta*. In 1993, she also presented the lunchtime game show Se fosse..., which had previously been made a hit by Raffaella Carrà. After 1994, she left television to follow Bettino Craxi to Hammamet, with whom she was romantically involved for nine years, until the former Prime Minister’s death in 2000. “I always stood by him,” she had said, recalling the most difficult days of the Mani Pulite scandal. She had previously been in a relationship with Walter Chiari; after Craxi’s death, she married the doctor Alberto Bossi, with whom she adopted a son, François.
In the 2000s, she made sporadic returns to the screen, appearing in the films La fabbrica del vapore (2000) by Ettore Pasculli and Dentro la città (2004) by Andrea Costantini. Her passing brings to a close the career of a figure who spanned different eras of Italian television, from variety shows to news and entertainment, leaving a recognisable mark during a period of great transformation for the small screen.
